11 
of days at the Museum examining with Dr. Hagen the Le 
Conte collection, with special reference to the type specimens 
it contains. 
Dr. Slade has completed the unpacking of the collections of 
Western Fossil Vertebrates. brought together during the past 
years. There isa large amount of excellent material, but the 
bulk which has to be examined and rejected before the material 
suitable for the Museum can be set aside makes this method of 
collection by professional collectors a very expensive one. It 
will be far cheaper, and more for the interest of the Museum, 
to purchase even at a comparatively high price a collection 
which has passed through this stage, and represents only such 
specimens as are considered of value by an experienced palon- 
tologist ; such a collection, for instance, as that brought to- 
gether by a well-known paleontologist, containing the principal 
types of the greater number of our Western formations, repre- 
senting many years of study at home and explorations in the 
field. An accession of this kind would form an invaluable 
addition to our North American fossils, and, if this collection 
cannot be purchased by the friends of the Museum, we must be 
gradually gathering a similar collection. To duplicate this col- 
lection would require at least ten years of active field work and 
an expenditure of over $75,000. But I may hope that some 
friend of the Museum will enable us to secure this important 
scientific material, which ought not to be allowed to pass out 
of the country, but be kept together as representing the active 
work of an indefatigable investigator. 
In the mean while, thanks to the permission granted us by 
Professor Marsh, casts have been taken of the more interesting 
and characteristic of the types described by him. These have 
now been received at the Museum, and will in due time be 
placed on exhibition in their proper place with the Palzonto- 
logical series. Want of means has prevented the Museum from 
securing the important collection of fossils brought together by 
the late Dr. Thomas Wright of Cheltenham. The collection 
was, in accordance with the terms of his will, offered to the 
Museum, and we were very reluctantly compelled to decline 
the offer. 
Mr. J. A. Allen, who for many years has taken charge of our 
collections of Birds and Mammals, has left the Museum, having 
