PREFACE. 



HE past year has been marked by two great 

 features, the increase in the number of 

 members of the Photographic Section, and 

 the beginning of the rearrangement of the 

 fossils in the Museum. So numerous are 

 the members of the Photographic Section 

 that the question of a new dark room is 

 becoming very pressing, the one we have at present being most 

 inconveniently small. The collection of fossils in our Museum is 

 a very large one, but having been accumulated by donations spread 

 over a considerable number of years we possess a large number 

 of duplicates, and when the whole collection is properly overhauled 

 it will be found that many specimens can be taken out of the cases 

 where they are now and kept for exchange purposes. It was 

 thought advisable to start arranging the Jurassic fossils as these 

 contained all the local specimens and the rearrangement was put 

 into the hands of S. S. Buckman, Esq., of Charlton Kings. We 

 may consider ourselves very fortunate indeed in having one so 

 intimately acquainted with fossils from the Jurassic beds living so 

 close to us and able to assist us, and any one who looks at the 

 fossils arranged by him will see in a moment what a work he has 

 done. We must also be deeply grateful to the Council for having 

 assisted us with a grant towards this arrangement. The Cambrian 

 and Silurian fossils are also being arranged and the rest of the 

 fossils will be dealt with in turn. A very good collection of 

 fossils from the Derbyshire Carboniferous Limestone, the Norfolk 

 Forest Bed, and other rocks, has been presented to us by the Rev. 

 E. Montford and this collection will shortly be on view. Besides 

 fossils there is also in this collection a very nearly perfect skeleton 

 of the gigantic extinct New Zealand bird, the Dinornis Elephant- 



