32 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Feb. 
old Harvard collection, and the large gatherings made by indi- 
viduals, in some cases during a lifetime of paleontological 
activity. Among these may be mentioned the extensive collec- 
tions of Professor Agassiz, which having been for many years in 
process of accumulation, were presented in 1851; those of Pro- 
fessor Bronn, of Duval, and of Boucault, which were purchased 
in 1859; and the entire gatherings of De Koninck, and portions 
of those made by Carl Meyer, Hichwald, Hornes, Michelotti, 
Bellardi, Appelius, Rigacci, Rouault, Tarbé, Krantz, Lyell, and 
many others, which were secured by purchase, exchange, or 
donation. 
These various assemblages of Tertiary organic remains had 
’ been unpacked and placed in drawers previously to my connec- 
tion with them. Considerable work had been also expended at 
an early day on the Plants, on the Radiates, on the Brachiopods, 
and the Cephalopoda. Of the remainder, the larger part was 
deposited in a single room, while a portion, by no means small, 
was scattered through the building. They were all safely stored, 
though all were not in equally good condition. Of these speci- 
mens, some were undistributed; others were placed together, 
apparently at hap-hazard, and certainly without system; while 
there were still others which had been partially arranged ; that 
is, they were arranged so far as they could be said to have any 
arrangement, according to five or six different methods. In 
given instances, specimens in greater or less number had been 
disposed in small groups. These groups, however, were never 
found complete; they occurred, for the most part, in isolated 
conditions, there often being twenty, thirty, or even forty sepa- 
rate and different parcels, more or less alike, scattered through 
the various collections. In other instances, specimens had been 
thrown together, to some extent, according to countries, colloca- 
tion being the main thought apparent, and this never carried 
out with rigorous exactness. In yet other instances, an effort 
to group the specimens was evident, a series of drawers being 
found to hold fossils from many different regions, a single 
drawer containing sometimes two or three groups, usually six 
or eight, often a dozen or twenty, and occasionally species from 
almost every branch in the animal kingdom. 
Again, the specimens having come from a great number of 
collectors, of course bore the names given by various different 
