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11

In 1870 a new era began for the Museum. Larger appropriations enabled the authorities to expend more money on the care of specimens and repair damages caused by previous inevitable neglect. The collection of mollusks was gradually put in order, and the distribution of named species amounted at the end of 1871 to 186,157 specimens of 83,712 species.

The writer left Washington in the summer of 1871 for explorations especially in the Aleutian islands, a task which resulted incidentally in adding several hundred thousand specimens to the collection, making it the finest in the world for the west Arctic and north Pacific fauna, and which lasted until the autumn of 1874. In 1871 there were about 25,000 entries of the reserve series on the Mollusk-register. A catalogue of the families of Mollusks and Molluskoids was prepared by Prof. Gill with some assistance by the writer, to serve as a basis for the classification of the Collection.

In 1874 the writer returned. His leisure was henceforth entirely given to the collection of mollusks, which had not been possible in preceding years. 

In 1875 a collection of economic mollusks was prepared for the Museum Exhibit at the Centennial exposition at Philadelphia. The funds available for this purpose enabled the Museum