36 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



from the exhibits in these cheap cases, when they are women and 

 men of to-morrow, his museum, though he may then be dead, 

 will not want for ideal cases, an ideal fire-proof building, its own 

 railroad train, or even the most valuable tho^^gh perhaps not very 

 instructive specimens. 



With this inspiration, and having in the Rocky Mountains 

 Museum a need to build at least one case as a sample and install 

 it within three weeks, I designed a cheap case for a small museum 

 or a museum having small funds. A contractor in Ottawa will 

 make such a case for $10.00 or less, casing a museum for less than 

 one-fiftieth the cost of our finest cases. Any ordinary house car- 

 penter can make such a case. The materials may be obtained 

 wherever window sashes are to be had. All the woodwork may 

 be cut to sizes at the local mill, and this is especially desirable 

 where a large number of cases are to be made, as it will save much 

 of the expense of the carpenter work. 



The kind of wood and moulding may be varied according 

 to what is cheapest and most easily obtainable where the cases 

 are being made, care being taken, however, if any moulding is 

 used, to choose that which is simple, dignified, and will not gather 

 dust. It may be desirable to let the size of the glass panels and 

 even of the case depend somewhat on the size of glass that can 

 be obtained. 



The advocating of a cheap case, its manufacture, installa- 

 tion and use, in no way militates against advocating the best 

 and most expensive cases on the market, their manufacttire, 

 installation and use, but on the contrary paves the way for them. 

 The museum that waits to be useful until it can have cases cost- 

 ing many hundreds of dollars each will probably wait along time 

 for financial support. The museum that teaches and otherwise 

 becomes useful to the public with clean, neat, though cheap 

 cases, will gain the sound financial support which it deserves, 

 at least as soon as the children of the present generation grow 

 to positions of authority, and then the cheap cases may be dis- 

 carded, or, better still, sold or given to a branch museum or a 

 small struggling museum, and replaced by the very best cases 

 to be obtained on the market or to be manufactured. 



.^^ 



(To be continued). 



