Jan., 1908. Annual Report of the Director. 



i35 



assignment of space at the present time is as follows: Halls 38, 39, 

 40, 41 and 55, Indonesia; Hall 54, Polynesia and Micronesia; Hall 53, 

 Melanesia; Halls 50-52, Africa; Halls 56-58, Asia. This installation 

 of the collections from the South Pacific and Asia, has made possible 

 the rearrangement of Halls 2, 5, and 6, which are now devoted, as 

 are Halls 1, 3 and 4, to North American ethnology. Mr. J. A. Burt, 

 aside from assisting in the installation of several collections during 

 the year, has carried to completion two interesting and important 

 groups in miniature of the Pawnee, and is well advanced on three 

 additional groups, one being Pawnee, and two Sauk and Fox. The 

 two latter groups have been prepared under the direction of Dr. 

 William Jones. 



The collection of ceramics having been removed from Hall 33, 

 the Paleozoic fossils, heretofore exhibited in Hall 35, were transferred 

 thereto. This necessitated the removal of the specimens from ten floor 

 and eight wall cases, moving of the cases, and reinstallation of the 

 specimens. Advantage was taken of the opportunity, also, to thor- 

 oughly rearrange the collection. The vacated hall, Hall 35, has been 

 cleared for the exhibition of Dinosaurs, a large amount of this 

 material now being ready for exhibition. In the center of the hall 

 the great Dinosaur torso collected in Colorado by the Museum 

 expedition of 1901, is being erected. This work is of such magni- 

 tude that it has occupied nearly the entire time of Assistant Curator 

 Riggs and assistants during the year and is not yet complete. 

 The torso consists of a nearly complete skeleton posterior to the last 

 cervical vertebra, and is of interest as containing the largest number 

 of bones of an individual Dinosaur of such a size ever mounted. The 

 aggregate weight of the bones is about five tons and when mounted 

 they stand fifteen feet above the floor at their highest point. In 

 order to support this great weight and prevent swaying, it was neces- 

 sary to construct a special framework of structural steel. This consists 

 of a base surmounted by a superstructure, to support the specimen 

 proper. The base has the form of a rectangle, measuring eight by 

 thirty feet. It is made up of two longitudinal channel beams joined 

 together at the ends by transverse beams of the same. Four trans- 

 verse I-beams, intersected by a single line of longitudinal I-beams 

 act as girders and form a series of four crosses in the median line for 

 the support of the vertical columns. All are firmly bolted together 

 at the intersections by means of angles, as in ordinary structural iron 

 work. Four vertical columns support the weight of the specimen. 



