The system of appropriation for specific objects, without designating the number of employés or the amounts of their salaries, has in the past been found to be economical and efficient, and although the neces sity of the change to a classified service may arise at some later time, I trust that it may be deferred for the present.

The amount asked for in the estimates for the fiscal year of 1891-292, for the "preservation of collections," is intended to provide for a certain amount of increase of the collections, and also to provide for the payment of certain salaries.

Increase of the collections.-At the close of the fiscal year (June 30, 1889) a very careful estimate showed that the collections were sixteen times as great in number of specimens as in the year 1882. I desire to call your attention especially to the statements bearing upon this point.

The Museum, as I have already said, is growing as it is fitting that the National Museum of a great country should grow, and it is not only necessary to care for what is already here, but to provide for the reception and display of the great collections which will unquestionably be received in the immediate future.

The extent and character of the accessions during the year is shown. in the appended table, from which it appears that the total number of specimens in the Museum is now not far from 3,000,000:

Statistics of accessions to National Museum Collections, 1882 to 1885.

Statistics of accessions to National Museum collections, 1886 to 1889.

Catalogue entries.-The number of entries made in the catalogues of the various departments in the Museum during the year has been 23,171.

The registrar states that 16,625 boxes and packages* have been received during the year and entered upon the transportation records of the Smithsonian Institution. Of this number 2,182 contained specimens for the Museum.

PRINCIPAL ACCESSIONS TO THE COLLECTIONS.

Among the collections received during the year, those from the U. S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology are especially noteworthy. The material transferred by the U. S. Fish Commission to the National Museum included two very valuable collections made by the steamer Albatross during the voyage from Washington to San Francisco and while cruising off the coast of Alaska.

The accessions received during the year from general sources are fully up to the standard of previous years. Among the most important are the following:

Ethnological.-Collections from Dr. James Grant Bey, of Cairo, Egypt, and from Mr. W. W. Rockhill, formerly connected with the German legation in Pekin, the former collection from Egypt, the latter illus trative of the religious practices, occupations, and amusements of various peoples in different parts of China, Thibet, and Turkestan; a collection of oriental seals from Mrs. Anna Randall Diehl, of New York City; casts of Assyrian and Egyptian objects obtained by Prof. Paul Haupt, of Johns Hopkins University.

The valuable co-operation of the Bureau of Ethnology is evidenced in the transmission of a large and interesting collection of pottery, stone implements, woven fabrics, shells, beans, etc., collected by Major J. W. Powell, Arthur P. Davis, Gerard Fowke, Dr. E. Boban, Dr. H. C. Yarrow, James Stevenson, Dr. J. S. Taylor, C. C. Jones, James D. Middleton, General G. P. Thruston, James P. Tilton, H. P. Hamilton, Victor Mindeleff, H. W. Henshaw, G. H. Hurlbut, W. W. Adams, De L. W. Gill, William A. Hakes, W. H. Holmes, and Charles L. R. Wheeler. This collection was the result of personal research in the following localities: Mexico, Peru, New Mexico, Wisconsin, California, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia.

Archæological.-Collection of aboriginal pottery from Lake Apopka, Florida, contributed by Dr. Featherstonehaugh, and a collection of similar material from Perdido Bay, Alabama, presented by Mr. F. H. Parsons, of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; a large collection of prehistoric weapons and ornaments from graves in Corea, presented by Mr.

*An increase of 4,225 over the number received last year.

P. L. Jouy; a valuable collection of prehistoric antiquities, for the most part from the Ohio River Valley, deposited by Mr. Warren K. Moorehead, of Xenia, Ohio.

Mammals. A full-grown moose collected and presented by Col. Cecil Clay, of the Department of Justice; a fresh specimen of Sowerby's whale, contributed by Capt. J. L. Gaskell, keeper of the United States Life-Saving Station at Atlantic City; a skin of Ovis musimon, a skeleton of Monachus albiventer, and several European bats, received from the Royal Zoological Museum at Florence, Italy; three specimens of American elk presented by Hon. W. F. Cody; a Rocky Mountain sheep, contributed by Mr. George Bird Grinnell, of New York.

Birds and Birds' Eggs.-A rare collection of birds from the National Museum at Costa Rica; a valuable collection of skins from the Old World, presented by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of the Department of Agriculture; a collection of Japanese birds, purchased from Mr. P. L. Jouy, of the National Museum; bones of Pallas cormorant, collected at the Commander Islands, Kamtchatka, by Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, of the National Museum, the only bones of this bird extant; a collection of typical Australian birds in alchohol, from the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales; an interesting collection of birds' eggs and nests, presented by Mr. Dennis Gale, of Gold Hill, Colo.; eggs of Cardellina rubrifrons, new to the collection and to science, contributed by Mr. William W. Price, of Tombstone, Ariz.

Fishes.-Collections of fishes from the Gulf of California, transmitted by Messrs. O. P. Jenkins, of De Pauw University, and B. W. Evermann, of the State Normal School at Terre Haute, Ind. ; a collection of fishes from New Zealand, sent in exchange from the Otago University Museum, at Dunedin, New Zealand.

Mollusks.-A valuable collection of marine and terrestrial shells presented by Messrs. F. B. and J. D. McGuire, of Washington.

Insects.-A large series of insects purchased from Dr. Taylor Townsend by the Department of Agriculture and transferred to the museum; an extensive series of dried Coleoptera presented by Mr. G. W. J. Angell, of New York.

Marine Invertebrates.-A collection of crustaceans from Japan, ob tained by Mr. Romyn Hitchcock, of the National Museum; specimens of marine invertebrates collected by Lieut. J. F. Moser, of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, at Cape Sable, Florida.