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3. WHAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE IN CARING FOR THE COLLECTIONS UNDER YOUR CUSTODY,i.e., IN THEIR PRESERVATION AND INSTALLATION.

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[[handwritten]]
The quarters on the South side having become exceedingly crowded an order was given to move the offices and laboratories of the Department to the Northeast Pavilion.  Work was begun in the third story of the Pavilion at the beginning of the year by tearing down all the partitions except one and thus converting the story into a single room with a hall.  The room was cleaned & painted throughout and nine large [[strikethrough]]cases[[/strikethrough]] vermin-tight cases with shelves were constructed for the large skins (deer, bears, lions, antelopes, etc.) of the study-series.  Six half-unit cases, containing the middle-size skins were also placed on that floor.

The offices and laboratory for small-skins were established on the first floor, occupying three rooms.  All the quarter-unit cases were set up here.

The alcoholics were placed in the basement of the Pavilion in a special room.

The South-entrance laboratory was given up to the collections deposited by the Dep't of Agriculture, a large number of cases being removed thereto from the Lecture-room.

Almost the entire alcoholic collection was overhauled. Fresh alcohol was supplied & a large number of specimens we rebottled and re-entered.

The taxidermists continued the work of converting duplicate skins in the vats into dry specimens for the study-series.

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In the exhibition-hall a re-arrangement was begun for the purposes of obtaining more room for cases, - especially those returned from the World's Fair.  Two new wall-cases [[strikethrough]] (black) [[/strikethrough]] (pine) were constructed at the South end of the hall, and the orders [[underlined]] Edentata [[/underlined]] & [[underlined]] Insectivora [[/underlined]] & [[underlined]] Chiroptera [[/underlined]] transferred to them.  The old Fur-Seal group was dismounted and removed to make place for a better one, to be prepared as soon as possible.  A large series of deers' antlers was placed on exhibition on the top of the East wall-case.  An iron framework was constructed and fastened to the great West pier at the North end of the hall, to support a series of mounted heads of large game- mammals. This [[strikethrough]]p[[/strikethrough]] balances the group on the East pier.
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