Editorial Coiiiinent. 115 
brilliant cut tourmaline, weighing 57^4 carats, from Paris, 
Maine, is noteworthy. There is also a fine, claret-red tourma- 
line, weighing- 17I-2 carats, from the same locality. 
There are also sapphires and rubies from the Jenks' mine, 
Macon county. North Carolina, including- the dark-brown, as- 
teriated form described by Kunz in the transactions of the New 
York Academy of Sciences in 1883. The recently discovered 
Montana sapphire locality is represented by a beautiful suite 
of specimens, characteristic for their remarkable lustre and 
marked dichroism. 
The beryl series comprises what is supposed to be the lar- 
gest emerald crystal found in North America, and a fine series 
of cut emeralds and beryls from North Carolina, as well as a 
fifteen-carat, cut stone from the quarries at Portland, Connecti- 
cut. This last is of a rich, deep aquamarine color, fairly rival- 
ing the best Brazilian stones. 
The collection also contains a fairly satisfactory series of 
cut hiddenites from Alexander county, North Carolina ; a cin- 
namon-colored, fifteen-carat, cut topaz from Pike's peak Col- 
orado, and a selected series of cut turquoises from New Mex- 
ico, the gift of the American Turquoise Mining Co. 
The meteorite collection comprises, all told, some 752 speci- 
mens representing 329 distinct falls or finds. The more not- 
able specimens in this collection are the historical Tucson or 
ring meteoric iron, the Allegan stony meteorite which fell in 
Michigan in July, 1899, and the unique Bishopville stone-, dis- 
covered in 1843. ^^ special effort is made to secure represen- 
tatives of all American falls and but little attention is paid to 
minute fragments too small for study. 
Section, of Invertebrate Fossils. The paleontological col- 
lection, like other of the collections in the geological depart- 
ment, consisted at first very largely of material brought in bv 
the government exploring expeditions. Incidentally many small 
lots were p'-esented or received in exchange and afew purchased. 
Other afld-^ions have since been made through the govern- 
mental e^-i-''^its in which this section has taken part. A valuable 
collection r '' fossil insects and a few vertebrates formed a part 
of the T -^r- • collection mentioned elsewhere. Perhaps the most 
important collection of invertebrates that has come to the sec- 
tion 1)^• hr t is what is known as the T. H. Harris collection 
