ii8 To the River Plate and Back 



archeological and ethnological collections are in part 

 lodged upon the first floor, but the greater portion are 

 displayed in the galleries upon the second floor. The 

 Curator of these collections is Dr. Robert Lehmann- 

 Nitsche. Both Dr. Schiller and Dr. Lehmann-Nitsche 

 are men of the highest scientific attainments, and their 

 contributions to those branches of science, which they 

 have made their special study, have given them inter- 

 national reputation. To the right of the rotunda we 

 were ushered into a gallery, at the moment vacant, 

 except for the wall-cases lining it and the presence on 

 the floor of the still unfinished bases upon which the 

 skeleton of the Diplodocus was to be set up. Here the 

 Staff of the Museum, so far as able to be present, met 

 us. We were told that Dr. Samuel Lafone-Quevedo, 

 the Director of the Museum, was on the seas, hastening 

 homeward after a vacation spent in Europe, and that 

 Dr. Ernesto Herrero-Ducloux, the Assistant Director, 

 who had been ordered by his physician to a health- 

 resort, would be back in a few days, and I was handed 

 a polite telegram from him, bidding me welcome in his 

 absence. Dr. Santiago Roth, as Acting Director, 

 informed us that the instructions sent by letter had all 

 been carried out, and that the force of laborers con- 

 nected with the institution was at our command. It 

 was not long before we discovered that there were differ- 

 ences of opinion among the learned gentlemen present 

 as to which would be the most effective way in which 

 to display the great specimen. One advocated putting 

 the head toward the rotunda, another advocated the 

 reverse. One thought the tail should be stretched out 

 to its full length, another thought that it should be 

 mounted, as he had seen it displayed in Paris, with its 

 tail curved forward toward the head. The discussion 



