1870.] 



SENATE— No. 170. 



33 



do his work, so well as he could wish and otherwise might. In 

 short, every day which is spent in the systematic arrangement 

 of the fossils puts them in a better condition for mounting. 



Another work has been begun, to which I briefly refer. 

 In order to the harmonious advancement of the several sec- 

 tions of palaeontological work, I entered, in August last, at the 

 suggestion of Professor Agassiz, upon the systematic arrange- 

 ment of the fossil Corals of the Museum. A considerable num- 

 ber, about thirty-one hundred parcels of these specimens, had 

 been already catalogued and numbered, either by my colleague, 

 Professor Shaler, or under his direction. Still other parcels, 

 owing to the pressure of the moment, had been simply registered 

 by numbers. Since that time, many additional entries have 

 been made ; while appropriate numbers have been put upon all 

 the specimens thus entered, which had not before received 

 them. The parcels thus far catalogued, amount to six thousand 

 four hundred and sixty-two. There are others yet to be 

 entered, though the number cannot be very large. Thus the 

 greater part of this section of the Museum treasures has been 

 placed in a secure condition. But, in connection with the 

 numbering of specimens, other work has been done. Since 

 September, there has been constantly going on, and there is 

 still in active progress, the process of cleaning these corals, and 

 preparing them in due time to be mounted on tablets. There 

 have been thus far prepared all those of the Tertiary times, and 

 a portion of those of the Cretaceous, while a beginning has been 

 made upon those of the Lower Silurian age. In addition to 

 this preparation for mounting, it is very desirable that sections 

 should be made of a considerable number of the specimens, in 

 order that there may be a better exhibition of the structure and 

 other peculiarities of these interesting forms of life. 



In entering upon the arrangement and study of this portion, 

 or of these portions, of the animal kingdom, it was my aim, at 

 the start, to arrange the multitudinous collections according to 

 their geological horizons. This was done by bringing all the 

 specimens of each different age together, so far as I could make 

 them out, in divisions, answering to the several successive 

 horizons between the Primordial and the latest Tertiary. Of 

 course, perfect exactness could not be secured at once, from 



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