9 



West must of necessity be very large. But at present the Mu- 

 seum has no means to pay such an Assistant, nor have we the 

 means to spend from $5,000 to $6,000 annually for a number 

 of years in making explorations of Western territories in order 

 to fill our gaps, both in the fossils of the various well known 

 Western fossiliferous beds, and in the systematic series of fos- 

 sils which are found there. The Assistant in charge of the 

 collection of Skeletons of Mammals receives no remuneration 

 from the Museum. 



" The Museum publications are strictly limited to the work 

 done in the Museum by the Professors and their Assistants, and 

 the students of the various Laboratories, or to the work of spe- 

 cialists based upon the Museum collections. 



" The arrangement of our Palaeontological Rooms progresses 

 very slowly, mainly for want of funds for the necessary cases. 

 It would require about $20,000 to place on exhibition a suitable 

 selection of our fossils." 



Provision has been made by borrowing the needed funds from 

 the Corporation for the greater part of the fossils for the Ter- 

 tiary Rooms, which promise to be our most valuable and in- 

 structive Exhibition Rooms. The acquisition of a fine series of 

 Pampas Mammals, obtained through the agency of Professor 

 Henry A. Ward, including mountable skeletons of Mylodon, 

 Glyptodon, Lestodon, Scelidotherium, and Toxodon, will neces- 

 sitate a redistribution of the space assigned to the Tertiary 

 Faunas. In order to provide for the North American Tertiary 

 Mammals, two rooms at least will be required, which can be 

 advantageously filled with interesting and instructive specimens 

 for exhibition, and the Mesozoic and Palaeozoic Faunae will each 

 have to be limited to one room. 



ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 



Cambridge, October 1, 1890. 



