286 REPORT ON MUSEUM WORK 



It has been suggested to us that we should make and 

 supply casts of certain of our unique local fossils, and we 

 have tried some experiments in that direction, but the 

 difficulties to be overcome are great. The fossils, especially 

 the amphibian skulls in Coal Measure shale, are far too 

 fragile for ordinary methods. We have not yet found a 

 means of taking moulds that we can safely employ on the 

 most valuable specimens, most of which have been extensively 

 broken and mended in cleaning them from the matrix ; though 

 where the fossils are sound enough we can reproduce them 

 very perfectly. 



We are gradually getting on with the work we have had in 

 hand for some time on the insects. The beetles are the 

 section we have chiefly been engaged upon, and we are work- 

 ing at two different sets of beetles, the general set for public 

 exhibition and the large British reference collection. The set 

 for exhibition is nearing completion. Its preparation has 

 involved a great deal of detailed work — selecting the speci- 

 mens, getting them named and labelled, relaxed, set and 

 classified ; and we are anxious to get it finished in order to 

 start upon the butterflies and moths. The reference collection 

 of British beetles, which we are forming by combining the fine 

 private collections of Mr. John Gardner, Mr. R. S. Bagnall and 

 the late T. J. Bold, is gradually taking shape. But it is an 

 enormous undertaking, and it is only by working at it in the 

 evenings that we have been able so far to make any progress 

 with it at all. For the exhibition series of butterflies we now 

 have a large amount of material in hand. Our stock was 

 weakest in South American species, and much has been done 

 to remedy that defect by the purchase of the late Capt. D. H. 

 Nash's collection, in which the South American lepidoptera 

 are well represented. One special set of lepidoptera is already 

 on view in the new insect cases. It is a collection of the wild 

 silk-moths of the world which we obtained by exchange with 

 Mr. J. H. Watson, of Manchester, and includes not only the 

 wild species whose silk is already in use, such as the Shantung, 

 Tussore and Eria silk-moths, but also many others which 



