REPORT OF DEPARTMENT OF MOLLUSKS. 181 



ultimate distributiou to other museums or for exchange. Case room is 

 the great ueed of the department at present, and it will continue for 

 some time to bo the most urgent want which presents itself. 



Looking forward to the time when the collection shall be in working 

 order and various suites now promised or in course of transmission shall 

 have arrived, we may anticipate that in all that relates to North America 

 and its adjacent seas the national collection as a whole will not be sur- 

 l)assed, or even equaled, in the world. 



For the North Atlantic and British seas the collection of Dr. Gwyn 

 Jeffreys is now in process of transmission. 



For the northeastern coast of the United States the collections of the 

 U. S. Fish Commission will eventually be deposited in the Museum. 

 For the North Pacific, Bering and Arctic Seas the collections of Messrs. 

 Dall, Turner, Fisher, Murdoch, the United States Eeveuue Marine, and 

 others are already in the Museum and partly administered upon. 



For the western coast of North America, from Puget Sound to Panama, 

 the original Carpenter collection has long been a part of the Museum, 

 and the Stearns collection has been recently acquired. 



The preceding series are without doubt the finest and most valuable 

 in existence relating to their respective regions, both in extent and 

 scientific value. 



For the Oulf coast, Antilles, and southeastern shores of the United 

 States much material is on hand and more will doubtless be acquired 

 very soon. It is the weakest section of our American collection at pres- 

 ent, but may, with the assistance of the Fish Commission corps, not 

 long remain so. 



The laud and fresh-water shells of the great interior region of the 

 United States are well represented, though much more remains to be 

 done before the collection in this regard can claim completeness. The 

 series of types contributed by Mr. W. G. Binney, Dr. Isaac Lea, Henry 

 Hemphill, and others, when administered upon and taken in connection 

 with the Centennial collection arranged by Dr. James Lewis, will form 

 a very satisfactory series, and the gaps which nevertheless exist may 

 probably be filled by proper effort as the deficiencies become evident in 

 arranging the material in hand. 



In exotic material the collection consists chiefly of the contributions 

 of the various United States exploring expeditions, Hon. Nicholas Pike 

 and other friends of the Museum, and, while including many valuable 

 types, bears no comparison in fullness and value to the strictly Ameri- 

 can sections, as, indeed, might naturally be expected. 



A list of the chief accessions to the Department of Mollusks during 

 the year is appended to this report. Though work of an administrative 

 nature has occupied nearly all the time of the curator and his assistants, 

 yet some contributions to original research have been made during the 

 year. The most important of these are the determination of the syste- 

 matic relations of Turbinella pyrum Linn6, long a desideratum, and the 



