February, 1S93.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



the Kansas University exhibit is " one of the 

 most remarkable " is used advisedly. 



This exhibit is the work of a man who is 

 recognized by naturalists as being one of the 

 best in the country, if not in the world, and 

 his specialty is the larger mammals of North 

 America. To this branch of the study of ani- 

 mated nature Professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche 

 has given many years of his life and he is yet 

 a young man. Beginning when a boy, tramp- 

 ing and hunting along the banks of the 

 W'aukarussa River, in Kansas, he went 

 through the university with an increased de- 

 sire to study the habits and natures of animals. 



The e.xhihit which he has brought to the 

 World's Fair is the result of ten years' work 

 in the field collecting and fourteen months' 

 work in the taxidermic shoj) with five assist- 

 ants. The professor, who is curator of birds 

 and mammals of the State LIniversity of 

 Kansas, has devoted himself to making such 

 an exhibit that the whole world will be com- 

 pelled to acknowledge the superiority of the 

 State of Kansas in this line. 



Numbers in the abstract give but little 

 idea of a thing. There is something in the 

 sound of hundreds and thousands that gives 

 but a vague impression to the mind, and it 

 is only when the reality is placed directly 

 before a person that he fully realizes what is 

 meant by numbers. When it is said that 

 the Kansas mammal exhibit will be 100 

 mounted animals it conveys no idea of what 

 is to be seen there. A description of these 

 hundred animals must of necessity be in- 

 complete and far short of the picture that 

 will be presented by a view that will be laid 

 out on the floor of the north wing of the 

 Kansas building. 



The north wing of the Kansas building is 

 60 X 80 feet, with ig-foot walls. The light 

 comes from a sloping roof of glass, while 

 the front opens out into the main hall of the 

 building. It is in this wing that will be 

 placed one of the most artistic exhibits of 

 the coming exposition. The professor is 

 not satisfied with showing a lot of " stuffed " 



animals, but has outlined a plan by which 

 he will at the same time give an instructive 

 and pleasing history of the animals in an 

 object lesson. To describe in detail the 

 plan it must be understood that these hun- 

 dred animals are in groups, each group 

 showing an actual scene taken from life by 

 the professor, as he saw it while on one of 

 his many hunting expeditions. 



Beginning at the extreme southwest cor- 

 ner of the wing the \ isitor will find one of 



llll.l. MOdSK.* 



the grandest groups in the whole collection, 

 This is a group of seven Moose. The 

 herd is headed by an enormous Bull, who 

 stands 9 feet 2 in. from the ground to the tip 

 of his immense branching antlers. The 

 leader of the herd stands on a slight emi- 

 nence in a swamp and is looking off after 

 some possible danger to his family. Near 

 the Bull is an old Cow with twin Calves. 

 The Cow is riding down a tree in order to 

 give her Calves a chance to browse ofl' the 

 leaves. Back of the Cow are two 2 -year- 

 old Moose browsing from a tree, while a 

 .5-year-old Bull is approaching from the 

 I opposite direction. The whole scene is set 

 in a swamp true to nature, and made with 

 logs and dead trees brought directly from 

 the Lake of the \\oods, where the animals 

 were killed. 



Separating the group of Moose from a 

 group of Caribou is a natural break in the 

 topography of the land. The four Caribous 



♦Sketches from specimens on exhibition. 



