10 TWENTY-SEVENTH EEPOET ON THE STATE MUSEUM. 



tions ; but we are deterred from thus placing them, partly for 

 want of room, and also because some doubt has been ex- 

 pressed in regard to the strength of the building to support a 

 greater weight than we now have within its walls. Upon this 

 point I do not wish to express any opinion ; but in view of 

 the large collections ready to be placed in the building, and 

 the necessary constant increase of collections, I think the 

 opinion of a competent architect, or the builder of this struc- 

 ture, should be obtained, in order to proper action in the 

 disposition of our collections. 



On the second floor of the Museum, the collection of New 

 York minerals has been thoroughly cleaned ; the best speci- 

 mens have been selected and arranged ; and the poorer 

 specimens laid aside as duplicates. 



The Brazilian minerals have been cleaned and re-arranged. 

 A greatly increased space has been allotted to a general col- 

 lection of minerals ; and many specimens from the New York 

 duplicate collections, and from the miscellaneous collections of 

 the Museum, have been arranged upon the shelves of the wall- 

 cases on the south and west sides of the room. 



The entire series of shelves in the wall-cases of the second 

 floor have been reconstructed for the better arrangement and 

 display of the minerals, and a portion of the west end has been 

 reserved for the exhibition of ores and other economical pro- 

 ducts of the State. Some progress has already been made in 

 this direction, and 130 specimens, the products of the iron 

 mines of northern New York, arid their associated rocks and 

 minerals, have been placed in this case. 



The Emmons collection of crystals, which had occupied some 

 table cases in the Agricultural Museum, has been transferred 

 to this room ; so that, now, all the mineral collections are 

 associated on the same floor of the Museum. It is to be hoped 

 that this collection may soon become the property of the 

 Museum, and be incorporated in the New York and general 

 collections of minerals. 



The series of British fossils has been revised and re-labeled. 

 Thirty-five British and five continental European species have 

 been added to the collections, and placed in the table cases. 

 The fossils of the Eocene, Paris Basin, those of the cretaceous, 

 from Mount Lebanon. Syria, and the American Mesozoic and 



