gathered and classified chiefly by Professor Holmes, but 

 including also many obtained by Professor Tuomey, in his 

 earlier survey of South Carolina. These, it has not yet 

 been possible to examine and classify. A number of 

 them were arranged in their zoological relations and placed 

 among the modern shells, rather than by themselves as 

 fossils. This arrangement has both advantages and disad- 

 vantages. The fossil forms should preferably be all to- 

 gether and, if there are plenty of specimens, some may 

 then be spared to place with the living types for comparison. 

 Of course there is a good exhibit of the fossils from the 

 neighboring phosphate beds, including many of the rarer 

 and more remarkable vertebrate forms. 



With the collections that have thus been briefly described, 

 increased by other material that is promised as soon as there 

 is proper accommodation for it, the Museum can easily be 

 made equal in the departments of mineralogy and geology 

 to the rank it has already attained in the zoological exhibits. 

 The writer has recently been appointed honorary curator in 

 these branches, and hopes to be able to bring them into a 

 condition worthy of the institution and valuable to the pub- 

 lic as a means of general instruction. If the Thomson Au- 

 ditorium can be secured, as is now hoped, there will be 

 ample space to display the material now possessed, and that 

 which is already promised, and to arrange the collections in 

 a systematic and scientific manner, where they will be per- 

 manently accessible for study, as they never have been 

 before. 



NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY 



The regular May meeting of the Natural History Society 

 was held in Manigault hall, Tuesday afternoon. May 1st. 



44 



