■894-] 285 rAnnnnl Meeting- 
been })rei)are(l, i;inging througli tlie lower formations from the 
Cambrian to the Hudson River incUisive, and embracing in the 
Cambrian Scolitlius, brachiopods, ptei'opods, and trilobites ; and 
in the Lower Sihirian corals, crinoids, brachiopods, laraelli- 
branchs, gasteropods, and pteropods, also the few cephalopods 
of the Black IJiver grouj) ; in all 5<S genera and 87 species. 
One hundred and tliirty taldets containing one or more speci- 
mens have been excluded and marked as du])licates. Thirty- 
four tablets of St. Johns grouj) fossils, from Professor Matthews, 
have been stndied, and IG of these marked to be retained. A 
collection made by Professor Bailey from the same group has 
been carefully examined ]treparatory to cataloguing, but it has 
been lliought best not to finish the work on these two collections 
until other specimens of tlje same age have been received. 
POUIFEKA. 
All of the s]ionges not on exhibition have been gone over bv 
the Curator, aided by Mrs. Flint, and rearranged an<l stored in the 
topmost work-room on the north side of this building leading off 
gallery Q. The Curator's collection of alcoholic sponges, contain- 
ing the counterparts of numerous un])ublished colored drawings, 
has all been worked over. The s])ecimens have been compared 
with the drawings by JVfrs. Flint, and the whole series secured by 
a din»licate system of labeliug. If we are ever able to find any 
one who will take up the investigation of the faunas of New Eng- 
land, as Professor Ci-oslty has the geology, t.iiese colleclions will 
prove to be of great value and ought to save much time and labor. 
MOLLUSCA . 
The Curator has worked, a large part of his time, upon this 
collection, and has been aided more or less by Mrs. Flint in some 
part of the work. Miss Martin has dusted and remounted the 
specimens on the tablets of a considerable poition of the collection 
on exhil)ition. 
Inskcta. 
Mr. Henshaw, in ad<lition to the general oversight (»f the 
collection, has identified and arranged portions of the IJymenop- 
tera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera. 
