MUSEUM AND LABORATORY REPORT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5662, 23 May 1879, Page 7

MUSEUM AND LABORATORY REPORT.

The annual report of , tho Museum and Laboratory, including a list of donations and deposits during 1878, has just been issued from the Government Printing Office. It has made its appearance rather late, and the delay is probably to be accounted for by the press of work at the printing office, but nevertheless many of the matters contained iu the report have not yet lost their interest; — MUSEUM. “ The number of names entered in the visitors book at the Museum during the past year has been 15,000. “ Since the 7th of July the Museum has been opened to the public for two hours on Sunday afternoons, and the large attendance, varying from 390 to 800 persons, indicates that there are many who are glad to take advantage of the opportunity thus afforded for examining the collections.

“ There have been 9880 specimens added to the collections during the past year ; 7519 of which are mineral and fossil specimens obtained during the geological survey of the colony which is in progress, and 135 specimens deposited on loan. “ Herbarium. —The collections in this department have received only inconsiderable additions, and the arrangements for the thorough preservation of the dried plants are quite insufficient. It has therefore been considered inadvisable to unpack the large herbarium of foreign plants until proper cabinets have been provided for their reception, so that this special gift from the trustees of the British Museum, which numbers 28,000 species of plants for; reference, is still inaccessible to students.

" Natural History Collections. —The detailed study and classification of the collection is rapidly advancing, and arrangements have been made with the Education Department to secure the services of a wood engraver, so that the illustrations for the new additions of the natural history catalogues, which are now out of print, may be obtained in a form that avill admit of them being also used for the illustration of elementary text-books for the use of schools. “ Mammalia. —The classification of the New Zealand Cetacea has undergone revision, and the results, so far as they relate to the larger forms, have been published in the ‘.Transactions of the Institute’ (On the Whales of the New Zealand Seas. . By Dr. Hector. Vol. X., 331). The most important addition to the collection in this section has been a fine skeleton of the whale-killer (Orca Pacifica), presented by the Royal Society of Tasmania. “ Birds. —The principal additions to the collection of birds during the year were obtained, by exchange, from the private museum of Mr. Macleay, F.L.S., at Sydney. “Fishes. —Very ■ extensive additions have been made to the alcoholic collections in this department, 360 specimens having been received, including a typical collection of the Australian sea aud river fishes ; a small collection of Polynesian fish made by Lord Hervey Phipps ; and a series of the fishes of the Atlantic Coast of the United States, contributed by the Smithsonian Institute. The collection of New Zealand fishes has been greatly extended aud improved by the substitution of fresh preparations.

“ Invertebrata .—The additions in this section number 887, and consist chiefly ef Australian Crustacea, Echinodermata, and Mollusca ; and a large series of preparations of the New Zealapd Mollusca, to facilitate the study of the soft parts of the animals. Mention has also been made of a valuable collection of New Zealand insects, 37 in number, collected and presented by the Rev. Father Sauseau, of Blenheim.

“ Ethnological .—The only important addition has been a collection of the weapons of the Isle of Paris, New Caledonian natives, the most interesting of which are sling-stones made of steatite, which are projected from a sling made of cloth spun from the hair of the flying fox., ■ . • ■ “ Minerals .—In addition to the various mineral and rock specimens obtained by the geological survey, a very valuable series, numbering 400 specimens, illustrating the geology of Canada, from Mr. A. R. C. Selwyn, F.R.S., the director of the geological survey of the province, has been added ; and a few ores of interest collected in Cornwall have been received from Mr. J. D. Enys, F.G.S. The collection of New Zealand minerals and ores has been re-arranged and catalogued, and the volcanic aud metamorphic rocks are now undergoing a more thorough chemical and microscopical examination than they have hitherto received, while, at the same time, duplicate specimens are being selected for exchange. “ Palatontology. —The most important collection of foreign fossils added to the Museum during the past year is a series illustrating the carboniferous rooks of New South Wales and Tasmania, obtained by the Director during a visit to Australia. This series has proved of great service in comparing the equivalent formations in New Zealand. •

“ Geological Survey Collections. —These have been very ample and important in their bearing on the geology of the islands, and especially in relation to the lower mesozoic rocks, which have, until now, been very imperfectly understood. The chief field work of the year was the detailed survey of the Hokanui range, in Southland, which has for many years been known to present the most typical development of the formations from jurassic to permian. The results obtained are fully detailed in the ‘ Geological Reports ’ for the year, but it may be stated here that the above formations form a atratigraphical sequence, but were divided into 76 well-defined beds, the outcrops of which were traced and studied in section, over an area of 32 square miles. The fossils, which number over 5000 specimens, were collected from twenty-five distinct horizons. and form a very large and important addition to the palaeontological data now in the Museum, which is only partially arranged and worked out. The total thickness of the strata represented in the sections is 21,000 ft., viz. Upper oolite, 3500 ; middle oolite, 850 ; lower oolite, 2200 ; lias and rhcetic, 2000 ; permian triassic, 6400 ; permian carboniferous, 6150. The most remarkable feature is the great development of our infra-triassic marine formation, characterised by a great profusion of brachiopoda, several of these forms being generally distinct from any hitherto described, while there is a total absence of any true spirifer. It is thus rendered probable that we have in the New Zealand area developments of the lower mesozoic strata, representing gaps in the record elsewhere. A further examination of the Mount Potts spirifer beds during the past year has afforded a large number of fossils, and proved the existence of three marked horizons in that locality,—the upper plant beds ; , the spirifer beds (although no true spirifer is present), corresponding- to- the lower triassic of the Hokanui section; and, at the base, beds containing glossopteris, which- is a characteristic fossil of the New South Wales coal fields. A thickness of 2000 ft. separates the glossopteris from the spirifer beds. Prom the bone beds associated with the latter, a good series of the saurian bones was also collected, some of_ the vertebral centre having enormous proportions, being 1 Sin. in diameter and 3Jin. in length. Besides vertebra!, rib and limb bones were also obtained, and what appear to have been dermal plates; but the large blocks in which these interesting remains are embedded are not yet worked put sufficiently. A further discovery of great interest is the determination by Mr. McKay of the age of the Maitai calcareous slates, near Nelson. These underlie, unoonformably) the whole of the beds that are developed in the Hokanui section, and contain the true Spirifer hisulcatus and Productus punctatus of the middle coal measures of New South Wales. The discovery of in the strata of the Collingwood district during the past year is also an important advance in New Zealand palaeontology. In upper mesozoic formations the most interesting novelty is the discovery, by Mr. Cox, of an extension of the West Coast coal measures towards the limit of the Te Anau Lake, while the heavy

bedded grits and conglomerates enter into the structure of lofty mountain ranges. The adtions to the tertiary fossils have chiefly been from the East Coast of Wellington, while the evidence of the relative position of the greensands and chalk marls to the mioeene strata of the Taipos and the pliocene tertiaries of the Wairarapa have received support by ample collections. The New Zealand fossils nowaccumulated in the course of the geological survey represent collections from 450 different localities, and comprise about 6200 trays, which have been thoroughly classified, and 1200 specific types withdrawn into a separate collection for publication. A large number of types have been figured, and their publication will be proceeded with as rapidly as the other work of the department will permit. “ Publications. —The volume of ‘ Geological Reports ’ for the past year is now in the press, and will contain the progress reports of the survey, and, in addition, descriptions and figures of the most important of the lower mesozoic fossils. “METEOROLOGY. “The number of meteorological stations is now fourteen, viz. :—Mongonui, Auckland, Taranaki, Napier, Wanganui, Wellington,, Nelson, Cape Campbell, Christchurch, Bealey, Hokitika, Dunedin, Queenstown, Southland. The returns made by the observers are published in the usual, form ; but it is very destiable that the reorganisation of this branch should be effected, with the view of reducing the present number of stations, and substituting a few thoroughly-equipped observatories, and a large number of stations where only rainfall, direction of wind, and temperature would be’ observed. - By this means the same expenditure would give more valuable results. “time-ball observatory. “ The necessity for certain additions and repairs to the Observatory have been represented to the Government, and in particular the desirability of having a second rating clock, as at present when the single astronomical clock is under adjustment intervals occur during which the time-ball cannot be dropped with accuracy. “laboratory. “The following is a summary of analyses performed in the Colonial Laboratory during the past year :—(I) coals, 15 ; (2) rocks and minerals, 46 ; (3) metals and ores, 53 ; (4) examinations for gold and silver, 70 ; (5) waters, 22 ; (6) miscellaneous, 25 ; total, 231. A full account of these analyses will be found in the annual report on the work performed in the laboratory, published herewith.”