Annual Meeting.] 2 [May 1, 
Mr. Crosby, Assistant in Paleontology, was obliged to re- 
main absent for several months, and the details of the follow- 
ing final reports on sections of that collection had to be made 
up from the reports of Miss Carter and Miss Washburn, who 
had assisted him in the work of mounting and labelling. 
The whole department is divided into sections according 
to locality. The North American fossils occupy the floor 
and wall cases of the south-east corner room of the main 
floor, and the wall cases on either side of the door of this 
room in the main hall. Opposite this is the Huropean section 
in the north-east corner room on the same floor, and on 
either side of the door of that room. Between these, in 
the cases on the east side of the main hall and on the floor, 
are the small collections from South America, India, Austra- 
lia, and Asia now possessed by the Society. 
These collections are wholly devoted to the illustration of 
the stratigraphical relations of fossils. Hach large formation 
is indicated by the color of the tablets upon which the spec- 
imens are mounted. Care has been taken to adopt a com- 
mon nomenclature and a similar arrangement in each section. 
Thus the comparison of the fauna of one period in America 
with that of the same period in Europe is readily made and 
the differences and similarities studied to the best advantage. 
This advantage is obtained without the slightest sacrifice of 
clearness in the exposition of the'relations in time of the va- 
rious faune and flore. It would be extremely hazardous to 
unite the European and American fossils of the same period 
in order to compare them as a whole with those of other pe- 
riods. It is extremely doubtful whether the geological peri- 
ods were really synchronous, and whether similarities in the 
fossils can be taken as proof of contemporaneous occurrence 
in widely separated localities. There can, however, be no 
doubt about the relation of succession in any one locality, 
and that the different faunze and flore of the great geological 
periods succeeded each other in similar order in each conti- 
nental area. If therefore we adopt a common nomenclature 
