26o DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



LIBRARIAN S REPORT. 



The number of books and pamphlets received since the last annual 

 statement is : foreign publications, 467 ; domestic, 935 ; total, 1,402. 

 Thenumber of books and pamphlets, bound and unbound, now in the 

 library is 32,855. These accumulations come to us chiefly in exchange 

 for our own Proceedings, which we are sending to scientific societies 

 in all civilized countries, and indicates in a substantial way an appre- 

 ciation of the efforts of this Academy which must be encouraging to 

 every member. 



Additional shelving has been provided and a rearrangement and 

 better classification (made necessary by the growth of the library) has 

 been undertaken and prosecuted as the limited time of your Librarian 

 permitted. This work, to which several members have lent much aid, 

 is well begun. 



As heretofore, a crying need in this department is binding. The 

 small appropriation for the purpose granted early in the year has not 

 been used because, by reason of limited funds, more imperative wants 

 of the Academy have with much difficulty been met. 



The considerable effort which has been given to the beginning of a 

 Library Index has plainly proven that it is practically impossible to 

 accomplish this important work by voluntary labor. It therefore 

 remains, doubtless, the most urgent business of the incoming adminis- 

 tration to provide means and cause the work to be done by a compe- 

 tent person under the direction of my successor. 



C. E. Harrison, Librarian. 



curator's REPORT. 



The year has brought to the Academy museum substantial and varied 

 additions. The first donation of the year was received from Mrs. Dr. 

 C. C. Parry. It was a large, carefully wrought blanket made by 

 the Pino Indians, and had a market value of one hundred dollars. In 

 February T. Richter & Sons presented a wonderfully well preserved 

 skin of the white skunk, obtained through the agency of the Musquakie 

 Indians located near Cedar Rapids. In their dealings with the Com- 

 pany for twenty years nothing of the kind has been met with. Its rar- 

 ity was further vcniched for by the Indians, who pronounced it the only 

 specimen they had ever obtained. In March the Historical Depart- 

 ment was favored through Mr. Augustus F. Mast with the copies 

 of his appointment to the postmastership of Davenport for the years 

 1856 and i860 — the one signed by President Buchanan, the other by 

 President Pierce — both under glass and substantially framed. 



In March was received from Mr. Clarence B. Moore of Philadelphia 

 the core of a conch shell from the shell beds of Florida, with an inter- 

 esting letter as to its finding and probable use. 



In May Mr. C. A. Ficke presented to the Academy an Egyptian 

 mummy obtained from the Boulak Museum of Cairo. Of the genu- 



