42 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The card catalogue of the reserved series, which has been in prep- 

 aration for several years, has now been completed, and this card-cata- 

 logue, it is needless to say, proves to be invaluable as an aid to speedy 

 access to the specimens, as well as being a readily available systematic 

 index to the entire collection. 



A large amount of duplicate material, including at least 15,000 speci- 

 mens, has been set aside for distribution, and is ready for exchange or 

 distribution as soon as time can be spared to separate it into lots and 

 packages. 



The entire collection has been overhauled and put in the best possible 

 condition. An idea of its extent may be given by the fact that in order 

 to fill up bottles that have become partly empty by evaporation and 

 replace the alcohol, which had become unfit for use, twenty-five barrels 

 of alcohol were required. 



The bulk of the larger specimens is still necessarily kept in copper 

 tanks J but everything that could be conveniently transferred to glass 

 has been placed in jars during the year, thus securing greater accessi- 

 bility and safety from destruction. 



Heavy drafts have been made upon the time of the curator through 

 his occupation as editor of the publications of the Museum, and it is 

 hoped for the good of the Department that he may be relieved of this 

 extra service. He has, however, carried on the customary amount of 

 special research, having identified and reported upon a collection of 

 fishes from Jamaica, forwarded by the public museum of that colony ; 

 on a collection of fishes from Alaska, sent in by Lieut. Commander H. 

 E. Nichols, U. S. li^avy, besides a collection of fishes from Central Mexico 

 sent in by Professor Dug^s. 



Much of the research work of the curator has, however, in connec- 

 tion with Mr. Goode, been directed towards the preparation of a report 

 upon the extensive deep-sea collections of the U. S. Fish Commission, 

 and those obtained by Mr. Alexander Agassiz in connection with the 

 work of the TJ. S. Coast Survey. 



The work of this department was, during the mouths of August and 

 September, 1885, transferred to the Fish Commission headquarters at 

 Wood's Holl, where all the deep-sea collections were concentrated, over- 

 hauled, classified, and catalogued, and systematic investigations carried 

 on — a portion of the results of which has already been made public, and 

 the remainder of which it is hoped will soon appear in a monograph of 

 the deep-sea fish fauna of the Eastern Atlantic, which has been for 

 some years in preparation. 



The ease with which this extensive collection was handled in the large 

 rooms which were available for the purpose at Wood's Holl, offers an 

 illustration of the great need for the better accommodation of the 

 fish collection in Washington. Work was finished in a few weeks at 

 Wood's Holl which it would have required four or five months to have 



