REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF MESOZOIC FOSSILS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



By C. A. White, Honorary Curator. 



The honorary curator, and both of his assistants, Mr. T. W. Stanton 

 and Mr. O. B. Boyle, being officially connected with the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, it has not been practicable to devote more than a small part of 

 the past year to work directly pertaining* to the Museum. The usual 

 routine work, however, such as the identification of accessions and re- 

 porting upon the same, has been done as occasion required. Much 

 work has also been done upon collections of fossils brought to the 

 Museum by members of the TJ. S. Geological Survey, which will place 

 that material in an almost immediately available condition when it is 

 officially turned over to the Museum. 



Besides the material collected by the U. S. Geological Survey which 

 has not yet been officially transferred to the Museum, only eight acces- 

 sions were received during the year. These accessions were of compar- 

 atively little value as Museum specimens, but reports upon them were 

 made to the Director of the Museum, and the usual disposition made 

 of the material.' 



The work on the arrangement of the collections has been limited 

 mostly to the exhibition series, which has been properly classified and 

 systematically arranged. The exhibition series has frequently been 

 consulted by students and investigators, and every proper facility has 

 been granted such persons to aid them in their work. 



The official work done by the honorary curator of this department 

 for the U. S. Geological Survey, has been based largely upon the mate- 

 rial in the Museum collections, but no special publications of its results 

 have been made during the past year. Several papers relating to the 

 work of the curator as an officer of the Geological Survey are now 

 nearly ready for the printer. 



No accurate statement can at present be given as to the total number 

 of specimens in the collection, nor of the number in the reserve, exhi- 

 bition, or duplicate series. ISTo entries, were made in the catalogue dur- 

 ing the year, owing to pressure of other work. 



A considerable amount of material, mostly fossils collected by mem- 



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