REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. 



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

 State of Neiv York: 



Gentlemen. — For several years past, the duties of the State 

 Geologist have been almost entirely restricted to the preparation 

 and publication of the volumes upon the Palaeontology of the State, 

 provided for by the law of 1883. This work, which had been for 

 many years conducted in the private buildings of the State Geolo- 

 gist, was interrupted in the spring of 1886 by the necessity for the 

 removal of the accumulated collections of more than thirty years, 

 to a public building. These collections have now been transferred 

 to the State Hall, and the writer was able to occupy the offices 

 prepared for this work only in the latter part of January of the 

 present year, and some weeks longer were required to put our- 

 selves in working order to go on with the printing of the volumes. 



I have already reported the completion of the second volume on 

 the Lamellibranchiata in my communication of last year. 



The printing of volume VI on the Corals and Bryozoa was begun 

 in August 1886, but it became necessary to suspend this part of 

 the work in order to remove the material and collections in use, to 

 the State Hall, causing a delay of several months. 



This volume (YI) consisting of 298 4-xxvi pages, with sixty-seven 

 plates was completed and published in the early part of Septem- 

 ber of this year. 



Owing however, to the restriction in number of pages of text 

 and of plates of illustration, much material, which had been par- 

 tially or entirely prepared for publication was necessarily omitted 

 from the volume. I have appended a memorandum of the nature 

 and amount of this material, and would earnestly recommend that 

 some steps be taken to secure its proper publication as an appen- 

 dix or supplement to the volume already issued. It will be far 

 easier to complete this work at the present time than at any future 



