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ligent public appreciate this state of affairs, and see the unfortunate influence on the results of the Museum work.

The additions to the Museum collections during the year 1882 will be found recorded in detail in the lists appended.

In the Botanical Department there have been nineteen contributors of an aggregate of 285 species.

In the Zoological Department there have been added to the arranged collections specimens from six sources.

The whale skeleton, purchased nearly two years since, has been in the custody of Professor Ward, of Rochester, for maceration and preparation. We had expected to have it delivered at the Museum about the end of this year, but I am just now informed that it will not be ready before March next.

The Museum Library has received the addition of 103 books and pamphlets by donation, and thirty publications by purchase and exchange.

To the collections in mineralogy, geology and paleontology, there have been added by donations from eleven contributors 72 specimens, besides the collections made by persons connected with the Museum, which are for the most part, from necessity, packed in boxes.

THE CURRENT WORK OF THE MUSEUM.

The accompanying report of the Botanist, Mr. C. H. Peck, will give an account of the work in his department, and the addition to the herbarium of 142 species of plants, of which 68 are new to this collection. On the second floor of the Museum, a collection of fungi is arranged for public inspection.

The Unionidæ and other fresh-water shells, with numerous sections of the same, referred to in a former report as the work of Mr. Geo. B. Simpson, has been in part arranged in cases, and the collection is in progress toward completion. A collection of Unionidae and other fresh-water shells, made by Dr. D. N. DeTarr, assistant in the Museum. during the summer of 1881, has been arranged by him in cases provided for that purpose.

A considerable part of the insect collection, which was made by Mr. Lintner for the State Museum, has been placed for exhibition in one of the large table-cases on the second floor. Although subject to deterioration from the influence of light, the Director has deemed it proper to place some portion of this collection where it can be seen by visitors to the Museum.

In the Department of Osteology, Anatomical and Alcoholic Specimens, and the preparation of translucent sections of fossils and min

erals, under the charge of Dr. J. W. Hall, the work has been continued as heretofore; except that the general duties of the Museum (in the absence of an assistant in the Zoological Department, and the work heretofore performed by the taxidermist) have fallen upon the assistant who has charge of this department.

In addition to the above large translucent sections of rocks and fossils, nearly 300 sections of shells of Brachiopoda have been prepared by Mr. Beecher by hand for microscopic study. These sections, many of them minute, are mounted on glass slides of the standard size, and each one labeled with the generic and specific name. The study of the minute structure of the shells of brachiopoda is of much importance in determining the generic relations of this class of fossils, and has heretofore been too much neglected, from the difficulty of obtaining satisfactory specimens. This work was commenced by me several years since, in connection with the revision of the genera of the Brachiopoda, of which about thirty plates have already been prepared as a part of the paleontological work of the State.

The present collection has already furnished some important facts in regard to the classification of the Orthide and Strophomenidæ, and I propose to examine in this manner the shells of all the genera of Brachiopoda, which are known in the Palæozoic formations of New York.

Among the miscellaneous work of the Museum during the past year, a small geological map of New York (drawn with pen and the area of the formations indicated by different modes of lining) has been prepared to accompany the article on the History of the Geological Survey of New York, to be published in the "Civil Service of the State of New York." We have also prepared a large colored map, preparatory to the publication of a geological map of the State, embodying the results of geological investigation since 1844, which is the date of the last published geological map of the State.

During the past summer a single paper of fifty-nine pages, on the fossil corals of the Niagara and Upper Helderberg groups, has been published in advance of the Thirty-fifth Report of the State Museum.

COLLECTIONS IN THE FIELD.

Almost the only geological collections made in the field during the past year were from the Oriskany sandstone in the vicinity of Knox, in Albany county, and from the Mohawk valley. The latter were from the fresh exposures along the outcrops made by the excavations. on the line of the West Shore railroad. These collections represent

the Laurentian, the Calciferous sandstone, the Trenton limestone and the Utica slate. A number of specimens from these collections will be available for the State Museum, and the remainder will go into the duplicate material for distribution. The interest in these collections is due to the fact that they illustrate the succession of beds, and the direct contact of the Calciferous sandstone with the Upper Laurentian gneiss, proving the absence of the Potsdam sandstone along the Mohawk valley.

A collection of specimens of the iron ores from Essex county has been made for the Museum.

COLLECTIONS ARRANGED IN THE TABLE-CASES OF THE MUSEUM.

A series of specimens from the Utica slate, illustrating the morphological development of Triarthrus Becki, has been labeled and arranged in the table-case of the paleontological series. This is the only series of the kind in the Museum, and is a very valuable addition to the collections of fossil Crustacea.

The largest addition to the arranged collections during the year is from the Niagara group of Waldron, Indiana. The specimens were selected from many thousand examples, and the whole arranged series represents a most complete exhibition of the Niagara fauna of Indiana. It is especially valuable for comparison with the same horizon in New York and elsewhere. This collection contains many typical specimens used in the illustration and descriptions of the species, and many very fine examples of other species. With the exception of the Schoharie collections, it is the largest and most complete representation of the fossils of a single locality in the State Museum.

A list of these additions is given elsewhere.

The specimens illustrated on the plates of Lamellibranchiata, in vol. v, part 1, Paleontology of New York (unpublished), have been numbered and arranged according to the plates, and a partial series selected for the Museum collections. The delay in the publication of this volume has been to the disadvantage of any final work in this series of fossils. The large collection of Devonian Lamellibranchiata, belonging to the State, cannot be made use of for the purposes of distribution, until the publication of this volume is completed.

A full set of the plates of the Lamellibranchiata, of vol. v, part 1, Palæontology of New York (as above), with manuscript descriptions of the figures, was sent to the Geological Survey of Kentucky, on application of Mr. Henry Nettelroth, who has in his charge the preparation of the report upon the fossil Mollusca of Kentucky.

The Director of the Museum, as State Geologist, has considered it a duty to furnish this information regarding unpublished work, from

the fact of the long delay in presenting our own publications for the use of scientific workers.

A pamphlet of more than sixty pages, containing descriptions of a part of these fossils, was published in 1869. The manuscript descriptions of the remaining species for the then proposed vol. v, part 1, have long been ready for the press, and were communicated with the Museum report two years since, but up to this time have not yet been printed.

The collections made in previous years from the Lower Carboniferous limestone of Spergen Hill, Indiana, and from the Lower Silurian on the shores of Lake Champlain, have been unpacked, cleaned and ticketed; and a large portion of these are repacked in boxes for want of space to arrange them. The remainder are now accessible for the selection of duplicates.

DISTRIBUTION OF DUPLICATE FOSSILS AND MINERALS.

Every year shows an increasing number of applications for labeled collections of fossils and minerals. Some of these are outside of the regulations adopted by the Board of Regents for the distribution of collections; but the Director has in many instances felt constrained to listen to such applications, believing that it would inure to the advantage of the Museum. In such cases he has made liberal use of his private collections of rocks and iron ores of Northern New York and other localities, from which the State Museum does not possess duplicates.

In addition to the general distribution above named, there have been sent, by authority of the Regents, a small collection of Oriskany sandstone fossils and a large stump of Psaronius erianus, to McGill College, Montreal, and presented to the Peter Redpath Museum.

In anticipation of the early removal, to some public building, of the large collections of fossils which have long been in the custody of the State Geologist, a large portion of the drawers containing them, about 1,200 in number, have been carefully examined and in part rearranged, the specimens cleaned, etc. The fossil corals, occupying about 500 close drawers, have been systematically arranged, and are in a cleanly and proper condition for removal at any time. The greater part of the collection is packed in boxes, and these are ready for removal as soon as a proper place shall be provided.

It is my melancholy duty to record the death of Mr. James A. Hurst, who has for more than thirty years acted as the taxidermist of the State Museum. Nearly all the stuffed specimens of birds and mammals have been mounted by him; and through his care and watchfulness they have remained in very excellent condition. I shall

consider it incumbent on me to communicate an obituary notice to the Regents for incorporation in the report, so soon as I shall be able to obtain the necessary data.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES HALL, Director.

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