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REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



ing important data bearing upon tbe distribution of the species. One 

 hundred and three packages, containing 48 species of Crustacea, col- 

 lected mainly during the southern cruises of the Albatross, have been 

 returned by Prof. S. I. Smith, of Yale College, to whom they had been 

 sent for study. 



To the Navy Department the Museum is indebted for a large series 

 of specimens of deep-sea soundings obtained by the U. S. steamer En 

 tcrprise, Commander A. S. Barker, U. S. Navy, commanding, during a 

 voyage from Wellington, New Zealand, to the United States, through 

 the South Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. From Dr. T. H. Streets, U. S. 

 Navy, of the Coast Survey steamer Carlisle Patterson, there baa been 

 received a fine alcoholic collection of echinoderms, crustaceans, and 

 other groups of marine invertebrates, collected mainly in southern 

 Alaska ; and Dr. W. H. Jones, U. S. Navy, has also contributed a small 

 collection of the same character from Iquique, Peru. 



The collection made by Capt. M. A. Healy, of the U. S. revenue 

 steamer Corwin, during the summer cruise of 1885 in the Arctic Ocean, 

 Bering Sea, and elsewhere on the coast of Alaska, adds many interest- 

 ing specimens from an important region, which is also further repre- 

 sented by a large series of small crustacean forms from Bering Island, 

 Siberia, donated by Mr. N. Grebnitska, through Mr. Leonhard Stej- 

 neger of the National Museum. Mr. James G. Swan, of Port Town- 

 send, Wash., has sent a fine assortment of dried hydroids, corallines, 

 and barnacles from Cape Flattery, and the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology has added three rare species of crayfishes to our already large 

 and carefully prepared collection of that group. These species are as 

 follows: Astacus pallipes Lereb., from Switzerland; Cambarus cubensis 

 Erich., from Cuba; and Cambarus Putnami Fax., from Kentucky. 



One of the most important additions to the department has been ob- 

 tained from the Eev. A. M. Norman, of England, in exchange. It con- 

 sists of 268 microscopic mountings of the spicules and sections of British 

 sponges contained in the collection of Mr. Norman. The number of 

 species represented is 189. Mr. Norman states that the mountings were 

 made exclusively from specimens determined by the late Dr. Bower- 

 bank, and in many instances they are from the type, which is very 

 often unique. This collection will prove invaluable to any student who 

 may undertake the study of the American species of sponges. 



On June 18, 1885, the curator and his assistants went to Wood's Holl, 

 Mass., to take part in the sea-coast explorations of the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission, which were continued until about October 10, 1886. During 

 this time work on the collections in Washington was entirely suspended, 

 but many fine preparations of marine animals were made for the ex- 

 hibition cases of the Museum and for the study series. After leaving 

 Wood's Holl, in October, the curator visited the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., for the purpose of identifying certain species 

 of sea-urchins which could not be determined otherwise, and the col- 



