11 



of days at the Museum examining with Dr. Hagen the Le 

 Conte collection, with special reference to the type specimens 

 it contains. 



Dr. Slade has completed the unpacking of the collections of 

 Western Fossil Vertebrates brought together during the past 

 years. There is a large amount of excellent material, but the 

 bulk which has to be examined and rejected before the material 

 suitable for the Museum can be set aside makes this method of 

 collection by professional collectors a very expensive one. It 

 will be far cheaper, and more for the interest of the Museum, 

 to purchase even at a comparatively high price a collection 

 which has passed through this stage, and represents only such 

 specimens as are considered of value by an experienced paleon- 

 tologist ; — such a collection, for instance, as that brought to- 

 gether by a well-known palaeontologist, containing the principal 

 types of the greater number of our Western formations, repre- 

 senting many years of study at home and explorations in the 

 field. An accession of this kind would form an invaluable 

 addition to our North American fossils, and, if this collection 

 cannot be purchased by the friends of the Museum, we must be 

 gradually gathering a similar collection. To duplicate this col- 

 lection would require at least ten years of active field work and 

 an expenditure of over $75,000. But I may hope that some 

 friend of the Museum will enable us to secure this important 

 scientific material, which ought not to be allowed to pass out 

 of the country, but be kept together as representing the active 

 work of an indefatigable investigator. 



In the mean while, thanks to the permission granted us by 

 Professor Marsh, casts have been taken of the more interesting 

 and characteristic of the types described by him. These have 

 now been received at the Museum, and will in due time be 

 placed on exhibition in their proper place with the Palaeonto- 

 logical series. Want of means has prevented the Museum from 

 securing the important collection of fossils brought together by 

 the late Dr. Thomas Wright of Cheltenham. The collection 

 was, in accordance with the terms of his will, offered to the 

 Museum, and we were very reluctantly compelled to decline 

 the offer. 



Mr. J. A. Allen, who for many years has taken charge of our 

 collections of Birds and Mammals, has left the Museum, having 



