REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MESOZOIC FOSSILS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



]?y (". A. White, Hovorarji (urafor. 



Sinre tlif whole jKn'soniicl ol' this .deinutinent are members of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, their labors have been primarily devoted to 

 that organization, bnt all the work which has been d<me on the fossil col- 

 h^ctions has been in direct line Avith that of tln^ Museum. IJesidcs this, 

 a considerable amount ot routine work, i^ertaining si)ecially to the 

 Museum, has been accomplished. 



The fossil collecticms of this department are steadily increasing, and 

 have now become very important. They also have been lately rear- 

 ranged ill the cases, with reference to the installation of the exhibition 

 series. They are now in better condition for exauiination and study 

 than they have ever been before. 



Because of the nature of the collections, and of the little time for 

 that purpose at the disposal of the members of this department, it has 

 been iminacticable to satisfactorily divide the specimens into reserve, 

 exhibition, and duplicate series. Some attention, however, has been 

 given to the selection of a series for exhibition, as already indicated, 

 but much stud}" must be given to all the mat(»rial before any further 

 division can be made. 



The entries in the Museum catalogue range from 20203 to 21751, 

 making 1,488 entries, and adding 8,149 s])ecimens to the Museum col- 

 lections during the year. 



It has already been stated that all the work of this department has 

 been ]>erformed by members of the IT. S. (Geological Survey. The 

 resignation of Dr. C. B. Boyle, who for the past seven years has done 

 the greater part of this work, will make it impracticable in the future 

 to bestow so much time upon this work as has been done in the j3ast, 

 unless more assistance is obtained from the Survey. 



In the Bibliography (Section iv) will be found references to three 

 papers published by the curator during the year, the first two of which 

 have reference to Museum material. 



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