578 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



Much time has necessarily been consumed in arranging and label- 

 ling the collections in their new quarters. In addition to the Wm. 

 S. Vaux Collections, representing Mineralogy and Archaeology, and 

 the Clarence B. Moore Archseological Collection, which were ar- 

 ranged on the first floor of the new building during the present year, 

 all the other archaeological material has been arranged in new cases 

 procured for its reception, the majority of them uniform with those 

 containing the Moore Collection. Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Cam- 

 bridge, devoted some days to helping us in the general arrangement 

 and classification of the collections, after which they were finally 

 placed and labelled. The Peruvian and Egyptian mummies were 

 also arranged in new cases and displayed on this floor. 



The entire collection of mammals was transferred from the old 

 building to the second floor of the new museum, the old cases being 

 necessarily retained in use until new and more suitable ones can be 

 substituted. 



The series of mounted mammals is now displayed in a thoroughly 

 systematic manner and carefully labelled, with the families and 

 orders indicated in each case, an arrangement that was quite im- 

 possible in the former crowded galleries. Many recently mounted 

 specimens have been exhibited for the first time, and a number of 

 badly mounted duplicate specimens have been removed from the 

 cases to the study-collection of skins. Other poorly mounted speci- 

 mens are being removed as fast as new and better examples can 

 be obtained. In this way the inferior work of the old time taxider- 

 mists is being rapidly replaced by the life-like mounts that charac- 

 terize the modern art. 



The large collection of mammalian osteological material, which 

 was formerly so crowded as to render it inaccessible, has been care- 

 fully arranged in storage-cases on the first floor of the new museum, 

 where it can be consulted with great convenience, while an exhibi- 

 tion series, comprising skulls or articulated skeletons of the princi- 

 pal types, is exhibited on the mammalogical floor. The large Baleen,' 

 optera skeleton has been placed along the eastern end of this floor 

 and the smaller whale skeletons from the old building mounted and 

 placed near by. 



Notwithstanding the time required to prepare the new building 

 for exhibition, the work accomplished in other departments has been 

 considerable. The removal of so much material from the old build- 

 ing has made it possible to arrange the cases containing thepalseon- 



