G. NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 327 



all objects relating to the Ashantees, Fantees, Dahomeys, 

 Houssas, and the neighboring tribes, are especially desired. 

 The Indian empire, the Eastern Archipelago, and the islands 

 of the southern hemisphere are also able to afford abundant 

 and valuable materials for the proposed museum, of which it 

 is believed that the nucleus can be formed at once from ma- 

 terials in private collections. 



Her Majesty's commissioners confidently appeal to the civil, 

 military, and naval officers of the British service throughout 

 the Queen's dominions to assist them in these collections, and 

 they have secured the services of eminent gentlemen to ad- 

 vise them from time to time in giving effect to these inten- 

 tions. It is requested that offers of gifts and loans of objects 

 should be made known at once to the secretary of her Majes- 

 ty's Commissioners, Upper Kensington Gore, London, S.W. 



It may not be known that precisely such a collection as 

 this, for America, has been undertaken by the Smithsonian 

 Institution, as part of the National Museum at "Washington, 

 the preparation of cases in a hall two hundred feet "by fifty 

 for this purpose being nearly completed. We are informed 

 that when the specimens now actually in the National Mu- 

 seum are suitably arranged and displayed, the result will be 

 an exhibition of the most unique and striking character, both 

 on account of its magnitude and the variety of its objects. 

 Among what we may call the monographic collections already 

 on hand, according to the report of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, are the Greenland Esquimaux, the Esquimaux of the 

 arctic coast of North America, between the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie and the Coppermine, the Tschuktchi of Northeast- 

 ern Siberia, the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands (both 

 modern and prehistoric), the Indians of Sitka, those of Queen 

 Charlotte's Island, of British Columbia and Puget Sound, the 

 various tribes on the Missouri, and especially the Snake In- 

 dians and the Pi-Utes of the Colorado River. This latter 

 collection, made by Major Powell, is exhaustive in its nature, 

 and of the most wonderful interest, as belonging to a tribe 

 still using the dresses and other appliances of a century ago, 

 and among whom the stone age has still its full development. 

 Among the collections referred to are knives, scrapers, and 

 stone implements in great variety, all properly mounted on 

 handles, and throwing great light upon the hitherto unsug- 



