10 BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The Collections. 



In all Departments the work of incorporating acquisitions, deter- 

 mining specimens, investigating and describing new species, and where 

 necessary and |)ossible revising the classification of groups, continued 

 to occupy most of the time of the scientific staff. 



The transference of the bulk of the spirit collections to the new 

 Spirit Building left room for a re -arrangement of the collection of 

 fishes in the old Spirit Building. In the Department of Geology 

 much attention and labour were devoted to a reorganisation of storage 

 accommodation with a view to minimizing, as far as possible, the 

 difficulties resulting from the congestion to which reference has already 

 been made. The re -arrangement of the collection of rocks was con- 

 tinued throughout the year in the Mineral Department, and the 

 labelling of economically important minerals in the Exhibition Gallery 

 was revised and improved. 



The Trustees have to acknowledge the generosity of Dr. W. 

 Bushton Parker, whose contribution of £240 made possible the 

 mounting of the huge skeleton of Ele/phas antiquus found at Upnor, 

 near Chatham. 



Advisory and Economic Activities. 



Sir Sidney Harmer continued to act as Vice -Chairman of the Colonial 

 Office Committee responsible for the direction of the " Discovery " 

 Expedition, which left England on 5 October to investigate whaling 

 problems at South Georgia and elsewhere in the Dependencies of the 

 Falkland Islands. Much information on the subject of whaling 

 continued to reach the Museum through the Colonial Office and from 

 other sources. 



Numerous documents were received, mainly through the Colonial 

 Office and the Foreign Office, dealing with questions relating to the 

 protection of the native fauna of various parts of the world and 

 especially of Africa. They indicate that too much destruction of big 

 game is going on in many parts of the world. In Angola there is 

 cause for fearing that the Giant Sable Antelope vaasj become extinct ; 

 and evidence was obtained of a steady reduction in the numbers of 

 elephants in Liberia and Abyssinia. New game reserves were reported 

 to have been estabhshed in the Belgian Congo and the Sudan ; but 

 the difficulty of preventing poaching is everywhere great. One of 

 the reports referred to experiments in the domestication of African 

 elephants in the Belgian Congo, and it was stated that those from the 

 grasslands were much more easily tamed than the forest elephants. 



The Museum was, as usual, consulted by various Government Depart- 

 ments, and especially by the Colonial Office, in regard to problems 

 connected with Natural History. Advice was given to the Admiralty 

 as to measures for deahng with the Cocoa Moth, the larvae of which were 

 doing considerable damage to chocolate manufactured in one of the 

 naval victualling yards. The Government of Bermuda was advised 

 not to entertain a proposal for the importation of owls for the purpose 

 of controlling ra,ts and mice ; and information was given regarding 

 the breeding habits of turtles, in connexion with proposed protective 

 legislation in the Seychelles. 



Mr. C. Tate Regan, F.R.S., v/as President of f he Zoological Section 

 at the Meeting of the British Association at Southampton. Dr. H. 

 A. Baylis, Mr, K. G. Blair, and Mr. J. Ramsbottom took part in cancer 

 research investigations in Italy. Mr. P. R. Lowe continued to serve 



