368 



THE MUSEUM. 



The brontornis must have prefe.red 

 dry ground, as is shown by the con- 

 formation of its toes, the nails of 

 which must have become worn by 

 walking, as in the case of the ostrich. 

 If we suppose that these large birds 

 already existed in the cretaceous 

 epoch, as see:ns probable, it is not 

 rash to believe that the phororhachses 

 and the brontornises did not remain 

 strangers to the extirxtion o( the din- 

 osaurians of Patagonia. 



The Smithsonian Institution and 

 U. S. National iMuseum. 



By Albert B. Farnham. 



To the bequest of Junes Smithson, 

 an Englishman, the United States 

 owes the establishment of the Smith 

 sonian Institution of world wide fame. 

 This bequest as first receieved was 

 about $500, 300, but judicious invest- 

 ment has advanced this sum to $703,- 

 000, yielding, at six per cent interest, 

 an annual income of $42,180. By 

 the terms of the bequest the object of 

 the Institution is the "increase and 

 diffusion of knowledge among men." 



Its work has been in two lines, one 

 stimulating scientific inquiry and de- 

 veloping interest in various branches 

 of knowledge, and the other of estab- 

 lishing at Washington an immense 

 collection of books consisting of the 

 transactions of learned societies and 

 records of discovery and invention, as 

 well as an immense National Museum 

 of objects illustrating the animal, veg- 

 etable, mineral and industrial resources 

 of North America especially. 



The greater part of the Smithsonian 

 Library of nearly a hundred thousand 

 volumes is deposited in the Library of 

 Congress. The National Museum to 



the Smithsonian Institution was es- 

 tablished by the Government in 1846. 

 The means for the support of the Mu- 

 seum are furnished by Congressional 

 appropriations. All specimens of nat- 

 ural history, mining, metallurgy, ob- 

 jects cf aboriginal workmanship; etc., 

 belonging to the Unitad States are in 

 this collection. 



Within the walls of the Museum 

 building a net floor surface of 2^ acres 

 is covered by roofs. It contains 17 

 large exhibition halls, 135 w^orkrooms 

 offices, etc., also about 4,000 square 

 feet in the galleries for storage pur- 

 poses. As a part of the work of the 

 Museum, a working library, a chemi- 

 cal laboratory, photographic rooms, 

 workshops for taxidermiy modeling, 

 preparing skeletons, etc., are also 

 carried on. 



But a faint idea of the magnitude 

 of the collections here can be gained 

 from this estimate of the number of 

 specimens. 

 Antiquities and Enthology . . . .650,000 



Arts and Industries 40,000 



Fossil invertebrates and plants. 500,000 



Marine invertebrates 500,000 



Minerals and metals. 70,000 



Rocks and building stones. .... 50,000 



Ores and metals 50,000 



Insects 600, 000 



Mollusks 425,000 



Fishes 100,000 



Reptiles 30,000 



Birds and Eggs 100,000 



Mammals 10,000 



The Smithsonian building while 

 poorly adapted to museum purposes is 

 one of the finest specimens of twelfth 

 century architecture in the country. 



The main hall of the first floor of 

 this building is devoted to the collec- 

 tion of birds, consisting of about 60,- 



