BEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1911. 41 



marine invertebrates, in addition to the mollusks already referred to, 

 which were sent subject to the same conditions. 



The collections and laboratories of the division were moved to the 

 new building during the first half of the year ; and by the close of the 

 year the alcoholic material, filling several thousand jars and bottles, 

 had been mostly arranged. In the alcoholic storage room the stacks 

 were lettered and the shelves numbered; the family names were 

 pasted on the edges of the shelves, and large labels to be fastened at 

 the end of each stack and briefly indicating its contents were in 

 course of preparation. While the transfer was in progress care was 

 taken to see that all receptacles were properly filled with alcohol, 

 and it is hoped that the low temperature in the new quarters will 

 prevent the rapid evaporation which has been a serious menace to 

 the collection in the overheated Smithsonian basement. The dried 

 collection placed in the laboratories on the ground floor has been 

 systematically installed, but of the material assigned to the attic 

 storage only the samples of ocean bottom had been put in final order. 



To assist in the arrangement of the reserve collection a scheme of 

 classification was adopted and a tabulated list was made of the 

 orders, families, and genera of each phylum. This list, typewritten 

 and bound, forms a systematic index to the collection, and also indi- 

 cates the desiderata, asterisks marking those families and genera not 

 represented. The variety and extent of the collection is shown by 

 the number of families so far arranged., namely 560, and this will 

 be considerably increased when the Protozoa and Trochelminthes, 

 in the form of microscopic mounts, have been added. Many hun- 

 dreds of cards were written and the catalogues of alcoholic sponges, 

 medusas, hydroids, and crustaceans were completed to date. 



On account of the amount of routine work attendant upon the mov- 

 ing of the collections, Miss M. J. Rathbun, assistant curator, was 

 unable to carry on other investigations than were necessary for the 

 identification of the decapod crustaceans received during the year. 

 Mr. Austin H. Clark, assistant curator, completed his reports on the 

 crinoids in the Paris Museum, the Leyden Museum, and the Indian 

 Museum., and on those collected by the steamer Investigator. He 

 submitted a preliminary paper on the crinoids obtained by the 

 steamer Albatross during the Philippine cruise, and finished the first 

 part of his monograph of the recent crinoids, comprising the his- 

 torical introduction and the discussion of the skeletal system. He 

 also began work on the crinoids of the Hamburg West Australian, 

 the Siboga, and the Ingolf expeditions. During the summer of 

 1910 Mr. Clark spent several months in Europe, having been de- 

 tailed to enable him, among other things, to study the collections of 

 crinoids and the methods of exhibiting and storing specimens in the 

 principal museums. Eighteen cities containing important museums 



