202 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



At the annual meeting the reports of the Custodian and Secretary were as usual 

 interesting and gratifying. 



The Mineralogical cabinet was stated to be in good condition and order. 



The Geological collection had been undergoing re-arrangement, this being necessary by 

 recent advances in science, especially in Lithology. The principal accession to this 

 department consisted of a suite of 250 specimens of the rocks of New Hampshire, col- 

 lected in the recent geological survey of that State, by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock. 



The revision of the Palaeontological collections had been finished. To the North 

 American had been added forty specimens of Cambrian, Silurian and Devonian fossils, col- 

 lected by Prof F. H. Bradley and given by Mr. John Cummings ; nearly 500 sub-carbon- 

 iferous crinoids, obtained by exchange from Prof A. H. Worthen, State geologist of 

 Illinois ; 125 specimens of Cretaceous fossils from Texas, obtained by purchase ; and 100 

 specimens of Cretaceous vertebrate remains from Kansas, purchased from the State geolo- 

 gist, Prof B. F. Mudge. 



The New England collection had received twenty specimens of fossiliferous rock from 

 the drift of Truro, Cape Cod, probably Eocene. 



The North American collection, with the accessions reported, consisted of: 



1070 



2093 



8227 



The Triassic fishes and plants, and most of the foot-tracks, a good collection of Devo- 

 nian bivalves, and several other small lots of fossils wanting identification, were not 

 included. 



The South American collection, including the West Indian, was mentioned as insignif- 

 icantly small, numbering but twenty-four genera, twenty-eight species, and one hundred 

 and seventy specimens, all Tertiary, or Post-tertiary, excepting one Cretaceous. The Afri- 

 can was said to be still more lacking, comprising only five genera, six species, and fourteen 

 specimens, all Tertiary. 



The Asiatic collection, including specimens from the Malay Archipelago, Australia 

 and Oceanica, had been mounted during the year. This was stated to contain many large 

 specimens, chiefly casts of the Miocene Mammalia fi'om the Sivalik Hills, also Cretaceous 

 fishes from Mt. Lebanon, casts of Carboniferous shells from Australia, and casts of the 

 bones of the Dinornis and Palaeopteryx from New Zealand. The whole embraced 46 gen- 

 era, 84 species, and 170 specimens. 



The principal work done on the European collection during the year had been to 

 mount the Palaeozoic fossils. There had been an accession to these of 380 specimens, 



