62 THE NAUTILUS. 



he cannot ignore stratigraphy ; therefore, the collection most con- 

 venient to him is one arranged geologically ; again, he is making 

 a special study of the tertiary mollusca, and has, for instance, 

 a collection of Paris Basin fossils, he would not want to travel 

 two or three hundred linear feet, on two or three different gal- 

 leries to determine his material. Neither would the collector of 

 recent shells want to delve among the overwhelming mass of fossils 

 to name his collection. I think that we can therefore lay aside this 

 plan (which is advocated by many) as being entirely inconsistent 

 with our present system of investigation. The specimens in the 

 Museum are mounted on tablets, the recent on white and the fossil 

 on yellow, the label being pasted on the lower edge of the tablet. 



The collection of mollusca in the Museum of Natural History of 

 Berlin, presents many features of interest. It occupies one-half of 

 a large room, that is divided into small alcoves by tall, upright 

 cases. All of the alcoves open into a passage-way along the side of 

 the room, leaving three sides for the display of specimens. Each 

 alcove is about 20 x 30 feet, and in the center of each is a long hori- 

 zontal case, with drawers beneath, containing an exhibit of the land 

 and fresh water shells of Germany, and the mollusca of the North 

 and Mediterranean Seas. The latter are arranged longitudinally in 

 a series, the one above the other. The conditions of the two seas 

 being so different, the two collections form a very interesting com- 

 parison. The general collection is arranged in the upright cases in 

 cardboard trays, above which the printed label is held by a small 

 card holder. In the upper part of the cases are a series of enlarged 

 drawings of the animals, radulre, jaws, darts, etc. On top of the cases 

 is a light iron framework, on which are hung excellent charts of the 

 "Weichthiere/'showing the anatomical features of the lendinggroups. 

 Throughout the entire museum great emphasis is placed on geo- 

 graphical distribution. At the entrance to the rooms is a large chart 

 of the world, each faunal region having a different color. Under 

 each chart is a series of the labels used in the museum, the labels 

 having a wide colored border to indicate the different faunre. Small 

 charts are also placed among the specimens, the areas inhabited by 

 certain species being colored. 



In the Zoological Garden at Amsterdam, are two museums of 

 natural history. The one devoted to the fauna of the Netherlands 

 contains a very good collection of the shells of Holland. The other 

 occupies the second floor of a long building, extending each side 



