~ Annual Report.] . 170 - [May 1, 
and mounted our entire collection of Bivalves, and began 
upon the Univalves. A considerable portion of the latter 
were packed up in the early part of the last winter and sent 
to Dr. Carpenter, who has also completed them. They are 
now on their way back to us. The extraordinary celerity 
with which Dr. Carpenter works leads me to hope that this 
department will be placed in perfect order before the end of 
the coming year. ‘The details of his work will be found in 
the special report of the Conchological Department. 
The Paleontological section of the Museum has also been 
very much improved in appearance by the exertions of the 
President, Mr. Bouvé, who has remounted and rearranged 
all the fossils from the Potsdam to the Carboniferous inclusive. 
The skeleton of the whale has been prepared by Dr. 
Thomas Dwight, Jr., assisted by Mr. Fletcher M. Abbott. It 
swings from the centre of the roof, nearly on a level with the 
first gallery of the main hall. Its perfection, and the admira- 
ble manner in which it has been mounted, render it a most. 
valuable and attractive ornament to the Museum. 
The entire collection of Coleoptera has been placed in in- 
sect proof boxes by Mr. Sprague, and he has begun to secure 
the Harris collection in a similar manner. I desire, however, 
to call the attention of the Society to the boxes upon the 
table. These are experiments upon the methods of mount- 
ing and illustrating the typical collection of insects, and will 
probably be adopted throughout that department. The difii- 
culties that were overcome, and amount of study and labor 
expended by Mr. Sprague in making these pattern boxes, can 
only be rightly appreciated by those who have watched their 
progress. One of them exhibits the ventral and dorsal as- 
pects of a large beetle, showing all the parts appropriately 
named. This is be the type of the order. The other boxes 
contain the types of several genera and two families. The 
enlarged outlines of these small insects are given from the 
dorsal and ventral sides, accompanied by specimens having a 
similar position. On the right hand side of the box in each 
