REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF MOLLUSKS. 



115 



can be made as to any of these details ; certainly not before all arrear- 

 ages are cleared up. 



For the year 1885-'86 the number of entries in the Museum register, 

 being the final culmination of some two years' preparatory work, was 

 18,638, representing between 50,000 and 60,000 individual specimens. 

 A larger number of specimens has been handled during the past year, 

 but owing to a deficiency of clerical assistance not so many of them 

 have reached the final stage of registration. 



The following table shows the state of the register, sundry gaps being 

 due to the allotment of numbers to the Fish Commission for the use of 

 Professor Verrill and his assistants : 



STATE OF REGISTERS. 



Volume. 



From num- 

 ber. 



To number, 

 inclusive. 



Total en- 

 tries. 



XIV 



64, 004 



68, 150 



4,146 



XV* 





XVI 



73, 050 



78, 000 

 82, 950 



77, 876 

 78, 974 

 83, 534 



4,826 

 974 



XVII* 



XVIII 



584 







Total 







10, 530 









* Reserved for Fish Commission, and but partly filled. 



The total number of entries for 1886-'87 is 10,530, equivalent to about 

 32,000 specimens, each lot registered averaging over 3 specimens. 

 Adding this to the total for the preceding year, we get 29,165 entries, 

 while in the twenty years previous to July, 1885, the whole number of 

 entries was only 42,440, or less than one and one-half times as many as 

 have been registered during the last two years. These figures show 

 better than any lengthy explanation how the work has been pressed. 

 It may also be observed that, whereas in former days many specimens 

 were entered merely under the generic name or without auy name, the 

 present entries are nearly all identified and fully administered upon. 



