REPORT (IX THE DEPARTMENT OF PALEOZOIC FOSSILS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, L889. 



By C. 1). Walcott, Honorary Curator. 



In the annual report for the last fiscal year, I stated that 10,955 

 specimens had been placed in the exhibition cases. During the first 

 six months of the present fiscal year Dr. E. E. Guiiey was engaged in 

 rewriting the labels of the exhibition series and in incorporating the 

 new material which he had worked over in the laboratory. I had an- 

 ticipated adding quite largely to the collections from the material be- 

 longing to the Geological Survey now stored in the laboratory, but 

 owing to a long absence in the field and a subsequent determination to 

 pnblish a paper on the fauna of the Olenellus /one, little opportunity 

 has occurred to work on the collections. 



Dr. Gurley began, about March 1 last, a study and arrangement of 

 the graptolites contained in the Museum collection. During the months 

 of May and June he was engaged in collecting graptolites in the Hud- 

 son River valley of ^New York, and it is expected that the specimens 

 there obtained will be incorporated in the Museum collections during 

 the present fiscal year. My own field and office work during the past 

 year has contributed to the Museum collections a large series of Lower 

 and Middle Cambrian fossils from Newfoundland. The Lower Cambrian 

 genera and species have been worked out and named, and a number of 

 new genera and species added to the collections. From Newfoundland 

 alone, some three thousand specimens have been transferred to the Mu- 

 seum. The collection of fossils from the Silurian (Ordovician) rocks has 

 not been materially enlarged, owing to lack of time to transfer the 

 collections made by the Geological Survey and now stored in the 

 laboratory of this department in the Museum building. During the 

 year large collections were made from the Silurian (Ordovician) rocks 

 of New York which will ultimately be transferred to the Museum. 



A report on "The Fauna of the Olenellus /one" is now completed 

 and will l»e published by the U. S. Geological Survey. A paper con- 

 taining the descriptions of the new genera and species was transmitted 

 for publication in the Proceedings of the National Museum. 



The more important accessions received during the year are: 



Accession 19889.— This accession includes the type and figured specimens of Dr. 

 D. D. Owen, which were used in his pioneer work in tin- Upper Mississippi Valley. 



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