13 



direction of the Tenth Census Commission. This collection con- 

 tains 1,053 nicely dressed, four-inch cubes of rock, accompanied 

 each by a microscopical section for study. It has also over 200 

 larger blocks of American and foreign building stones and mar- 

 bles, many of them twelve-inch cubes. For the proper exhibition 

 of the Census Commission series it will require certainly not less 

 than 50 linear feet of shelf room for each hundred blocks, or, with 

 maps, charts and other explanatory matter, not less than 600 

 linear feet of shelf. While for the larger blocks there would be 

 required not less than 150 linear feet, equal to 750 feet in all. 

 At the present time there is not available a single foot of case 

 room in this department in which this collection can be exhibited. 



The Census Commission series is packed in twenty-four large 

 rough boxes, stored on the lower hall stairway, and the other blocks 

 are strewn along the stairways through two and a half stories of 

 the building, exposed to dirt and injury, and are rapidly deterior- 

 ating in quality and beauty. If this entire collection were properly 

 cared for and protected, it would make a very interesting, instruc- 

 tive and attractive collection, particularly for the artisan class of 

 our city. 



Conchological Collection. — TheWolfe Collection of Shells. 

 Since the last annual report this collection has been very 

 greatly improved in condition, and at the present time more than 

 three-fourths of that part of it which is on exhibition is neatly 

 arranged systematically, and provided with proper specific labels, 

 so that now it begins to present a very attractive appearance. 

 This collection is now more constantly used for the identification 

 of species by visitors to the Museum than any other collection in 

 the building, from the fact that the shells are not only attractive, 

 but more easily obtainable in New York than any other class of 

 natural objects. Consequently it is desirable that this collection 

 should be as full and complete as possible. Still, for want of 

 space, there will be a large amount of the collection necessarily 

 stored in the drawers in the attic, and inaccessible to the public ; 

 unless, as in the case of the minerals, drawers can be placed beneath 

 the present cases, accessible to students and amateurs wishing to 

 identify species, under the supervision of a Curator. 



Bulletin No. 8, containing two Palaeontological articles, the 

 principal one based upon some new Birdseye limestone fossils 

 from Fort Cassin, Vt., was prepared in this department during the 

 autumn, and published just at the close of the year. The collec- 

 tion upon which it is based was a donation, for that purpose, 

 from parties in Vermont, and forms a very valuable addition to 

 the Palaeontological Collection at a point where it was particularly 

 deficient. This Bulletin ought properly to constitute the end of 

 Vol. I of the Museum publications, and, with the others preced- 

 ing it, be indexed, so that it might be bound into a single vol- 

 ume — the next one issued beginning Vol. II. 



