6 TWENTY-SEVENTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM. 



the Agricultural Hall for that purpose. This room, however, 

 is frequently needed by the Agricultural Society, or for other 

 public uses, and we can only occupy it subject to removal on 

 notice. This is attended with many inconveniences, and pre- 

 vents systematic working, as we must always be prepared for 

 removal of material and every thing connected with the work. 

 I beg, therefore, to repeat, what I have often said before, 

 that the want of proper working rooms is a serious embarrass- 

 ment in the general and special work of the Museum ; and is 

 really the cause of great hindrance, or the absolute pre- 

 vention of work that ought to be done. I must, therefore, 

 earnestly call your attention to this deficiency. 



A list in detail of the additions and their source, in each 

 one of the departments of the Museum, will be found appended 

 to this report. 



Additions to the Museum by Donation. 



To the Zoological Department, donations are recorded from 

 eighteen individuals and institutions, of above 1,200 speci- 

 mens. 



To the Botanical Department, donations have been received 

 from thirty persons. 



To the Greological, Palseontological and Mineralogical De- 

 partment, eighteen persons have made donations. 



To the Archaeological and Ethnological Department, we 

 have donations from four persons. 



To the Library, seventeen individuals and societies have 

 made donations, and two contributions have been received in 

 exchange ; adding to the library forty-one pamphlets and 

 twenty-one bound volumes. 



The whole number of contributors to the several depart- 

 ments during the year, as above given, is eighty-seven. 



To the liberality of Hon. Thomas W. Olcott, the Museum is 

 indebted for the jaw, several vertebrae, ribs, and other bones 



of a whale {Balcenoptera f) These bones were discovered 



many years since at Balize, below New Orleans, and purchased 

 by a gentleman then residing in Albany, in the belief that they 

 were fossil. During the last summer, the owner being about 

 to remove them from Albany, where they had long remained 

 in the Museum of the Medical College, they were purchased 



