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cases were allowed the department, and were placed in this hall, together with four of the old style of table cases formerly used for shells. These have afforded us convenient storage space which has been devoted mainly to the dried collections of Crustaceans, Gorgonian corals, and Bryozoa. The greater portion of the dried collections has, however, been kept in separate unit trays, arranged in piles on the floor. The tops of the exhibition cases have been used for the storage of alcoholic specimens, for which there was no room in the basement. 

It was decided in June to give this department the use of the northwest gallery in the bird hall as a general storage and work room, and in order that the invertebrate exhibition hall might be opened to the public during the summer, all of the specimens stored in the latter, except such as were contained in cases, were transferred to that gallery. As there was no time to fit up the proper cases in the gallery, the trays and boxes have been piled on the floor pending a better arrangement next fall. 

My only assistants during the past six months have been Mr. A. H. Baldwin and Miss M.J. Rathburn, but, through their faithful attention to duties, it has been possible to promptly transact all the necessary business of the department, and to retain the collections in exceptionally good condition. Arrangements for the summer explorations of the Fish Commission were begun in May and continued through the first half of June, and on June 18, the curator and both his assistants left for the Woods' Hall station of the Commission, to take part in the work of investigation.