Department of Geology and Mineralogy.

The department of Geology is established in the University Museum between the museum of Comparative Zoology and the Botanical Department. The department of Mineralogy will soon be located in the latest addition to the museum, now approaching completion. It is probable that the new rooms will be ready for occupation in the fall of 1890, when the arrangement of the geological department and of the mineralogical section will be as follows: The first floor of the northwest corner contains a geological laboratory, instructors' laboratories and a lecture room with a seating capacity of 250 students. Beneath this lecture room are workshops for the slicing, cutting and grinding of rocks and fossils for chemical work. Two rooms on the second floor of the block next to the corner are assigned to the petrographical laboratory and collect-collection. The general library of the Museum, containing 20,000 volumes, and the Whiting Geological, Library, are on the same floor. The third floor is devoted entirely to exhibition rooms and the fourth to the division in physical geography, for laboratory instruction and the personal uses of advanced students.

The mineralogical section of the museum is about 70 feet square and contains laboratories for mineral analysis, assaying, smaller rooms, lecture halls and all that is necessary to carry the course on successfully. The courses of instruction in geology year at present arranged include elementary descriptive geology, general critical geology, advanced geological research, with practice in personal field investigation and geological surveying, Meteorology and physical geography, historical geology, paleontology, petrography, economic geology and mineral veins and metalliferous deposits.

In addition to these there are three summer courses: Geology A, elementary course of six weeks at Cambridge; Geology B, advanced course of six weeks in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts; Geology C, an opportunity for special investigation in connection with the professional work of the instructors can generally be afforded advanced students. Associated with these courses are chemical courses in mineralogy, crystallography and the physics of crystals.

Every facility will be furnished, both for investigations of the structure and properties of minerals and for chemical analysis. In the new museum a convenient laboratory has been especially devoted to mineral analyses and another to crystallographic and optical measurements; and all books and apparatus required for advanced work will be accessible to students.