REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



Albany, January 2, 1885. 



To the Honorable the Board of Regents of the University of the State of 

 Neiv York : 



Gentlemen — I beg leave to communicate herewith the annual 

 report upon the State Museum of Natural History, for the year 1884 

 (being the thirty-eighth report in the consecutive order) ; including a 

 statement of the condition of the collections in the several departments, 

 and the additions made thereto, a general account of the work done, and 

 an enumeration of the publications made during the past year. 



Since presenting my last report, the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth and thirty- 

 seventh Museum reports have all been issued, and also the reports of 

 the State Geologist for the years 1882, 1883 and 1884, have all been 

 printed and are ready for delivery. Some of these reports have been a 

 long time awaiting publication, greatly to our disadvantage. 



In order to complete the series of State Museum reports, we now re- 

 quire the reprinting of the thirty-second report, which exists only as 

 a legislative document. As I have heretofore stated, there was no 

 legislative order for the usual number of extra copies of that report, and 

 the same was published without the map and plates' which accompanied 

 the report in its presentation to the Legislature. No copies of this report 

 have ever been in the hands of the Regents, or of the Director, for public 

 distribution, and it is. very important that it should be republished 

 -without delay. 



In the thirty-fifth report I have communicated a statement of the dis- 

 tribution of certain collections of fossils and minerals to colleges, normal 

 schools, high schools and academies up to the date of that report. This 

 statement does not include many smaller collections, of which we 

 have no record. In the same report, I furnished a list of species of 

 fossils used in the illustration of Vol. V, Part II, of the Palaeontology 

 of New York ; to this I shall have occasion to refer more particularly. 

 I also presented a catalogue *)f the Unionidae of the Gould collection, 

 of the New York State collection, and of the general collections of the 

 Museum ; also of the species of land shells of the United States possessed 

 by the Museum. To these was added a list of the species of shells pre- 

 sented to the Museum by the late Dr. James Lewis, of Mohawk, N. Y. 

 These catalogues may be of sufficient interest to have them printed 



