HYATT: REPORT OF THE CURATOR 
283 
tence, if to the list of species and the number of shells we also add 
the facts that it is accurately labeled, contains seventy-two originals 
of the species already described, has a full representation of a 
number of now extinct varieties and species, and was collected so 
many years ago that it can be used in some localities to show that 
new species have arisen upon Oahu within the past ten or twenty 
years. There are at present under this roof about fourteen or 
fifteen thousand shells of this one group, which many naturalists 
consider to be but one genus. These practically all belong to the 
Society, and there are also about six thousand more, the property 
of Mr. Oleson, of Worcester, kindly loaned to the Curator for 
study; in all about twenty thousand shells. 
The immediate and essential need of this investigation was the 
money necessary to get up a series of demonstrative illustrations. 
The march of the forms on Oahu and the evolution of the varieties 
and species as they migrated from valley to valley, could not be 
placed on record, or shown to any other investigator, or clearly 
described by the author himself, until the facts were recorded by 
photographic processes and in natural colors upon plates so closely 
set with figures that no gaps or omissions would be left to be 
bridged by the imagination. The Curator tried to impress the 
importance of this investigation and of such complete objective 
illustration upon the friends of research both scientific and unsci¬ 
entific, who controlled the means of successfully carrying out such 
an unusually expensive method of demonstration. Among the sur¬ 
prises of his life none have exceeded the unexpected results of this 
experience. It was found that it would be necessary to devote 
several years to what the missionaries would call conversion by 
education, before such gentlemen could be induced to consider 
matters from a favorable point of view. Just at this discouraging 
juncture, an inquiry came from a former pupil and present assistant 
in the Museum, whose aid had not been solicited, and the reply 
was followed by so liberal a donation that the publication of a 
series of complete illustrations embodying the results of these 
researches may be said to be secured. In consequence of this 
donation, amounting to two thousand dollars, the preliminary label¬ 
ing and cataloguing of the large collections received this year from 
Mr. Gulick are already well advanced towards completion, having 
been carried on by a special assistant, and a complete report upon 
this accession will be made next year; the materials have been 
