10 Thirty-sixth A:n t :n"ual Eeport of the 



Museum was presented with the thirty-third report, but this is not yet 

 printed. A catalogue of the land shells of the New York State col- 

 lection, and of the land shells of the United States, in the State Mu- 

 seum, also of the Corbiculidse of the New York State collections, were 

 communicated at the same time, together with other important papers, 

 which still remain in the hands of the State printer. It is already well 

 known to your honorable board (though perhaps not so well known to 

 the general public) that copies of these reports, beyond the usual docu- 

 ment edition, are printed only by special order of the Legislature; and 

 as no resolutions to this effect were passed for the printing of the-'* 

 thirty-second and thirty-third reports, they were, consequently, only 

 published among the legislative documents. The same conditions have 

 prevented the proper publication of the thirty-fourth report. 



In consequence of this state of affairs, the appendices in part, and 

 most of the scientific papers have been withdrawn, and were commu- 

 nicated with the thirty-fifth report. Two papers have been published 

 in full or in abstract, through other channels. The thirty-fifth report 

 is now in the hands of the State printer, and some progress has been 

 made in the work. 



This condition of the printing renders the working of the Museum 

 extremely inconvenient and unsatisfactory; while it is very discour- 

 aging to all connected with the institution to have no printed evidence 

 of work done during several preceding years. Another serious cause 

 of delay and hindrance in every department of the work of the Museum 

 is the unsettled and uncertain tenure by which we hold and occupy 

 our working rooms. With the return of each successive Legislature 

 the permanency of any existing plans or arrangement is threatened, 

 and consequently it is impossible to carry out any systematic disposi- 

 tion of the material preparatory to working, or any final arrangement 

 of that which has been studied and published, and which has become 

 a part of the permanent collection of the Museum. Xot only does this 

 uncertainty hinder the progress of work, but often renders it neces- 

 sary to do over again work which has been done in a temporary or 

 tentative manner. The evil arising from all this is greater than can 

 be expressed, and the final influences must reach beyond the present, 

 for each succeeding year renders it more and more difficult to bring 

 up the unfinished work of the past. It affects not only the actual col- 

 lections, it affects every thing connected with the working of the insti- 

 tution, and modifies every report and its appended scientific papers. 

 It affects in a greater or less degree every one connected with the work. 

 There is a consciousness that the conditions which exist are unfavor- 

 able ; and we cannot avoid the belief that a portion of the intel- 



