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The Curator would recommend that, if it be possible, some steps be taken to obtain such a collection, which from the excavations now in progress at Panama would seem to be a work of no great difficulty, if a collector were once placed on the spot.

It is with great satisfaction that the Curator is able to report that heavy inroads have been made on the mass of material which has accumulated in the storerooms of the Institution during the past ten years. Much still remains but a great deal has been examined catalogued and assorted partly for the reserve series and partly as duplicates for ultimate distribution to other museums or for exchange. Case room is the great need of the department at present and it will continue for some time to be the most urgent want which presents itself.

Looking forward to the time when the collection shall be in working order and various suites now promised or in course of transmission shall have arrived, we may anticipate that in all that relates to North America and its adjacent seas the National Collection as a whole will not be surpassed, nor even equalled, in the world. For the North Atlantic and British seas the collection of Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys is now in process of transmission.

For the North eastern coast of the United States the collections of the U.S. Fish Commission will eventually be deposited in the Museum. For the North Pacific, Bering and Arctic Seas the Collections of Messrs. Dall, Turner, Fisher, Murdoch, the U.S. Revenue Marine and others are already in the Museum and