EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1915. 61 



was published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, the 

 other being now in press. The results of other researches have been 

 incorporated in an article entitled "Notes on allophanite, fuchsite 

 and triphylite," to be printed by the Museum. 



Invertebrate paleontology. — An extensive and important series 

 of Devonian fossils, representing practically the life-long collecting 

 of Prof. Henry Shaler Williams, was deposited by the Geological 

 Survey. Containing no tj'pe or figured specimens, its value rests 

 mainly upon the fact that it includes many faunas heretofore lack- 

 ing in the Museum collection. Other transfers from the Survey 

 aggregated nearly 600 specimens of type and other monographic 

 material. About 5,000 specimens of European Paleozoic and Me- 

 sozoic fossils were received in exchange from the K. K. Naturhis- 

 torisches Hofmuseum, Vienna, Austria, and 54 species of Mesozoic 

 sponges, useful for exhibition purposes, from Dr. A. Schrammen, 

 of Hildesheim, Germany. Some 6,000 specimens of Ordovician and 

 Silurian fossils from Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky were pur- 

 chased. The New York State Museum at Albany, N. Y., through 

 its director. Dr. John M. Clarke, contributed to the exhibition series 

 a large slab containing numerous specimens of the Devonian glass 

 sponge, Hydnoceras hathense. 



Other important accessions consisted of about 5,000 Cambrian fos- 

 sils from China transferred by the Smithsonian Institution; and a 

 collection made for the Museum by Dr. Bassler, curator of the 

 division, being the results of his field work in 1914, undertaken 

 mainly to further the preparation of his monograph on early Ameri- 

 can Tertiary Bryozoa. 



The routine work consisted in the preparation and classified stor- 

 age of new collections, especially those from the Geological Survey 

 and from Secretary Walcott. Two hundred standard drawers of 

 Upper Cambrian fossils from the upper Mississippi Valley and the 

 great collection of Cambrian and pre-Cambrian algae, which have 

 been the subject of investigation by Dr. Walcott for some years past, 

 were overhauled and the materials for further study and illustra- 

 tion carefully selected, the duplicates being set aside for distribution. 

 This work extended also to the Paleozoic collections in general, 

 including the unpacking and arrangement for final study of the 

 Devonian collection from Prof. Henry S. Williams, which required 

 some four months' time on the part of the curator and one assistant 

 to place in suitable museum shape. Several hundred boxes which 

 had been stored for many years were unpacked and the contents 

 systematized and reduced to about one-third their former bulk. 



The Ordovician collections, which are ver}^ extensive, were con- 

 sulted by Dr. E. O. Ulrich, associate in paleontology, in connection 

 with his monographic work on the Canadian faunas. Dr. T. W. 



