CONTRACTS. 



An Act to regulate the State Museum of Natural History and the 

 publication of the Palaeontology of the State. 



The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 

 Assembly, do enact as follows ; 



Section 1. For the purpose of providing sufficient aud fire-proof 

 accommodations for the collections of natural history belonging to the 

 State, the Regents of the University, as trustees of the State Museum 

 of Natural History, are hereby directed, in pursuance of the concur- 

 rent resolution of the Legislature, passed on tha twenty -fourth day of 

 March, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, to occupy, for the purposes 

 of said museum, the several rooms of the State Hall as they may be 

 vacated by their present occupants ; and said trustees are hereby di- 

 rected to fit up and prepare said rooms in a suitable manner, and to 

 remove thither and arrange in order for exhibition, as soon as may be, 

 the collections of said museum ; said trustees shall also make provis- 

 ion for and remove to said State Hall, to be a part of said museum, 

 all the fossils, minerals and other property of the State now in the 

 charge of the State Geologist, in pursuance of the provisions of chap- 

 ter two hundred and seventy of the laws of eighteen hundred and 

 eighty-two; and the sum of twenty thousand dollars, or so much 

 thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated for the expenses 

 of fitting up and removal, as provided in this section, to be paid on 

 vouchers approved by said trustees. 



§ 2. The scientific staff of the museum, to be appointed by said 

 trustees, shall consist of a Director, who may also be State Geologist, 

 and whose compensation shall be the same as now fixed by law, and 

 of three assistants, together with, such special assistants as may be 

 necessary, whose compensation shall be fixed from time to time by 

 said trustees, together with the State Geologist, State Entomologist and 

 Botanist as these officers are now defined and provided for by law ; 

 and all the collections made by the members of said staff during their 

 terms of service shall belong to and form a part of the collections of 

 the museum ; and the trustees of said museum shall be authorized to 

 publish each year the scientific contributions of said staff and such 

 other original scientific contributions as they may deem expedient, 

 which publication shall be in lieu of the reports now required by law 

 from the State Geologist and State Entomologist, and the scientific 

 papers communicated each year to the Legislature along with the an- 

 nual report of said trustees ; and it shall be the duty of said trustees 

 to distribute from the duplicate specimens of the museum to institu- 

 tions of learning such collections as may be available and suitable for 



