230 REPORT ON INIUSEUM WORK 



CURATOR'S REPORT OxN MUSEUM WORK 

 1907-1908 



The addition of Mr. Fletcher to the museum staff has made 

 itself felt in a decided and gratifying manner in the amount of 

 work accomplished during the year. The course of my own 

 proper museum work is necessarily subject to very frequent 

 interruption and suspension, and it is a great gain that skilled 

 work can now be going steadily forward under almost any 

 circumstances. 



One considerable break in the regular work has, however, 

 occurred during the year, for the preparation of our set of 

 exhibits for the Royal Show took up most of the time of our 

 limited staff for some weeks. But the success of the museum 

 stand seemed to prove that the time had been laid out to good 

 purpose. As the centre-piece of the bay allotted to us, we 

 fitted up a small reproduction in formalin of a local rock-pool, 

 with a set of characteristic inhabitants ; and illuminated from 

 behind it formed a very attractive object. In preparing this 

 rock-pool we experienced considerable difficulty and loss of 

 time through mishaps caused by the expansion of Portland 

 cement; indeed we should have been unable in the end to 

 show the pool at all had not Mr. N. H. Martin very kindly 

 had a special vessel made to encase it. A key-chart was 

 placed below the pool ; we provided non-technical explanatory 

 labels also throughout the whole series of exhibits, and we 

 were pleased to see that these labels were carefully read by 

 many of the visitors. 



It is in the zoology room that the chief progressive work of 

 the year has been done. The overhauling of the desk-cases 

 devoted to the invertebrates is the special work I have put 

 into Mr. Fletcher's hands, and he has made good progress 

 with it. The sets of specimens illustrating the Protozoa, 

 Goelenterates, Echinoderms, Worms and Crustacea have been 

 properly classified and neatly installed ; a number of the ex- 

 planatory labels have still to be put in, and a final arrangement 

 of some of the upright centre-cases is not yet possible, but 



