REPORT ON THR DEPARTMENT OF INVERTEF.RATE FOSSILS (MESOZOID 

 IN THE U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM FOJ^ THE YEAR ENDING JUNE llll, 

 ll{8(). 



By C. A. White, Honorary Curator. 



Tlic principal additions; wliicli liavo been made to the collections of 

 Mesozoic invertebratcw during the past year are those which have been 

 sent to the Museum by the U. S. (leological Survey. Only a small part 

 of these have been registered in the reconls of the Museum ; all tlie 

 others having been cleansed, ticketed, and placed in cases in the north 

 balcony of the Smithsonian Building. Our records show that eight 

 accessions have been received through the Museum, all but two of 

 which are small and unimportant. One of these is a small lot of Creta- 

 ceous fossils from Mexico, all new species, the gift of Senor Jos6 G. 

 Aguilera, of the Mexican Geographical and Exploring Commission. 



The other is a collection of about two hundred si)ecimens, represent- 

 ing about seventy species, from M. Charpy, Director of the Museum at 

 Annecy, ITaute-Savoy, France. They are of Jurassic and lower Creta- 

 ceous age. 



Tlie work of arranging and classifying the collections of the Museum 

 has progressed during the year, and has reached a condition in which 

 tlie collections are all accessible for convenient study, but nothing has 

 been done with reference to their installation, or their separation into 

 reserve, exhibition and exchange series. 



The work of arranging and classifying has embraced the numerous 

 collections which have been for many years in possession of the Mu- 

 seum, some of which had been damaged and their labels destroyed by 

 the lire which occurred in tlie Smithsonian Building many years ago. 



To identify and arrange these collections has required much labor. 

 Each specimen has undergone the process of identification, cleansing, 

 recording upon the Museum register, being numbered in paint, labelled, 

 and finally .arranged in tr.ays, drawers, and cases suitable for conven- 

 ient reference. All of tiiis has been done, as far ;is possible, in accord- 

 ance with the prescribed usages of the Museum, but often, in theabsence 

 of ])recedent, it has been found necessary to devise new methods of ar- 

 rangement. 



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