31

analyses and carried on other necessary laboratory work in the Survey laboratory.

Mr. P. S. Tilson continued the work of soil analysis, to which were added a number of East Texas iron ores, until the last of July, when he tendered his resignation as Chemist to the Survey to accept the position of Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.

Upon his resignation such material and apparatus as was the property of the Geological Survey at the laboratory of the Agricultural and Mechanical College was brought to Austin, and the chemical work was all concentrated in our own laboratory.

On Mr. Herndon's return from the field he again resumed charge of the laboratory, and he and Mr. Magnenat have had the entire work since that time.

A general statement of the work of the year is given in another place. It has been almost entirely analytical, and little time was available for any original work, although there are many questions of interest which await investigation in connection with the ores and other materials collected.

LIBRARY.

I have added to our reference library as many books as I could bearing directly upon our work, but it is still very incomplete. Even the sets of Geological Reports of the various States and the different United States Surveys are still incomplete, and the Transactions of the numerous Scientific Associations are either unrepresented or present only in detached numbers. Numerous exchanges are arranged for, and further purchases will be made as rapidly as the appropriation will admit. Our distance from all public libraries renders the building up of one of our own a prime necessity.

MUSEUM.

There has been little change in the Museum. The difficulty of securing suitable field assistants for the character of work wanted compelled me to use all the force in the field, and in consequence there was no one to take up the Museum work; Mr. McCulloch, to whom it had been assigned in January, having been fully engaged in assisting me in reading the proof of the First Annual Report and other office work until just before his resignation from the Survey. It is intended to improve