12 Thikty-sixth Annual Report of the 



erals, under the charge of Dr. J. W. Hall, the work has been continued 

 as heretofore ; except that the general duties of the Museum (in the 

 absence of an assistant in the Zoological Department, and the work 

 heretofore performed by the taxidermist) have fallen upon the assistant 

 who has charge of this department. 



In addition to the above large translucent sections of rocks and 

 fossils, nearly 300 sections of shells of Brachiopoda have been pre- 

 pared by Mr. Beecher by hand for microscopic study. These sec- 

 tions, many of them minute, are mounted on glass slides of the 

 standard size, and each one labeled with the generic and specific 

 name. The study of the minute structure of the shells of bra- 

 chiopoda is of much importance in determining the generic rela- 

 tions of this class of fossils, and has heretofore been too much neg- 

 lected, from the difficulty of obtaining satisfactory specimens. This 

 work was commenced by me several years since, in connection with 

 the revision of the genera of the Brachiopoda, of which about thirty 

 plates have already been prepared as a part of the palseontological 

 work of the State. 



The present collection has already furnished some important facts 

 in regard to the classification of the Orthidae and Strophomenidae, 

 and I propose to examine in this manner the shells of all the genera 

 of Brachiopoda, which are known in the Palaeozoic formations of New 

 York. 



Among the miscellaneous work of the Museum during the past year, 

 a small geological map of New York (drawn with pen and the area of 

 the formations indicated by different modes of lining) has been pre- 

 pared to accompany the article on the Histoiy of the G-eological 

 Survey of New York, to be published in the " Civil Service of the 

 State of New York." We have also prepared a large colored map, 

 preparatory to the publication of a geological map of the State, 

 embodying the results of geological investigation since 1844, which is 

 the date of the last published geological map of the State. 



During the past summer a single paper of fifty-nine pages, on the 

 fossil corals of the Niagara and Upper Helderberg groups, has been 

 published in advance of the Thirty-fifth Report of the State Museum. 



Collections in the Field. 



Almost the only geological collections made in the field during the 

 past' year were from the Oriskany sandstone in the vicinity of Knox, 

 in Albany county, and from the Mohawk valley. The latter were 

 from the fresh exposures along the outcrops made by the excavations 

 on the line of the West Shore railroad. These collections represent 



