CATALOGUE. 



The collection of the Albany Institute was received at the State 

 Museum in the month of August, and formally donated to the 

 institution on the 6th of October, 1891.* When the fossils came 

 into my hands I found them in bad condition. Such labels as 

 existed had been gathered into piles and boxes by themselves, 

 with the exception of the few instances in which they had been 

 glued to the specimens. The majority of the specimens, however, 

 bore a numeral ticket, which had been copied upon the separated 

 labels, and by means of this arrangement the matching of the few 

 labels with their specimens was not difficult. Fortunately, these 

 labeled specimens constitute the most important part of the col- 

 lection ; they are mostly Trilobites, and embrace a number of the 

 original types used by Dr. Jacob Green in his " Monograph of 

 Trilobites of North America," with much other interesting 

 material of the same class, and in addition are several type- 

 specimens of Cephalopods from the Black River limestone, 

 described by yourself in volume I of the Palaeontology of New 

 York. 



Of this series of labeled specimens a few are evidently missing, 

 but perhaps not as many as, under the circumstances, one might 

 expect. It appears from the labels on the rest of the collec- 

 tion that the specimens were divided into groups, each with 

 its own form of numerical ticket. It is understood that there was 

 a manuscript register or catalogue of these specimens, but it was 

 not found among the documents pertaining to the collection nor 

 delivered with it, and subsequent careful search among the 

 archives of the Institute has failed to discover it. The want of 

 this catalogue has naturally added greatly to the task of identify- 

 ing the specimens. On account of the historical value of this col- 

 lection I have taken much pains to locate such material as proves 



*The extensive collection of minerals donated to the State Museum at the same time, together 

 with other collections of natural history, have not come under the cognizance or control of 

 the State Geologist, and no account of them can be given in this connection. 



