2l6 DAVENPORT ACABKMV OT NATURAL SCIENCES. 



dition to this the remaining iiortion of the east wall of the library-room 



could be fitted up with shelving, affording one hundred feet more of 



space, all of which will soon be needed. 



Respectfully submitted. , t:- c ;- •/ 



*^ ■' Julia E. Sanders, Librarian. 



REPORT OF CURATOR. 

 To THE President and Members of the Academy: 



The additions to the museum during the past year have been some- 

 what less than usual, on account of want of means for exploration. 



Captain Hall has added one lot of some fifty vessels of ancient pot- 

 tery, five skulls from the mounds, and some other relics from Arkansas 

 and Tennessee, "which were collected in 1881. In addition to this, we 

 received from him in March and June two shipments of the i)ottery, 

 about two hundred articles in all, many of which were badly broken, 

 but have been restored as far as practicable. With these were also a 

 few stone implements and other relics. These he desired should be 

 arranged in a case to stand in his own name, as the explorer and col- 

 lector. Another shipment of five boxes from Captain Hall is now on 

 the way. 



Since the decease of Mrs. J. True-Miner, the remainder of the col- 

 lection of the late D. S. True, Esq., has also been turned over to the 

 Academy, filling entirely the cabinet case provided by her for the pur- 

 pose, and forming a very fine addition to our mineralogical collections. 



Two curved-base mound-builders' pipes, animal forms, have been 

 added to the collection during the year by Mr. Gass — one taken by 

 him from a mound near Muscatine, and the other purchased from the 

 person who found it in a mound in the same vicinity. He has now 

 also secured five more good specimens, and expects very soon to ob- 

 tain possession of several others which have been found by his brother 

 and some neighbors; which will bring the collection up to about fifty 

 specimens. He also obtained, by exchange of mineralogical speci- 

 mens from the Academy, five very interesting prehistoric relics which 

 came from an ancient burial-place near Paducah, Kentucky. 



In each of the other departments of the museum some valuable . 

 additions have also been made, which I will not now enumerate. 



No new cases have been added, though all we have are rather 

 crowded; but the whole has been partially rearranged and the speci- 

 mens labeled and explanatory cards placed in the cases, as far as time 

 would permit. The daily duties as Corresponding Secretary, with the 

 necessary attention to visitors and the many incidental interruptions 

 frequently occurring, have occupied a considerable portion of the time 

 of the Curator; otherwise something more might perhaj^s have been 

 accomplished in the museum work. 



As soon as i)racticable, it is very desirable that casts should be made 

 of several of the most important relics, and especially of the inscribed 

 tablets. These will wholly or in part pay their cost by sales, and will 

 be valuable for exchange. A not very expensive api^aratus for cutting 



