Oct.  1896. 
Annual  Report  of  the  Director. 
<j<j 
Mo.,  calcite  crystals,  the  crystals  being  six  inches  in  length,  nearly 
transparent  and  showing  faces  of  two  scalenohedrons  in  great 
perfection,  are  also  valuable  additions.  The  Meteorite  Hall  has 
received  by  exchange  specimens  of  falls  not  heretofore  represented. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  accessions  to  the  metallurgical  collections 
is  the  series  of  specimens  illustrating  the  toughening  of  cast  iron, 
rendering  it,  to  an  extent,  malleable.  The  Chief  of  the  Division  of 
Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  Dr. 
David  T.  Day,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  Mining  Department  at  the 
Atlanta  Exposition,  remembered  the  Museum  at  the  close  of  that 
event  by  sending  an  interesting  series  of  nickel,  magnesite  and  gold 
ores  from  Canada,  South  Carolina  and  California.  A  specimen  of 
Crocidolite  from  Cape  Town,  South  Africa,  was  donated  by  Mr.  W.  J. 
Chalmers.  A  specimen  of  Albertite  from  Utah,  from  W.  H. 
Holmes  represents  a  valuable  mineral  in  a  new  locality.  But 
by  far  the  most  important  addition  to  the  Economic  Collections  are 
the  ores  from  Curator  Farrington's  Mexican  Expedition.  The 
silver  ores  are  so  numerous  as  to  compel  a  complete  rearrangement 
of  the  present  collections  of  silver  ores,  which  now  represent  all 
phases  of  the  occurrence  of  silver  in  Mexico.  There  were  secured 
interesting  iron  ores  from  the  well-known  Iron  Mountain  of  Durango 
and  examples  of  the  little  known  tin  and  mercury  deposits  of  Mexico. 
The  Department  of  Zoology,  except  Ornithology,  which  in  extent  and 
character  of  material  did  not  at  the  beginning  rank  with  the  other 
Departments  of  the  Museum,  has  been  brought  to  a  higher  standard 
of  completeness  during  the  past  year  by  extensive  acquisitions  in  all  of 
its  several  divisions.  Not  so  much  attention  has  been  devoted 
to  the  lower  as  to  the  higher  invertebrates.  The  Aldis  expedition  to 
Florida  brought  in  a  quantity  of  sponges,  crabs  and  molluscan  forms. 
Mr.  Allison  V.  Armour,  of  Chicago,  has  contributed  a  collection  of 
5,000  insects  from  Yucatan,  gathered  by  Mr.  Thompson.  By  the 
gift  of  Mr.  Martin  A.  Ryerson,  of  Chicago,  the  Museum  came  into 
the  possession  of  a  superb  collection  of  700  lepidoptera  from  India. 
The  molluscan  collections  have  been  considerably  worked  over  and 
revised,  and  additions  have  been  made  where  needed.  In  Ichthyology 
should  be  mentioned  the  gift  of  the  National  Museum  of  105  species 
of  fishes,  and  several  gifts  of  reptiles  are  to  be  noted,  including 
that  of  a  boa  constrictor  presented  by  the  Ringling  Brothers. 
The  efforts  of  the  Department  have  been  concentrated  prin- 
cipally upon  enlarging  and  upbuilding  the  mammalian  collection. 
To  this  end,  as  previously  stated,  an  expedition  was  sent  to  Africa, 
and  large  acquisitions  are  expected  on  the  return  of  Curator  Elliot. 
