372 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



Good progress has also been made in cleaning and assorting the fos- 

 sils contained in the Lea collection, mostly hue specimens from the Eu- 

 ropean Tertiaries. 



ACCESSIONS DURING THE YEAR. 



The total number of accessions during the year is forty-six, a number 

 somewhat less than the preceding year. The amount of material re- 

 ceived under the head of these accessions is also less. It would have 

 been wonderful had it been otherwise, since last year's list included the 

 sixty-three boxes of the Lea collection. 



The most important accession of the year was the collection of 

 Mollusca and Tertiary fossils made by the U. S. Fish Commission 

 party on tke Albatross during the voyage from Chesapeake Bay, through 

 the western Atlantic, the Strait of Magellan, and the eastern Pacific 

 to the Galapagos Islands and San Francisco, California. This contains 

 a small but precious collection of deep-sea forms, and a large number of 

 shallow- water species of the coasts visited. The latter were particu- 

 larly important on the eastern coast of South America, where the dis- 

 tribution of the Mollusca is little known. The Albatross collections 

 show that some of the Patagonian species reach as far north as the 

 Amazon, and that some of the Antillean species extend southward to 

 Eio Janeiro and even farther south. A special report on this collection 

 is being prepared for the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries. 



The accession next in importance was received from Messrs. F. B. 

 and J. D. McGuire, of Washington, who presented on behalf of the 

 heirs of the late J. C. McGuire, of Washington, a collection estimated 

 to comprise about two thousand species and perhaps five thousand 

 specimens of shells, marine and terrestrial, from various parts of the 

 world. This generous donation has been retained temporarily in the 

 packages in which it was received until the material now in hand shall 

 have been administered upon ; but, when time shall favor, it will doubt- 

 less add materially to our series. 



An invaluable faunal collection was received from the Auckland Mu- 

 seum, Auckland, New Zealand, and containsaboutthree hundred species, 

 with exact labels of locality, mostly named. These, with the very full 

 collection received in former years from the Otago Museum, and other 

 material derived directly or indirectly from private collections, makes 

 the New Zealand collection of our department extremely full and nearly 

 exhaustive for the marine forms. Our chief deficiencies from a faunal 

 standpoint are, and have for some years been, among the African and 

 Chinese forms and those of southern Japan. 



Among the smaller collections received, which are worthy of partic- 

 ular remark, are a small collection from our constant friend and corre- 

 spondent, Henry Hemphill, representing a picked series of certain Cali- 

 foruian species ; a small lot containing some very nice things from Cape 

 Sable, Florida, from Lieut. J. F. Moser, U. S. Navy, and two series each. 



