558 Bristol Museum. 



its mercantile captains, have contributed greatly to the wealth 

 of the museum : to promote this object, Mr. Stutchbury 

 drew up a set of brief instructions for collecting and bringing 

 home objects of natural history, which was printed by the 

 Institution ; and dredges for procuring shells, boxes of bottles, 

 &c, have been prepared, to be given to captains of vessels, 

 and others, who might undertake to bring contributions from 

 distant countries. 



" It would be vain to attempt even a general survey of what 

 has been added to the museum for the last five years : indeed, 

 the great difficulty has been to provide cases and other suit- 

 able accommodations for the varied and valuable donations. 

 In the department of organic remains, especially the Crinbi- 

 dea, its collection has most the character of completeness ; 

 and to those who have contributed to its fossil remains of fish, 

 which, at the request of the Rev. Professor Buckland, were 

 submitted to M. Agassiz, it will be interesting to notice, that 

 this celebrated naturalist pronounced thirty of its specimens 

 to be of species hitherto unknown, engravings of some of 

 which will appear in his splendid work on Fossil Fishes. In 

 recent ichthyology, in entomology, and even in ornithology, 

 the museum is very imperfect. Its greatest deficiency, how- 

 ever, is in the Mollusca. Besides its minerals, arranged, as 

 already noticed, by Mr. H. Stutchbury, the Mammalia and 

 reptiles have been catalogued by the curator; and W. Raddon, 

 Esq., has devoted considerable time to the preservation and 

 scientific arrangement of the insects. In botany, little has 

 been attempted till of late, though J. L. Knapp, Esq., early 

 presented a series of specimens illustrating his work on the 

 British Grasses; and miscellaneous contributions, of much 

 interest, were occasionally made. Recently, however, Mr. 

 Rogers, surgeon, of this city, has presented to the museum 

 his own collection of local botany, which he is interweaving 

 with general specimens, and thereby forming a very valuable 

 and acceptable basis in this department of natural history." 



The committee notice in their report a considerable dimi- 

 nution in the income of the past year; which, however, has 

 not arisen from any decrease in the number of subscribers, 

 but from the small amount produced by the lectures of the 

 last session ; the delivery of which has usually been an im- 

 portant source of pecuniary advantage to the Institution. It 

 appears that, since the close of 1835, those lectures, of which 

 a share of the profits only is given up, have produced a clear 

 profit of 600/. 6s. 8d. to the Institution, five only having caused 

 deduction ; and the lectures, the proceeds of which have been 

 entirely given to the Institution, have produced 5921. 17s. 9d.; 



