REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF MESOZOIC FOSSILS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, L889. 



By C. A. White, Honorary Curator. 



Although the time which could be devoted to the work of the de- 

 partment has been very limited, owing - to the official duties devolving 

 upon me and my assistants in connection with the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, the fossil collections in the Museum have been put into better and 

 more accessible shape than they have ever been in before. The ordinary 

 routine work of the division has also been performed as usual. 



Aside from important collections of fossils which have been both 

 formally and informally turned over from the U. S. Geological Survey 

 to the Museum, the accessions have not been numerous during the year; 

 the number in all being only thirteen. The most important of these 

 last named accessions are the type specimens of twelve species of Creta- 

 ceous fossils which were published in the Geological report of Dr. David 

 Owen on Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and which were transmitted 

 to the Museum by President D. S. Jordan, of the Indiana State Uni- 

 versity. Besides these a small but interesting collection of Cretaceous 

 fossils from St. Paul's and St. Peter's Islands in the Straits of Magellan 

 were received through the U. S. Fish Commission. They were collected 

 by members of the Commission upon the cruise of the Steamer Albatross 

 of 1888-'8(>. 



Up to the beginning of the past year none of the fossils of this division 

 had been properly installed for exhibition. Early in the present calen- 

 dar year the Director of the Museum assigned ten glass top-frames to 

 ten of the fifteen cases which had been previously assigned to this di- 

 vision in the southeast court. He also detailed Dr. \\. R. Gurley to aid 

 in the work of installing selections of fossils in the cases mentioned, and 

 tlic work was accomplished by him and my assistant, Mr. C. B, Boyle, 

 jointly, who were assisted for a month by a temporary assistant, Mr. C. 

 \V. Hayes, of the Geological Survey. 



The collections which now till the glass covered cases consist mainly 

 of the numerous type specimens of the species which have been pub- 

 lished in the various Government reports. 



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