1869.] | SENATE—No. 60. 39 
in the arrangement of which no small progress has been already 
made, such as the Voluta, Pyrula, Fusus, Murex, and the like, 
are very well represented in the Museum collections. 
But the study of these fossil remains has also revealed defi- 
ciencies in various directions. Some groups, as we might 
naturally expect, are much less richly represented than others. 
So there are localities famous for their Tertiary fossils, of which 
the Museum has only a meagre supply of specimens. These 
and other like defects, as it is hoped, will constantly become 
less as time advances. In connection with this point, it may 
be proper for me to say that there have been lately received in 
this department about 300 specimens, comprising some twenty 
species, from Mr. J. G. Anthony’s collection. While making a 
vacation gathering of Paleozoic fossils last summer, I was able 
to add about 200 specimens of fossil seeds and fruits, from the 
Pleiocene beds of Brandon, Vt.; likewise, upward of 900 speci- 
mens, consisting of about a dozen species, from the Pleistocene 
formations of western Vermont and of Montreal. During the 
past year nothing has been done in the way of making 
exchanges of Tertiary fossils, it being the aim, first of all, to get 
the Museum collections into a well organized condition. And I 
am happy in being able to say, that this work is now so far 
advanced, as to render it proper to turn attention in this direc- 
tion. Indeed, the reference to existing deficiencies was made 
in the hope that it will lead to a system of active and more 
extensive exchanges, which must prove at once TRG EBE to 
others, and beneficial to the institution. 
This reference to exchanges suggests an additional point, 
which may receive a moment’s notice. In making up the three 
Museum collections, a considerable amount of unemployed 
material is in process of gradual elimination, which may here- 
after serve for purposes of study and illustration, of donation 
and exchange. This unused material naturally divides itself 
into two parts. The first portion consists of such specimens as 
have been mixed, either accidentally or in process of moving — 
in fact, of all those specimens which are eliminated because of 
some doubt which may be entertained, either as regards their 
locality, their geologic horizon, or any other point impairing 
their scientific worth. Specimens of this kind, though their 
value in one direction be diminished, are still of great use; and 
