532 PROCEEDINGS OF THE KOCH EST EK MEETING 



a fine lime mud. The paper discussed the relation of these features to those 

 formerly described. 



In discussion of the two papers remarks were made by J. M. Clarke, 

 I. C. White, H. M. Ami, B. K. Emerson and the author. 



The next paper was 



PALEONTOLOGICA L COLLECTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF 

 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



BY EDMUND OTIS HOVEY 



[Abstract] 



The geological department of the American Museum of Natural History com- 

 pleted in December, 1901, the publication of the catalogue of the type and figured 

 specimens in its possession, by R. P. Whitfield, assisted by the author of the 

 present note. This work has been under way for several years, and in its pub- 

 lished form makes up a book of more than five hundred pages, forming volume xi 

 of the Bulletin of the Museum. This is one of the oldest departments of the 

 Museum and its chief possession is the great James Hall collection, which it ac- 

 quired in 1875, and which placed it at once in the front rank of American 

 museums containing similar material. This collection will always be the standard 

 reference series for all workers in North American Paleozoic paleontology, since 

 it contains a very large proportion of the specimens described and figured by Pro- 

 fessor Hall in the course of his work on the " Palaeontology of New York " up to 

 the time of its purchase by the American Museum. From time to time the de- 

 partment has received other collections, through exchange and other means, but 

 with the exception of the Holmes collection, they contain few types, aside from 

 such as have been made in the publications of the Museum since their acquisition. 

 Most of the "figured specimens" in the collections of the department are those 

 which were identified, redescribed, illustrated, and published by Professor Hall 

 in the Paleontology of New York, and therefore they have almost the dignity and 

 value of types. 



The paper then mentioned in detail the special features of the various portions 

 of the collection, and concluded by saying the catalog had been issued in four 

 parts : 



Part I, including the Cambrian and Lower Silurian forms, was issued in July, 

 1898. 



Part IT, containing the Upper Silurian specimens, was issued in October, 1899. 



Part III, comprising the Devonian forms, came out in October, 1900. 



Part IV, listing the specimens from the Lower Carboniferous to the Quaternary, 

 inclusive, and the index, preface, and table of contents of the whole volume, 

 bears date of December 27, 1901. 



This work has determined that there are in this department of the Museum at 

 least 6,166 type specimens, representing 2,222 species and 71 varieties, and 2,179 

 figured specimens, not types, representing 499 species and 119 varieties. Three- 

 fourths of this material has come from the Paleozoic systems above the Cambrian. 



The paper will be published in full in the Journal of Geology. 



