REPORT OF THE STATE PALEONTOLOGIST 1900 21 



insufficient representation of the characteristic fossils of the 

 fcrmations, have been repaired by the addition of material taken 

 from the State hall and to some degree by the removal of in- 

 ferior specimens from Geological hall. It is howeyer hopeless 

 to attempt to display this collection in such manner as to make 

 a satisfactory exhibit of the paleontologic wealth of the museum, 

 and it is consequently a somewhat perfunctory task to attempt 

 to improve on the character of the fossils contained in it. So 

 long as the collection remains in the old building which has 

 housed it so long it can never be made to appear to good ad- 

 vantage, nor can it be anything other than a most insufficient 

 presentation of the fossil wealth of the state. 



Type specimens in Greological hall. In 1882, when quarters in 

 the State hall were taken possession of by the state museum, the 

 director. Prof. Hall, was ordered by a vote of the regents to re- 

 move from Geological hall so far as practicable all of the type 

 specimens of fossils, for their safekeeping in a fireproof building, 

 the regents then recognizing the great risk from destruction by 

 fire to vv^hich these important collections were exposed. A very 

 large part of this typical material was consequently brought to 

 the State hall, but there still remains in Geological hall a con- 

 siderable number of type specimens in the synoptic collection. 

 I think it good policy to gradually remove these important fossils 

 from Geological hall to the safekeeping of the State hall, replac- 

 ing them as our material will permit with good but not unique 

 specimens. 



Collections of Lower Siluric fossils from Lake Champlain. The 

 considerable collections made during the previous season in the 

 vicinity of \^alcour on Lake Champlain by Messrs Van Ingen 

 and Ruedemann have been placed in the hands of Mr Van Ingen 

 for study and report and are now in the custodianship of the 

 professor of geology at Columbia university. These have been 

 unpacked and placed in drawers distinctly separated from the 

 geologic collections of that institution, carefully marked as to 

 their ownership and returnable to us on demand. Mr Van 

 Ingen, a member of the department of geology, Columbia univer- 



