REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 59 



ing trip through the Mississippi Valley, with the view to supply such 

 species as were lacking in the collection. This trip has been of great 

 importance to the science ot ichthyology, bringing to light very many 

 important facts concerning the fishes of a region not previously explored 

 ichthyologically, and throwing much light upon the whole subject of 

 distribution. Out of the 560 fresh water species kno^n to inhabit North 

 America, the Museum now has all but 49, 30 having been added by this 

 trip, and some 25 new species having been brought to light. The ac- 

 cessions to this department have been very important, especially those 

 from the Fish Commission ; at least twenty new fishes from the deep- 

 sea fauna having been brought in as a result of the work of the Alba- 

 tross. 



Department of Comparative Anatomy. — A department of comparative 

 anatomy is being organized, and the east-south range has been filled up 

 with a very beautiful set of cases, especially constructed for the recep- 

 tion of the preparations. Mr. Lucas, with his two assistants, has been 

 engaged, during the latter part of the year, in mounting skeletons, and 

 fully 150 fine preparations have been put on exhibition. The report of 

 Mr. True upon the plan of organization will not be presented until next 

 year, since much preparatory work remains to be done. A case illus- 

 trating the work in this department was sent to the New Orleans Expo- 

 sition. 



Department of Mollusks. — Mr. W. H. Dall, who has for many years 

 had charge of the collection of mollusks, having been appointed one of 

 the paliBoutologists of the Geological Survey, and assigned to the de- 

 partment of Quaternary mollusks, has, by the request of the Director of 

 the Survey, been assigned working rooms in the Smithsonian building, 

 and will continue to care for the department as heretofore, access to the 

 collections of recent shells being necessary for" comparison with the 

 shells of the Quaternary beds, which are, for the most part, specifically 

 identical. Prof. R. E. C. Stearns, late of the University of California, 

 has been assigned to this department as adjunct curator, and since the 

 first of July there has been great activity in rearranging the collections. 

 It was decided to make an extensive display of the mollusks of the 

 United States at the New Orleans Exposition, and the well-known 

 Stearns collection of mollusks, for which negotiations had been in prog- 

 ress for some years, was purchased from the exhibition appropriation. 

 Dr. Stearns had in charge the preparation of the series for New Orleans, 

 which occupied his time from July until the end of the year. This oc- 

 cupied twenty large cases, and exhibits the economic mollusks of both 

 coasts and the adjacent seas, and the fresh-water mussels, which form 

 so remarkable a part of the fauna of the great Mississippi basin. Mr. 

 R. Ellsworth Call has been employed for six months in connection with 

 the New Orleans work, and by the efforts of these three conchologists, 

 with the help of two clerks, much progress has been made toward getting 

 under final control the immense mass of material in this department. 



