IX.-REPORT UPON THE DEPARTMENT OF MOLLUSKS IN THE 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM FOR 1885. 



By William H. Dall, Uonorarii Curator. 



The personnel of the department at present is as follows: 



William H. Dall, paleontologist to the U. S. Geological Survey, hon- 

 orary' curator. 



Kobert E. 0. Stearns, U. S. Geological Survey, assistant curator. 



Miss Agnes Nicholson, clerical assistant. 



Mr. R. E. Call, temporary assistant. 



At the beginning of the year the writer was still occupied by duties 

 at the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, which engaged him during 

 the working hours of the day. In June the health of Mr. R. E. C. 

 Stearns having improved he came on to Washington and accepted a 

 post in the U. S. Geological Survey which incidentally included work 

 on the Quaternary fossils and recent allies in the National collection. 

 He was therefore assigned to duty as assistant curator of the Depart- 

 ment of Conchology and at once entered upon the work. Owing to the 

 decision of the Director, in accordance with the requirements of Con- 

 gress in regard to the New Orleans Exposition, to exhibit a series of 

 moUusks and shells from the Museum, Mr. Stearns was requested by 

 me to take entire charge of the preparation and organization of the 

 exhibit. He was very busily engaged until the middle of December in 

 perfecting and packing the series which was finally dispatched to its 

 destination. It comprised twenty large table cases exhibiting the 

 (jconomical mollusks of both coasts and of adjacent seas, the fresh- 

 water mussels which form so remarkable a part of the fauna of the 

 great Mississippi Basin, &c., a complete review of which will more ap- 

 propriately come in, in the report of the year now oi)ening, after the 

 close of the exhibition. 



To assist in this work Mr. R. Ellsworth Call, who has especial knowl- 

 edge of the land and fresh-water mollusks of North America, was en- 

 gaged for a period of six months. 



In September the curator, desiring to devote his time more especially 

 to biological investigation, resigned his position in the U. S. Coast 

 Survey and accepted the post of paleontologist for the Quaternary 

 invertebrates, offered by the Director of the [J. S. Geological Survey. 



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