8 [Senate 



With the progress of investigation, new species have been dis- 

 covered, existing errors pointed out, and the whole subject thus 

 generally reviewed. Several years have now elapsed, since the 

 State work on this branch was published ; and the Regents have 

 conceived it to be their duty to keep pace with the advancement 

 of knowledge, and to furnish at a cheap rate what may be con- 

 sidered as a necessary appendage to the " Natural History of New- 

 York." The two plates accompanying the memoir have been paid 

 for from the annual appropriation, and 1000 copies of each ob- 

 tained. 



Dr. Charles Martin, of the United States Navy, has been a 

 most liberal donor. The large number of Shells given by him, and 

 obtained from distant localities, comprise many rare and valuable 

 specimens. Thanks are especially due for his remembrance of the 

 public institutions of his native State. 



To the Botanical Collection (at present the most complete in the 

 Cabinet), a few^ specimens have been furnished by Dr. Franklin 

 B. Hough. 



In consequence of the death of Mr.' Marsh, of Massachusetts,. 

 his museum, containing many of those remarkable impressions on 

 stone which are deemed to be the foot-tracks of quadrupeds and 

 birds, was oifered for sale. The Curator was duly authorised to 

 make purchases from these, and also of fossil fishes, to a moderate 

 amount, and which he accomplished, and they are now in the Cabi- 

 net. From the localities in which they were obtained being so near 

 to the State of New- York, it was judged proper to procure them as 

 a complement to what is already considered as an American Geo- 

 logical Museum. 



For probably the most curious single specimen presented, the 

 Regents are indebted to the agency of M. Vattemare. It consists 

 of the rock called micaceous gneiss, perforated by a small shell- 

 fish, Pholas dactylus. The shell remains in the specimen. A more 

 particular description will be found in the appendix. M. Calliaud, 

 a French naturalist, the discoverer, is the donor. 



The additions in the Department of Mineralogy are interesting. 

 At the sale of Mr. Marsh's effects, a large number of the quartz 

 crystals of Herkimer county, and which locality is in a measure 

 exhausted, were secured. From Orange and Ulster counties, two 



