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3)

so that the work of Mr. Safford has gone far towards restoring the collections to its original status. Mr. Blish has also worked on the echini, in conjunction with Mr. Safford, and has been of much assistance to him.

Mr. Todd has made fine pen sketches of several of the commercial crustaceans, but from the want of experience in this line, his progress has been somewhat slow. The species which he has already drawn are as follows: Menippe Mercenaria, Cancer magister, Epialtus productus, Panulirus interruptus, and Squilla empusa.

My own line, in addition to directing the work of my assistants, and the artist, has been mainly spent in working on the collections. I have found that without trained assistants, it is best for me to unpack, assort, examine, and catalogue all the materials as they are received, and during this month there has been much of that work to do.  Last year I left it mainly to others, and it was very poorly done.  One of the most important works of a museum is certainly to label and catalogue its collections properly, and it is my ambition for the Invertebrate Department to approach as near perfection in this particular as possible.  The catalogue cards have been written up nearly as rapidly as the original record books.

The remainder of the collections received from Wood's Hole this year has been nearly all examined and catalogued.  All of the duplicates have been separated from the