State Museum of Natural History. 



41 



iron, prepared by J. C. Hendley, of the U. S. Geological Survey and 

 presented to the Museum by Mr. Kunz. Another lot of minerals 

 of value as representing fully a locality, is a series of fifty-eight 

 specimens from Pelham, Massachusetts, presented by Prof. John 

 M. Clarke of Albany. A large block of remarkably well crystal- 

 ized magnetite from the Palmer Hill Iron Mine, Clinton county, 

 the gift of H. D. Graves, Esq., of Ausable Forks, also, is note- 

 worthy. Another collection, but not yet placed on exhibition, is 

 that purchased of Mr. Kunz, and from Westchester county. It 

 contains some fine rutile crystals and good specimens of tremolite, 

 from Sing Sing. Still another noteworthy lot of minerals are 

 the magnificent groups of green fluorite, recently discovered in 

 St. Lawrence county. They surpass all the specimens ever found 

 in that county. 



The collection of building stones occupies the entrance hall 

 and all the available space therein is filled, so that the additional 

 specimens have to be either crowded upon each other on 

 the shelves or put away in the store-rooms in basement. Among 

 the additions of the year are : A slab of red slate, six feet, three 

 inches by nineteen inches, from the Hatch Hill quarry, East 

 Whitehall, Washington county. It is the gift of R. A. Hall, and 

 it is a showy specimen of the deep-red, fine-grained slate, so 

 characteristic of the region, and found only in New York State. 

 The other additions to this collection are given in the list of 

 accessions. 



The second-story room of the Museum remains unchanged in its 

 general arrangement of cases. In it the collections of the State 

 Geological Survey are placed in the order of their geological 

 horizons, and nearly the whole room is devoted to the rocks and 

 fossils of the New York series. Many of the more valuable palae- 

 ontological specimens have been removed to the State Hall for 

 safety against fire, and the gaps thus made have lessened the value 

 of the collection as illustrative of the characteristic forms of life of 

 the successive periods, and also detracted from its beauty. A 

 rearrangement of the material in the palaeontological cases is 

 desirable. 



Among the more important additions this year in this depart- 

 ment are : A large slab of slate from Middle Granville, Washington 

 county, which shows several markings of the fossil organism, 

 6 



