State Museum of Natural History. 35 



The preparation of the Museum Bulletins upon the Palaeozoic 

 Lamellibranchiata and upon the fossil Dictyospongidae, has 

 scarcely progressed at all during the past year, mainly for the 

 want of authority to go on with the lithography, which should be 

 done in advance of the letter-press part of the work. Since the 

 acceptance of the Bulletin on the Lamellibranchiata, I have had 

 made a considerable number of original drawings of characteristic 

 generic forms, which are now ready for use by the lithographer 

 whenever the work shall be ordered. Other drawings would have 

 been made, but we have no available means for such work. 



The want of a draughtsman for general or special work is a 

 great cause of retardation in almost every direction at the present 

 time, and will ultimately prove a serious obstacle to progress. 

 We are now restricted, by law, to drawings upon Brachiopoda, 

 and have not the privilege of having illustrations made of any 

 other class of objects. 



I have already reported the completion of the drawings for the 

 Dictyospongidae, as far as required, to illustrate the material in 

 my hands in 1884 Since that time considerable new material has 

 been added to that which we previously possessed, and a 

 considerable number of other drawings will be required to com- 

 plete the work. It is also very important that all the known 

 localities within the State be revisited and further collections be 

 made. I can not but regard it as a misfortune to the Museum that 

 the completion of this work has been so long delayed. 



Since the work of the Palaeontology has been restricted to a 

 single class of fossils (the Brachiopoda) and from the fact that on 

 the return to this work last spring (May, 1888), after the comple- 

 tion of the Crustacea, vol. VII, the collections were found to 

 be very deficient in material for the preparation of the plates ; the 

 lithographer has, therefore, sometimes been left without work. 

 The same condition has often happened in the past three 

 years. Could the lithographer have taken up the work on the 

 Dictyospongidae during these intervals of forced idleness, we would 

 by this time have had a large portion of these plates lithographed. 



Although the preliminary descriptions have been published in 

 the Museum report of 1884, that work can not be regarded as 

 entirely complete, or satisfactory as a contribution to science. 

 Since we have so much means at our disposal, it seems unfortunate 

 to postpone the completion of a scientific investigation, which 



