State Museum of Natural History. 9 



determination of the bryozoans of the Hamilton Group by Mr. Geo. 

 B. Simpson, who has charge of these collections.* 



The work o£ cutting and preparing sections of fossils, and of cut- 

 ting, polishing and shaping specimens for the Museum collections, 

 has been steadily continued during the year, with the exception of 

 some interruption arising from the preparation for, and the arrange- 

 ment of new cases for the reception of collections already mentioned. 

 We have heretofore had no means of placing on exhibition any of these 

 cuttings of fossils ; but in order to give to amateurs and to visitors at 

 the Museum some idea of the nature of this work, a glass case will be 

 placed in one of the window recesses of the first floor, which will give 

 room for the exhibition of about sixty specimens of these translucent 

 sections. 



The Museum now possesses a much larger collection of these sections 

 than any other in the country, audits value in the study of the minute 

 structure of these fossil organisms cannot be overestimated. 



During the past year many boxes belonging to the Museum collec- 

 tions made in former years have been unpacked, the specimens cleaned, 

 ticketed, classified, and incorporated in the general collections. 

 Among these were twenty boxes of Chemung fossils, collected by Mr. 

 Sherwood, in the southern counties of New York and in Tioga county, 

 Pennsylvania. Also two barrels and several boxes of Niagara fossils, 

 sponges, and other fossils from Hamilton, Ontario, in part collected 

 by Mr. Walcott, in 1878; and increased by a valuable donation, in- 

 cluding several species of Dictyostema and other fossils from the late 

 William Waddell, Esq., of Hamilton. The collection made by Dr. J. 

 W. Hall from the limestones of Lake'Ohamplain and from the Tren- 

 ton limestone of Herkimer and Oneida counties, amounting to fifty- 

 six boxes, have also been unpacked and the specimens ticketed and 

 recorded. A large part of these, after selections for the Museum, will 

 serve to render more complete the series of duplicate collections from 

 the lower formations, of which the Museum has heretofore possessed 

 very little material. For the present time the collection has been re- 

 packed in boxes for want of drawers for its systematic arrangement. 



Distribution or Duplicate Collections. 



Collections of fossils from the duplicates of the Museum collections 

 have been furnished to the Skaneateles Library Association, the War- 

 saw Union School, and smaller collections sent to other educational 

 institutions. 



Ten collections, representing in each one hundred and eight species 

 characteristic of the New York formations, have been prepared and 

 are ready for distribution. 



The number of applications for these collections is increasing with 

 each succcessive year, and it is a part of the plan of the Museum to 

 disseminate a knowledge of its labors through these collections, and 

 otherwise as widely as possible among the educators of the State. The 

 frequent call for collections, and for information from all parts of the 



*The descriptions of the bryozoans of the Upper Helderberg and Hamilton Groups, com- 

 municated with the report of 1879, have not yet been printed, and in order to save the 

 priority of work done on these fossils, I communicated an abstract of the paper to the 

 Albany Institute in March, 1881. 



[Sen. Doc. No. 38.] 2 



