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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



superior quality, aud will complete the museum collections iu 

 many important lines heretofore unsatisfactorily represented. 

 This is specially true of the material from the earlier faunas 

 collected in the Lake Champlain basin. 



A valuable acquisition by purchase is a collection of about 

 1000 specimens representing heretofore unknown Crustacea from 

 the base of the Salina formation, Monroe county, from C. J. 

 Sarle, of Rochester. The department has also received, from 

 Prof. A. L. Arey, of Rochester, the promise of a series of fossils 

 representing an undescribed fauna from the layers at the top of 

 the Niagara group. 



Work on the collection. Dr Rudolf Ruedemann, having passed 

 the necessary examination, was appointed assistant to the 

 paleontologist and began his term of service March 1. Since 

 that date a card catalogue of the type specimens of fossils in the 

 museum has been inaugurated in continuation of similar lists 

 prepared by the writer some years ago. This important work 

 has progressed well, and already shows that the state museum 

 possesses far more of this valuable material than it has been 

 credited w 7 ith/ 



The work of revision of the entire paleontologic collections, 

 the assorting of the material and the separation and labeling of 

 the superior grade of specimens as a permanent reserve for the 

 museum collection has progressed satisfactorily. The purpose 

 of this protracted but much needed work is to get together into 

 one synoptic collection all the material that will be serviceable 

 to the museum for the exhibition of the paleontologic wealth of 

 the state, and to eliminate the large amount of inferior and to 

 some degree worthless material from the collections as a whole 

 which is the residuum from many years of indiscriminate selec- 

 tion. The paleontologic collection also contains an important 

 number of casts of type specimens either in plaster or gutta ' 

 percha, the originals of which have been figured in the publica- 

 tions of the state, but which now belong to other institutions. 

 Experience has shown that these replicas become injured or 



