166 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



From Mr. I. Greegor, of Jacksonville, Fla., a number of interesting specimens have 

 been received, mostly from Florida and the Antilles. 



Mr. Simpson, of the department of mollusks, joined Mr. J. B. Henderson, jr., on an 

 expedition to the west coast of Florida, which proved fruitful in results. A series of 

 the specimens collected, so far as they might be useful to the Museum, was presented 

 by Mr. Henderson. 



Two large series of Japanese mollusks have been received during the year. These 

 accessions greatly enrich that department of the collection, each containing several 

 rarities which were not comprised in the other. One of these was the gift of the 

 Rev. H. Loomis, of Yokohama, and the other was received in exchange for other 

 specimens sent to Frederick Stearns, esq., of Detroit, Mich., who supplemented it by 

 other forms from Mauritius and the Hawaiian Islands. 



Another gift which is highly appreciated was a set of several hundred species from 

 St. Helena, probably illustrating the whole of its mollusk fauna, including the curious 

 extinct land shells. This very interesting contribution was received from Capt. 

 W. H. Turtou, of the Royal Engineers, Chatham, England. The collection of which 

 chis is a representative set was reported on at length by Mr. E. A. Smith, of the Brit- 

 ish Museum. 



The extinct fresh-water mollusk fauna of the Colorado desert has always been of 

 great interest. One by one the species have been found living in springs, to which 

 they retreated on the desiccation of the ancient lake. One alone remained to be dis- 

 covered, Tryonia clathrata of Stimpson; and among the collections of the expedition 

 to Death Valley made by Dr. C. Hart Merriam under the auspices of the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture this has been at last secured, living in a spring with a 

 water temperature of 97° F. in the Pahranagat Valley. This is certainly one of the 

 most interesting malacological events of the year. 



Through the efforts of the Hon. Rounsevelle Wildman, United States consul at 

 Singapore, a collection representing the chief marine forms of that vicinity was 

 obtained from native collectors. 



Mr. Joseph Willcox, of Philadelphia, has continued to contribute to the collection 

 of Tertiary fossils, and has enriched it by a number of species from the Tertiaries of 

 the Carolinas and Florida. 



ASSISTANCE TO STUDENTS. 



The work of assisting students in various parts of the country to 

 identify their local fauna?, to intelligently direct their studies, and 

 answer their numerous queries on various branches of the subject, has 

 always been regarded as an important function of this department, and 

 has been frequently referred to in the previous reports. Correspondence 

 of this kind was kept up in 1890-'91 with 160 persons, involving over 300 

 letters and between 600 and 700 pages of writing, besides the identifica- 

 tion of about 1,200 species of mollusks. In 1891-'92 the number of cor- 

 respondents was 114, and the number of pages of writing involved in 

 the correspondence 820. The number of species identified for various 

 students, chiefly by Mr. Simpson, under my direction, amounts to con- 

 siderably over 3,000, for each of which a label had to be written. 



SPECIAL RESEARCHES. 



A reference to the Bibliography (section iv) will indicate the direc- 

 tion of the studies carried on during the year. The report on the later 

 Tertiary of the United States and Mr. Simpson's paper on Floridian 



