[A.] 



KEPORT OF THE CURATOR 



TO THE 



MUSEUM COMMITTEE. 



The general work of the Museum assistants has, as usual, 

 consisted mainly in preparing our material for exhibition and 

 packing our duplicate collections for exchange. A number of 

 collections have been sent to the schools of the State ; these 

 will be supplemented from our duplicates as rapidly as pos- 

 sible. For the last two years the reduced staff of assistants 

 has compelled us to limit our collections to such additions as 

 a blank in our exhibition-cases, or the need of fresh material 

 for instruction made necessary, the working force at our 

 disposal being fully occupied in distributing the perishable 

 material not needed for our own use or for special study 

 hereafter. The great difficulty of preserving alcoholic collec- 

 tions, the unpleasant nature and enormous expense of the 

 work, make it imperative, not only for storage, but still more 

 for exhibition purposes, that they should be restricted to a 

 minimum, and limited, as far as possible, to those classes 

 where no other mode of preservation is practicable. The 

 constantly increasing facilities of travel, the comparative 

 economy with which fresh specimens can be studied, the 

 superiority of such work (with proper appliances) to that of 

 the Museum, the daily increasing number of workers who are 

 able, on the sea-shore or in the field, to produce results unat- 



