ANNt/AL REPORT. 1U 



presented to the Society by Sir 11. I. Murchison, M. Boucher de 

 Perthes, Mr. Horner, Mr. Heaphy, Dr. Atherstone, and others ; hut 

 your Committee are obliged to state that, though some of these have 

 been placed in drawers, the majority are not yet definitely arranged, for 

 want of room, — thereby adding to the chfficulty and confusion pre- 

 viously existing from the same cause, rather than tending to promote 

 the interests of geological science. 



Some little additional space for cabinets might be found in the Upper 

 Museum ; but your Special Committee, reappointed immediately after 

 the last Anniversary Meeting, appearwisely to have considered that any 

 remedy short of a careful re-examination of the entire Museum, and 

 a re-arrangement of its contents, on some fixed principles, would only 

 be a palliation, not a cure, of the evil so long complained of. It is, 

 then, to this work of revision that your Special Committee appear to 

 have given their uninterrupted attention during the past year ; and 

 it is evident that the same attention will be required to be given to 

 it for a long time to come. 



Some very important steps have been already successfully made 

 towards the attainment of the preceding object, — namely, 1st. The 

 collection of Recent Shells has been arranged and catalogued by 

 Mr. Woodward, and, being placed in the Library, is most convenient 

 for study or reference. 2nd. A Typical Collection of llocks has been 

 completed. The formation of this collection has been materially 

 assisted by the discovery in the Museum of a systematic collection of 

 271 specimens of rocks, formed at Freyberg, fifty years ago, illus- 

 trating the nomenclative of the school of "Werner. A catalogue of 

 the whole with illustrative notes has also been prepared; and your 

 Committee cannot but hope that this collection will materially tend 

 to promote a greater amount of precision in the description of rock- 

 masses, and thus bring into correlation, not merelj* the palaeontolo- 

 gical, but aLso the physical and lithological condition of different 

 portions of the Earth. 3rd. The Collection of simple Minerals is 

 now in order ; and, the place of each mineral in the cabinet being 

 noted in the Library-copy of Phillips' ' Mineralogy ' (the collection 

 having hern arranged according to that system ). reference is no 

 longer attended with any difficulty, and the collection has become 

 practically osefdl. 



The residt of the laborious examination of the Rock-specimens, 

 effected by one of the members of the Special Committee, has de- 

 monstrated the ohvions advantage of a similar revision of the fossil 

 specimens. It is manifest that a satisfactory arrangement of these 

 specimens cannot be accomplished so long as there is any uncertainty 

 as to the amount of space di>posahle lor their accommodation ; and, 

 therefore, it is recommended that an additional cabinet should be 

 placed at the disposition of the Committee. 



It appears that much voluntary aid has already been afforded 

 towards the re-azrangemenl of tin- collections of fossils : the Etev. 

 T. Wiltshire having undertaken, and made considerable proj 

 in, the examination of the chalk Fossils; Mr. Salter in that of the 

 Palaeozoic Fossils, up to the Devonian (of which the Upper Silurian 



,/ 2 



