Jan., 1910. 



Annual Report of the Director. 



357 



In Higinbotham Hall the series of gold nuggets and crystallized 

 gold was moved to one of the floor cases and mounted and labeled in 

 accordance with the method employed for the general gem collection. 

 Unlabeled specimens of the gem collection were supplied with labels 

 to the number of about sixty. In Hall 36 the large slab of Uinta- 

 crinus acquired during the year and shown in Plate LI I was placed on 

 exhibition. The preparation of this slab for exhibition involved 

 considerable labor as the slab had been imperfectly mounted when 

 received and was unsafe for exhibition without further treatment. 

 In order to prepare it for exhibition and make a firm and durable 

 mount, the surface designed for exhibition was covered with tissue 

 and a thick covering of plaster poured over it. The slab was then re- 

 versed and the plaster previously forming the bed carefully removed 

 from the rear side. A thick bed of plaster was provided for this side 

 and a heavy and durable framework placed around it. The plaster 

 was then removed from the front side and the whole framed in heavy 

 plate glass. In Hall 59 a fine mastodon skull from Yorkville, Illinois, 

 has been installed in place of the large cast of Elephas ganesa. Some 

 needful repairs were made upon the mastodon skeleton in the same 

 Hall. A wall case, corresponding in pattern to those already in the 

 Hall, was provided for a series of Tertiary and Quaternary inverte- 

 brate fossils, including those collected by the Curator in Bermuda, 

 and the specimens installed in it. Other specimens installed in the 

 Hall include a slab mount of a nearly complete skeleton of the 

 Miocene wolverine Aelurocyon, a skull and fore and hind legs of 

 Moropus elatus, two skulls of Diceratherium, two skulls of Archce- 

 otkerium mortoni, a skull of Oligobunis, and a fore leg of Hypo- 

 hippus. In Hall 61 a nearly complete skeleton of Castoroides from 

 Indiana was assembled and installed in a wall case. This is a rare 

 form of beaver-like animal of which only one other skeleton and 

 three incomplete skulls have been found, although the first re- 

 mains were found in this country in 1838. Besides its rarity this 

 skeleton is remarkable for its large size, the animal having been 

 more than two feet in height and five feet in length and having 

 incisors ten inches long. In Hall 62 a large floor case four feet 

 square was provided for the Tonopah meteorite and the meteorite, 

 weighing nearly two tons, installed in it. The case is of the same 

 pattern as the other floor cases in the Hall. Some readjustment of 

 the other floor cases was necessary in order to obtain space for this 

 one, and the time during readjustment was improved to thoroughly 

 paraffin the series of Toluca meteorites, in order to check incipient 



