Vol. X] EVERMANN— DIRECTOR'S REPORT FOR 1920 145 



there are 1,470 specimens. Mr. Joseph R. Slevin brought some rare land 

 shells from Arizona, where exploration was conducted in the interests 

 of the Department of Herpetology. Dr. Barton Warren Evermann col- 

 lected some beautiful specimens of lavas while he was in the Hawaiian 

 Islands attending the meeting of the Pan-Pacific Scientific Conference. 

 Several other minor collections were donated to the Academy, all of 

 which are mentioned in the list of accessions following. 



The proper cataloging and classification of a collection is almost as valu- 

 able work as the assembling of it, hence a great deal of attention has been 

 devoted to this work. The card system is being used to list the various 

 species, numbers of specimens, localities, etc., and an important beginning 

 has been made upon a real inventory of the scientific material in the 

 Department. Once this is completed there will be little difficulty in keeping 

 it up to date ; and, then in a short time, it will be possible to state how many 

 species and specimens we have. At the present time this can not be 

 done, although it would be very desirable. 



The absence of the curator in Alaska for so long, prevented the writ- 

 ing of many papers on the collections. However, the work upon the 

 Miocene freshwater shells from the ancient Petaluma Lake was com- 

 pleted. Also two reports upon fossil land shells of an Oregon deposit 

 were written. Altogether the curator published six articles during the 

 year. 



Considerable progress was made in the indexing of references to west 

 American land and freshwater mollusks. From the vast intricacies of 

 the literature which thus become orderly assembled, it is hoped that a 

 valid list of species may be extricated. One of the things already dis- 

 closed is the remarkable fact that no less than 125 specific and subspecific 

 names have been applied in the common Califgrnia land-snail genus, known 

 as Epiphragmophora. 



Our collection has continued to be actively used by other institutions, 

 and it is hoped that in the future it will continue to prove equally at- 

 tractive. Specimens which have been studied by specialists are believed 

 to be of far greater value to a museum than those which repose in- 

 definitely unidentified and untouched in their cases. 



Under the able leadership of Professor Clark, the students of his 

 classes in paleontology have found material collected by the Academy per- 

 sonnel many years ago, of great value in their work upon particular hori- 

 zons. This is especially true of Mr. Howe, who is engaged upon faunas 

 from Oregon and Washington. It is understood, informally, that the 

 monograph of the western species of the genus TurritcUa by Miss Richard- 

 son has been completed, and that the material borrowed from the Academy 

 will be returned as soon as the necessary photographs have been taken. 



Miss Mary J. Rathbun, Associate in Zoology of the U. S. National 

 Museum, has borrowed the Academy's collection of fossil crabs. She is 

 the foremost authority on these crustaceans, and it is fortunate that our 

 material may be identified by such an able and well-known student. 



Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan, of the U. S. Geological Survey, visited the 

 Academy in the summer of 1920, and requested the loan of some of our 



