18  Field  Columbian  Museum — Reports,  Vol.  i. 
ethnologic  material  from  North  Alaska,  which  will  find  its  way  to  the 
Museum  after  its  exhibition  by  Capt.  Bruce  at  the  Exposition  at 
Atlanta,  where  it  is  at  the  date  of  this  report. 
President  Ayer  visited  Egypt  in  January  last,  remaining  about 
two  months  and  obtaining  by  purchase  a  large  amount  of  very  valu- 
able, unique  and  generally  interesting  Egyptian  archeologic  material. 
The  collections  arrived  here  safely  in  May  and  June,  and  having  been 
attractively  installed,  add  largely  to  the  growing  interest  of  the  Egyp- 
tian suite  of  halls. 
Prof.  O.  P.  Hay,  Assistant  Curator  of  the  Department  of  Zoology, 
has  made  a  number  of  local  trips  collecting  material  in  the  Ichthyology, 
Herpetology  and  Conchology  of  Illinois.  His  collections  have  added 
to  the  Museum  series  about  seven  hundred  specimens  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  species.  Specimens  of  the  Illinois  river  shells  were 
sent  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution  for  identification. 
Mrs.  M.  S.  Snyder,  of  Champaign,  111.,  has  been  a  very  success- 
ful volunteer  collector  for  the  Museum  in  the  Botany  of  Lower  Cali- 
fornia. The  lady  carefully  identified  and  splendidly  mounted  two 
hundred  and  three  specimens  and  seven  species  of  Algae  and  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-four  specimens,  and  thirty-seven  species  of  phane- 
rogamic plants. 
Prof.  Farrington,  the  Curator  of  Geology,  has  accomplished 
considerable  work  in  the  field  during  the  past  year,  his  labors  includ- 
ing a  survey  of  the  rocks  of  the  Green  Mountain  Chain  as  exposed 
in  Western  Massachusetts  and  Northern  Connecticut;  of  the  Triassic 
rocks  of  the  Connecticut  Valley;  a  study  of  the  emery  deposits  at 
Chester,  Mass.,  and  of  the  features  of  the  local  geology  made  visible 
by  the  excavations  for  the  Chicago  Drainage  Canal.  The  work  in 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  was  carried  on  in  company  with  sev- 
eral other  geologists  under  the  guidance  of  Prof.  Emerson,  of  Amherst 
College,  and  Prof.  Hobbs,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin.  A  com- 
plete series  of  specimens  illustrating  the'  different  formations  of  the 
Green  Mountains  and  the  rocks  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  was 
obtained,  and  several  specimens  illustrating  structural  features.  At 
Chester,  Mass.,  a  collection  was  made  which  illustrates  fully  the 
mode  of  occurrence  of  the  emery,  the  rocks  by  which  it  is  surrounded 
and  the  minerals  which  accompany  it.  This  will  form  a  part  of  the 
collection  illustrating  abrasives  in  the  Department  of  Economic 
Geology.  Study  of  the  Drainage  Canal  has  been  carried  on  by 
means  of  visits  of  from  one  to  four  days  in  length,  which  offered 
opportunity  for  collecting  specimens  from  the  material  that  is  being 
excavated  and  for  taking  photographs  of  the  specimens  as  they 
were  exposed.     In  this  latter  work  the  photographer  of  the  Museum 
