2T 



a very considerable number of specimens have been found which 

 would very soon have been destroyed by oxidation. Such a col- 

 lection should be looked over carefully every two or three years, 

 and the specimens fossilized in iron pyrite protected with several 

 thick coats of varnish. Miss Clark has also been occupied in 

 mounting specimens for exhibition, and in labelling. 



This department is indebted to Dr. Robert T. Jackson for con- 

 siderable work in various directions. He has superintended the 

 moving of collections, has concentrated and in part culled the 

 Anticosti Collection, separating the useless from the valuable 

 materials. He has also arranged and concentrated the Creta- 

 ceous and Tertiary Pelecj^poda which were widely scattered, 

 picking out species suitable for exhibition in the Stratigraphical 

 Collection, and has also done the same service for several small 

 collections, consisting for the most part of Mollusca and Gaste- 

 ropoda, but containing some species from all departments of the 

 animal kingdom. This work has put into available condition 

 for final arrangement or study a large amount of material that 

 before was widely scattered, and given considerable free space 

 in the cases. Dr. Jackson has also worked on the large and 

 valuable materials of the Dyer Collection, revising all the por- 

 tions not previously arranged, and roughly classifying them. 

 This is now ready for distribution into genera, and it should be 

 stated, for the benefit of future students, that the collection, 

 although it was carefully numbered by Mr. Dyer with printed 

 numbers, was probably never catalogued by him. No catalogue 

 was ever sent, so far as can be ascertained, with the collection, 

 and the Assistant, after inquiring of several geologists well ac- 

 quainted with Mr. Dyer, has come to the conclusion that the 

 numbers merely represent Mr. Dyer's intentions. Fortunately, a 

 considerable number of the ordinary run of the specimens are 

 labelled, and all the types, so that no important losses of locali- 

 ties will be occasioned by the absence of a catalogue. 



Mr. Frank Springer spent some time in studying the collection 

 of Crinoids, and borrowed material of this group for investiga- 

 tion by Mr. Wachsmuth and himself. Several slabs of Trilobite 

 tracks were received from the New York State Natural His- 

 tory Museum. Three boxes of fossils were received from Mr. 

 Springer, containing a small but valuable collection of Cretaceous 

 Fossils, and the skull of a mammal from New Mexico. 



