March] The Ottawa Naturalist. 1 67 



retained, as were the taxidermist department, the laboratory of 

 vertebrate palaeontology, the photographic department, and 

 half a hall devoted to the workshop of the National Gallery. 

 Some work rooms were vacated, however, and the distribution 

 ofifices, with their vast store of publications and maps, were 

 moved to another part of the city. 



Of about a hundred and forty members of the Survey staff, 

 over seventy moved about a mile to a series of buildings recently 

 taken over by the Government on the north side of Wellington 

 Street, between Bank and Kent streets, while some sixty of 

 those most intimately connected with museum work retained 

 room in the Victoria Memorial Museum building. In this work 

 of moving, militia motor lories were pressed into service, as well 

 as sleighs and other transports, and the office furnishings and 

 working specimens went out at the rate of sixty loads in one 

 day. 



His Royal Highness, the Governor-General, inspected the 

 House of Commons and the other parts of the Victoria Memorial 

 Museum building turned over for the use of Parliament, at 

 eleven a.m. on Monday, less than eighty-seven hours after the 

 fire began, or less than seventy-four hours after the museum 

 authorities were notified of need for the space. 



The Museum retains intact only one and a quarter of the 

 exhibition halls, namely, the anthropological hall and part of 

 the hall of vertebrate palaeontology. 



A sample museum, by means of which to advance museum 

 interests in the Dominion, has been begun in the anthropo- 

 logical hall. The archaeological and ethnological exhibits are 

 are intact, some of the best zoological exhibition cases of birds, 

 reptiles and insects, have been placed in the wider aisles where 

 they may be viewed; while mounted mammals and skeletons 

 of various animals have also been placed in the aisles and on 

 top of the cases. 



On the whole, the scientific work of the museum may go 

 on practically unhampered. The lecture work is being carried 

 on in other auditoriums. The exhibitions eventually may be 

 facilitated by the present apparent set back, as the museum 

 staff is undiscouraged, and the members of parliament, who 

 are now in daily proximity to the exhibits, and constantly 

 meeting museum workers, may become so interested that they 

 will provide future facilities for museum work in the Victoria 

 Memorial Museum building, or in a building even better adapted 

 for museum purposes. Besides this they may carry home to 

 all parts of the Dominion inspiration to establish useful museums 

 and to improve those already in existence. 



