8 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Apr. 



the chief support of the scientific library of the University of 

 Cambridge. 



Should these statements impress your minds as strongly as 

 my own, with the conviction that we now possess collections of 

 such great scientific value and extent that their final arrange- 

 ment cannot fail to contribute largely to the advancement of 

 natural history in all its branches, and that a protracted delay 

 in their systematic arrangement can only be prejudicial to the 

 best interests of our institutions of learning, I am convinced 

 that you will promptly take the necessary means toward com- 

 pleting that part of our building indispensable to a systematic 

 exhibition of our treasures, and so enlarging our income that 

 the work incident to that arrangement may go on without 

 interruption. 



The work done in the Museum during the past year has 

 been chiefly devoted to the arrangement and preservation of 

 the collections obtained by the Thayer Expedition. On their 

 arrival in Cambridge, in 1866, the alcoholic specimens were 

 unpacked and transferred to more appropriate vessels. But 

 they still remained crowded and undivided, and notwithstand- 

 ing the untiring assiduity of Messrs. Lyman, Anthony, Shaler 

 and Alexander Agassiz in repacking them, little more was done 

 than to secure the whole collection against deterioration ; only 

 a small portion was brought into such order that the specimens 

 of the same species were put up together in separate jars and 

 arranged according to their localities. This latter work has 

 been mainly continued by Messrs. C. Cooke, Bliss, Blake 

 and Lockwood ; while Dr. Stahli has been intrusted with the 

 revision of the Mammalia and Birds. The plan and purpose 

 of the work are explained in the instructions which I gave to 

 Dr. Stahli respecting it, and which are appended to this Report. 

 As, with some modifications adapted to the treatment of the 

 different classes, these regulations apply to all the work of this 

 kind in the various departments, I have suppressed the special 

 details to avoid repetition, submitting besides only the report 

 of Mr. Anthony, on Conchology, and that of Mr. Leo Lesque- 

 reux, on the Fossil Plants. I consider the co operation of Mr. 

 Lesquereux in the work of the Museum, as an unexpected good 

 fortune for our institution. 



