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63

not at all surprising, and it is as the lawful custodian of these collections, that the National Museum owes its relations to the Fish Commission.

The corps of geological assistants attached to the Commission, consisting for the most part of volunteers, as above stated, includes several well-known authorities in marine zoology, and through their services the more interesting portions of the collections have been worked up and reported upon almost as rapidly as obtained. These collections, therefore, reach the Museum not as crude materials, but as valuable types, and this has been the case more especially with the Crustacea, Annelida, Mollusca, Echinodermata and Anthozoa. The general supervision of the working up of the collection of marine invertebrates