Report of the President 31 



Frick, Mr. George Temple Bowdoin and Mr. Lincoln Ells- 

 worth. 



Instituted by the New York Academy of Sciences three years 



ago, under a plan formulated by Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton, 



Director of the New York Botanical Garden, is 



Antillean ^he biological survey of Porto Rico conducted by 

 Exploration . ,. & _ . ^ , , * ■ ™ 



specialists from the Garden, the American Mu- 

 seum and Columbia University, in botany, geology, anthropol- 

 ogy and terrestrial and marine zoology. With the aid of the 

 Government of Porto Rico, this complete natural history sur- 

 vey of one of the most important island possessions of the 

 United States promises to be of great civilizing and economic 

 as well as scientific value. Under Curator Crampton this sur- 

 vey has been extended to the neighboring Antillean islands, 

 with a view to throwing light upon the whole Antillean prob- 

 lem, namely, of the geologic antiquity of these islands and of 

 their former relations with Central and South America. Al- 

 ready important discoveries have been made in vertebrate pa- 

 laeontology, through work upon the fossils of the Porto Rican 

 caves, which have thrown new light on the migrations from 

 South America. 



Attention may be directed not only to the general matters 



herein described by the President, but to the full 



Departmental an( j important reports of the Director and of the 



Curators of the various scientific and educational 



departments. 



Although special mention cannot be made this year of each 

 of the scientific departments, attention is called to the entire 

 rearrangement of the geological hall, under Assistant Curator 

 Reeds (page 58) ; to the completion of the rearrangement of 

 the Hall of Shells, under Curator Gratacap (page 66) ; to the 

 important work in the Department of Insects, under Associate 

 Curator Lutz (page 68) ; to the wide distribution of the bac- 

 teriological collections throughout the United States, under 

 Curator Winslow (page 91), and finally to the progress of 

 research in the Department of Fishes, under Curator Bashford 

 Dean (page 70)" 



