MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 19 



become settled on a sufficiently solid basis of fact to be fit sub- 

 jects for elementary teaching. , 



To get together as complete a library as possible in the depart- 

 ment of Economical Geology has been, and still is, the aim and 

 desire of the Sturgis-Hooper Professor, and it can be said with 

 truth that there are but few important works in this line which 

 cannot be found in the libraries at the Museum. Only two very 

 desirable mining periodicals are wanting to complete sets. These 

 are, the Journal of Mining, published by the Russian Govern- 

 ment, and the Transactions of the North of England Institute of 

 Mining Engineers. Of several of the more important older works 

 published in England and Germany and devoted to mining geology, 

 copies have been obtained, at last, after years of search. Miss 

 H. S. Clark has continued, during the past year, the arrangement 

 and cataloguing of this material, and a beginning has been made 

 of classifying and cataloguing the manuscripts and pamphlets 

 which have been collected for the purpose of illustrating the 

 various topics embraced in the lectures on Economical Geology. 

 Many of these works are rare and important. The value of this 

 material is not yet thoroughly appreciated, but it will become 

 so in proportion as more thorough work is found desirable in 

 this department. 



The Sturgis-Hooper Professor has given whatever time was 

 available, after the preparation of his lectures and the superin- 

 tendence of the work in the library, to the general topics in 

 geology toward which his thoughts have been turned during the 

 past years, the most important of which is that of historical cli- 

 mates, a subject which still remains involved in deep obscurity. 



