250 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Dr. 0. A. White, U. S. National Museum, January 16. Accession 12558. 



Two large oyster shells from Sheepscot River, Maine, subfossil, the 



bed being extinct. 

 George White, U. 8. National Museum, September 3. Accession 13459. 



Four alcoholic specimens of snails (Limax flavus). 

 A. A. Wilson, East Greenwich, B. L, January 3. Accession 12503. 



Specimen of quahogs or clams for use in London Exhibit. 

 Lieut. F. Winslow, U. S. N., February 27. Accession 12789. One box 



oysters, cluster of natural growth from the sea-coast. 



DEPARTMENT OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 



Richard Rathbun, Curator. 



Accessions. 



The principal accessions to this department during 1883 were made 

 by the U. S. Fish Commission, and consist of both determined and un- 

 determined collections, the majority of which were obtained in the recent 

 deep-sea explorations of the new Fish Commission steamer " Albatross," 

 off the eastern coast ot the United States. During the spring, two lots 

 of determined marine invertebrates, belonging to collections made 

 in former years, were received from Prof. A. E. Verrill, of Yale College. 

 Again, in October, at the close of the summer explorations of the Fish 

 Commission, about forty cases of specimens were shipped directly from 

 the Wood's Holl station to Washington. The latter shipment contained 

 about 200 identified species, belonging mainly to the groups of Crusta- 

 cea, echiuoderms, anthozoa, tunicates, and annelids, and a large quan- 

 tity of material which had not yet been carefully examined. Many of 

 the species, both determined and undetermined, were represented by 

 several varieties, or by specimens from numerous localities and different 

 depths, to illustrate geographical and bathy metrical distribution. The 

 entire collection filled upwards of 1,500 tanks, jars, bottles, homoeopathic 

 vials, and small boxes, and was mostly preserved in alcohol. In this 

 enumeration no account has been taken of the collections sent to Pro- 

 fessors Verrill and Smith, at Yale College, for examination and report, 

 and which will soon be turned over to the Museum. 



Mr. Yinal N. Edwards, the permanent agent of the Fish Commission 

 at Wood's Holl, bas sent in during the year several interesting collec- 

 tions, made at seasons when that station is not visited by any of the 

 scientific party. 



From the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College there 

 have been received three collections, representing a portion of the scien- 

 tific results of the explorations of the United States Coast Survey 

 steamer " Blake," from 1877 to 1880, off the southern and eastern coasts 

 of the United States and among the West Indies. Prof. Alexander 



