HAMtLTOl^ SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 119 



"local museums" prevailing here, viz.: that such places are in- 

 tended mainly for the display of "old curios" and minerals from 

 places outside the city. 



Mr. Neill, our Chairman, called attention a .short time ago to 

 the overcrowded state of the cases containing local specimens. The 

 object our Section had in view was to collect as far as possible a 

 complete series of the fossils of the district, and when proper ac- 

 commodation was subsequently afforded us, we could re-arrange 

 them in the usual way. -The largest upright case, intended for or- 

 ganic remains, is insufficient to contain our Barton and Niagaras 

 alone. The long case at the top of the room held what geologists 

 from the States considered a ver)^ good collection of Clinton fossils, 

 which are impossible now to obtain here. From want of the neces- 

 sary accommodation we were obliged, as a temporary measure, to 

 place in this case also a considerable number of Hudson River and 

 Trenton organic remains, partitioned off from Utica shale speci- 

 mens, Medinas, etc. The contents of this case I am unable to col- 

 lect. Scattered specimens from the Devonian and Dominion palge- 

 ontological cases, the latter received from Ott?iwa — where have 

 these been put ? Mr. A. Gaviller, a lale Curator, at the request of 

 the writer promised to write to relations in England for a small 

 collection of chalk and lias fossils, in order that the Geological Sec- 

 tion could present a few examples in an unbroken series from the 

 Potsdam sandstones to tertiary times. That collection was given 

 conditionally. It was not to be sent to Dundurn, nor, as I sug- 

 gested, to Toronto either, in case the Association failed to keep 

 open the City Museum. I am not aware if he imposed conditions 

 on other things he presented to our Association. 



It has been truly remarked by a well-known Smithsonian pro- 

 fessor that a Museum which admits of no expansion and is unable 

 to find a place for future contributions is to all intents a dead one. 

 The new upright cases are insufficient. The upper shelve speci- 

 mens cannot be well seen. Neither can the ones contained in the 

 lower one to advantage. They take up less room, are less liable 

 to injury, exclude dust better than the cases they supplanted, but 

 for displaying tHe contents to advantage I must admit a preference 



