246 The American Geologist. October, i892 
tion made by its founder was purchased about twenty-eight years 
ago by the University of Rochester and now adorns its cases and 
supplies magnificent material for illustration. In few places can 
be found finer or larger specimens of some of the minerals there 
exhibited. Enumeration would be tedious, but the eye of even 
the cursory visitor, whether geologist or not, must be arrested by 
the splendid crystals of Cornish fluorite, Cinghalese graphite, 
blende and haematite from the north of England, and septaria of 
large size, cut and polished for ornamental purposes, from the 
upper Mesozoic beds of the coast of the English channel and from 
Mt. Morris, N. Y., while almost unique in its singularity and 
beauty is a large specimen of crystalline (?) anthracite in the form 
of curved blades of cone-in-cone from South Wales. 
On the palaiontological side of the collection may be seen one of 
the finest sets of European Ammonites on this continent, with 
large suites of fossils from various countries and from many dif- 
ferent horizons, which are of immense value to the student for 
purposes of comparison. 
At the time of the purchase little had been done in American 
geology outside of New York state. The treasures of the great 
West were unknown and the East was almost unexplored. Hence 
this collection and most of those made at a similar date were 
composed, in great part, of foreign material. But additions have 
since been made and are being made as the department grows, 
and American palaeontology has now a fair representation. The 
whole collection has recently been rearranged by Prof. Fairchild, 
and is in excellent condition. 
It was the gathering of the specimens now in the museum at 
the University of Rochester that started Prof. Ward on his career. 
From that day onward he has been engaged in the task of collect- 
ing. No labor, pains or expense has been spared in reason, and, 
we fancy, sometimes out of it, to increase the value of his stores, 
and now his museum and laboratories are unequalled in America 
and scarcely, if at all, surpassed in scale in the world. It is dif- 
ficult to ask for specimens, excepting, perhaps, unique or almost 
inaccessible forms, without having them at once laid before you. 
The writer has tried, and speaks from experience. Prof. Ward 
has visited almost every part of the world in search of material 
and is often somewhere in foreign parts seeking what he may ob- 
tain by purchase or exchange. His aim is to get all material 
