1887.] 371 [Annual Meeting. 



Summer Laboratory. 



This department, as in former years, has been carried on by 

 means of donations received from the Woman's Education Asso- 

 ciation. These ladies contributed this year the full amount nec- 

 essary for carrying on the laboratory, and also generously paid 

 the assistant, Mr. Van Vleck, a salary of seventy-five dollars per 

 month. 



The success of the laboratory was this year far beyond that of 

 the previous summer. . It opened June 15 and was closed Sept. 20, 

 having been conducted throughout the summer by Mr. Van Vleck. 

 The total number of students was double that of last year, there 

 being twenty-six in all. Thirteen of these were men and thirteen 

 women. The average time of attendance was thirty-four days, an 

 advance of five days upon the average of last year. The steady gains 

 and success of this department are matters for congratulation, but 

 the time had come for making an effort to found a distinct insti- 

 tution, one standing upon an independent foundation ; and conse- 

 quently, as stated in the prefatory remarks, it has passed out of 

 our hands. 



Expedition. 



During the summer of 1886 a short excursion in search of fos- 

 sils was made. The party consisted of the Curator accompanied 

 b}' Mr. G. L. Parmelee, student of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, Mr. Robert T. Jackson, student of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, Mr. Hildreth of Cambridge, and the son of the Curator. The 

 time occupied on the ground was about three weeks altogether. 

 Ten days only were given to the limestones near St. Armands and 

 during the rest of the time the party visited S wanton, Isle La 

 Motte, Chazy, and Au Sable Chasm. The collecting was very 

 successful in the limestones at St. Armands, usually called the 

 Phillipsburg limestones. A very remarkable and large Nautilus, 

 two extremely large and one very perfect Filoceras, and over a 

 dozen fine specimens of the very rare Lituites of that formation 

 were obtained. The scientific results are not yet fully ready for 

 publication, but it has become apparent that the Lituites are un- 

 doubtedly degraded forms of still more ancient genera of close 

 coiled Nautiloids of which no trace has yet been discovered in the 

 older rocks of Taconic age. This can be proved by the 3 r oung of 



