REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I904 



39 



the illumination is even unsatisfactory for the ordinary duties of 

 the office staff. 



The condition of our quarters has not materially changed in 

 many years. We recognize this and have become in a measure 

 used to the discomfort of doing work in unfavorable surround- 

 ings and with poor light ; but we can not fail also to recognize the 

 fact that with the large annual acquisitions to all the collections 

 the condition does not remain the same as it has been but grows 

 worse each year. In the department of paleontology alone our 

 annual acquisitions have averaged during the past six years 

 about 10,000 specimens. These are ponderable additions which 

 can not be tucked' away into inconsiderable space, and we find it 

 necessary in the elaboration of our scientific work to unpack such 

 material long enough for the necessary examination and then to 

 repack it and store it away. We do not work at an advantage. 

 There is a needless expenditure of time and energy and solicitude 

 in being unable to have access to the material as it is wanted. 

 There is danger of inaccuracy in work or incompleteness of ob- 

 servation on account of the labor involved in making the needed 

 material accessible just at the time it is wanted. What is true 

 of this section is in somewhat less degree true of the others. We 

 have long since outgrown our quarters, and our collections are 

 now squeezing us, not merely to the inconvenience of our work, 

 but to its injury and probable imperfection. We realize however 

 that there is no hope of remedy for this condition till circum- 

 stances make it practicable to instal these collections and our 

 offices in a suitable building. The most urgent need of the 

 Museum at this date is room for the accommodation and display 

 of its collections, and for the adequate equipment of its offices. 



APPENDIX 1 

 Accessions 



The additions to the collections have been by donation, exchange, 

 purchase and collection. A detailed statement of these acquisitions 

 is given herewith. 



Geology 

 DONATION 



German World's Fair Commission to the St Louis Exposition. Machine 

 made peat and peat charcoal, Germany 20 



COLLECTION 



Assistant in Geology. Albany. Poughquag quartzite; gneisses near 



contact of quartzite; iron ores and associated rocks, Dutchess county 52 



