Report of the Director. 9 



have become a necessity in the Museum organization. A large amount of work 

 has been done in cutting and preparing transparent sections of corals, stromato- 

 pora, sponges, etc. Between three and four hundred specimens have been pre- 

 pared. About one hundred and fifty specimens of corals, orthoceratites and 

 other fossils have been ground and polished, to show the internal structure. So 

 long as the fossils of the Museum are being studied and illustrated, this 

 machinery will be of constant and important use. 



In addition to the work of cutting and preparing sections of fossils, the 

 machinery has been applied to the cutting of recent shells, and more than one 

 hundred specimens have been prepared, giving a most instructive exhibition of 

 the internal structure. Preparations of this kind are of the greatest interest 

 and importance in the study of the characters of recent shells, especially of the 

 Gasteropoda, and this collection cannot fail to be appreciated by every student 

 of natural history who visits the State Museum. This department is under the 

 management of Dr. J. W. Hall. 



The extensive collections made during 1877, and already communicated in a 

 previous report, have been partially examined, and selections made as far as 

 practicable, and as far as we have drawers for their reception. The large col- 

 lection of Niagara fossils from Waldron, made in that year, has been unpacked 

 and cleaned, the species separated, and a large part of them ticketed. The 

 Bryozoa of this collection have been carefully studied, in connection with those 

 of the Lower Helderberg group, by Mr. Gr. B. Simpson. Mr. C. E. Beecher 

 has also spent a much longer time upon the Waldron collection in the 

 careful study and separation of the species of all the other classes, and the 

 selection of a large series for the State Museum collections. 



Although these collections are now arranged in drawers, it will be necessary 

 to repack a considerable portion for want of proper accommodations. In the 

 meantime many new species have been selected and determined, which will be 

 illustrated and described in future reports of the Museum. 



The large collections from the Lower Helderberg limestone have furnished 

 many new species, which will be included in the plates now being lithographed 

 for the Palaeontology of the State. 



In conclusion, I beg leave to say, that the field collections in Geology and 

 Palaeontology, and the work done upon them in preparing specimens for the 

 Museum and for study, is in every way satisfactory, and more than equals my 

 expectations. I would therefore most earnestly, and respectfully, urge upon the 

 Board of Regents the desirableness and importance of continuing the same sys- 

 tem of work, and in the same hands, for the ensuing year. 



I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



JAMES HALL, 

 Director of the /State Museum. 



