Report of the President. 15 



children's lectures, and in other ways has shown his continued 

 devotion to the institution with which his life has been 

 identified. 



Department of Geology and Invertebrate Palaeon- 

 tology. — Several investigators in this branch of science have 

 spent considerable time at the Museum examining the collec- 

 tions, and assistance has been given others by loaning 

 specimens, etc. 



Early in the year, the Associate Curator, Dr. Hovey, was 

 granted leave of absence for eleven weeks, in order that he 

 might join an expedition to northwestern Mexico for the pur- 

 pose of examining the mineral resources of the region. As 

 the region traversed was one entirely new to geologists, Dr. 

 Hovey secured for the Museum 325 specimens of minerals, 

 425 valuable negatives and data for several scientific papers. 



In September, Dr. Hovey was sent to Portland, Oregon, to 

 examine the famous "Willamette" meteorite. While on this 

 mission, he procured valuable series of ores and other eco- 

 nomic products from Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming, 

 Utah, Idaho, California and Alaska, together with series of 

 samples illustrating the separation of platinum, gold and other 

 valuable substances from. ocean and river sands. 



The Curator has prepared for publication an article "Notice 

 of Jurassic Fossils from Franz Josef Land," and the Associate 

 Curator, besides continuing to have charge of the Museum 

 Journal, has published several papers. 



A series of instructive models, or relief maps, of the island 

 of Martinique and of the volcano of Mt. Pele has been pre- 

 pared by the Department of Preparation and Installation and 

 placed in the exhibition hall. The models represent the volcano 

 at three stages of its history : (a) at the time of its first eruption, 

 May 8, 1902; (b) at the close of the period of its greatest 

 activity, August 30, 1902, and (c) in April and May, 1903, when 

 the marvelous cone and surmounting spine found within the 

 crater were at their maximum development. 



