REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF PALEOZOIC FOSSILS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



By Charles D. Walcott, Honorary Curator. 



During the first seven months of the year Dr. E. E. Gurley was em- 

 ployed in labeling the collections for the exhibition and students' series 

 in the southeast court; in making a special study upon American grapto- 

 lites ; and in looking after the painting of the catalogue numbers, by an 

 assistant, on the specimens being transferred from the laboratory to the 

 court. Dr. Gurley's study of the graptolites has resulted in the identi- 

 fication and labeling of the species in the collection of the Museum, 

 and he has made a valuable contribution to the study of the graptoli- 

 tidse. He resigned his position on the Museum force in March to join 

 the Fish Commission. Since his resignation, however, he has given all 

 his spare time to the completion of a bibliography of the literature re- 

 ferring to the graptolites, and has also continued his general investi- 

 gations upon the group. 



In May Prof. Joseph F. James rearranged and put into shape the 

 fossils from the Cincinnati formation of ( )hio, contained in one of the 

 exhibition cases. Attention was also given to the exhibition series of 

 crustaceans from the Water-lime formation of New York; and the col- 

 lection from the Chazy horizon of New York and Vermont was relabeled 

 and, with much additional material, put on exhibition. 



After returning, in October, from field-work in connection with the 

 Geological Survey, my attention was given to the selection of material 

 for the illustration of the Middle Cambrian fauna and to the study of 

 the literature of the Cambrian rocks of America. These, in connection 

 with the routine work demanding my attention as a member of the Geo- 

 logical Survey and as an honorary curator of the National Museum, so 

 occupied my time as to prevent personal work on the exhibition series. 



The work accomplished will, however, in the future, enable me to 

 add to the value of the collections of the Museum. Several thousand 

 beautiful fossils from the Lower Paleozoic rocks of New York and 

 Vermont were collected under my direction for the Geological Survey. 

 A beautiful series of trilobites from this collection has been placed tem- 

 porarily in the exhibition cases, awaiting their transfer from the Geo- 

 logical Survey to the National Museum, when the study upon them 

 shall have been completed. 



The small amount allotted for the purchase of material for the ex- 

 hibition series was of great assistance, and I respectfully repeat the 

 recommendation urged in my last annual report, that a sum be reserved 



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