THE NAUTILUS. 53 



EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



LONDON, August 11, 1896. 



The providential occurrence of a rainy day gives me the oppor- 

 tunity to make good my promise to write something about the mu- 

 seums and collections of England before my departure next Saturday 

 for Paris. 



The main collection of shells in the British Museum (Natural 

 History) occupy a room (or gallery, as it is called) about 140 feet 

 in length and 40 feet wide. The shells are arrayed in 52 beautiful 

 mahogany cases, about 8 feet long and 4J feet in breadth. They 

 extend longitudinally in pairs, making four rows. The cases are of 

 the horizontal type, with inclosed drawers below. The specimens 

 are mounted on wooden tablets, which are covered with blue-gray 

 paper, the smaller and fragile species being in glass-covered boxes 

 which are also placed on tablets. On each side of the room are 

 four smaller cases, which contain special collections, viz., some of 

 the economic uses of shells, the pearl-bearing mollusks, eggs and 

 egg-capsules of various species, Brachiopoda, some groups of the 

 Cephalopoda, etc. At the entrance of the gallery there are two 

 table cases, the one on the left containing pathologic monstrosities 

 produced by disease and the reparation of injuries, the other sections 

 of shells showing the internal structure and mode of growth, also 

 specimens of rock and coral illustrating the boring power of mol- 

 lusks and several kinds of wood perforated by various species of 

 boring mollusks. Near the latter, against the wall, are four upright 

 cases, two on each side ; these contain the specimens too large for 

 the cases containing the general collection. In one of these, pro- 

 tected by a glass cover, you see the great Pleurotomaria adansoniana, 

 from Tobago. This shell a friend of mine saw in an office in Tobago, 

 being used as a paper-weight ! but, when we wrote for it, " the bird 

 had flown." They are evidently not made for paper-weights. Two 

 large valves of Tridacna gigas, 36 inches in length and weighing 

 310 pounds, also greet you on entering this magnificent room, and, 

 if it was near dinner-time, they would probably increase your appe- 

 tite (since they have become the trade-mark of one of our leading 

 restaurants) ; but you would soon forget the " inner man " when you 

 got among some of the conchological gems. I have spent many 

 hours going over the great collection, and hunting up some of those 

 old rarities we have read about since boyhood : Cypraea princeps 



