I20 



THE MUSEUM. 



Take live specimens and place in 

 flat dishes of warm water (back upj 

 and when soft and pliable, which will 

 be in a few minutes, change to flat 

 dishes of one -third water and two- 

 thirds alcohol, and let them stand 

 twenty-four to forty-eight hours, cov- 

 ered with the liquid. Take them out 

 and place on boards to dry for a day 

 or two in the sun or by artificial heat 

 as the case may be. From the time 

 that the animals are taken from their 

 warm bath care should be exercised 

 that the arms are systematically ar- 

 ranged; dry them first back up, then 

 when somewhat stiff turn over, and 

 do this until perfectly dry. Fresh 

 warm water kills and makes them pli- 

 able, alcohol hardens, and evaporat- 

 ing carries out quickly from the body 

 such liquids as remain. 



A Trip After Meteorites.* 



Baku on the Caspian, Russian 

 Transcaucasia, 

 February, 1899. 

 My dear Bement: — 



Since sending you my previous let- 

 ter, in which I announced a visit to 

 Persia, I have successfully made that 

 trip, and am once more back in this 

 Caucasian Caspian seaport. Let me 

 tell you a little about my trip, which 

 in the outset, and before it was digni- 

 fied by success, I called (to myself) the 

 veriest wild-goose chase; the very 

 wildest still-hunt of quite a few which 

 you know I have made in these past 

 years after coveted specimens. 



You perhaps remember that Flight 

 in his meteorite book notes a Persian 

 meteorite called Veramin, which fell 

 some twenty years ago and became 

 the property of the Shah. Now, why 

 shodld I not go to that distant and in- 

 teresting country, interview His Ma- 

 jesty, see Veramin, and get a piece of 

 it for my collection! So thought I, 

 and when in St Petersburg two months 

 ago I took a first step in my plan by 

 obtaining from the Persian Ambassa- 

 dor, resident in the Russian capital, 



a letter of introduction to the Grand 

 Vizier of the Shah at Teheran. Then 

 when I had finished my meteorite 

 work in the museums of North and 

 Central Russia, had crossed the Cau- 

 casus and had come to this city and 

 writt n my notes to you, I decided, as 

 I informed you, to cut loose and go to 

 Persia. So, with a preliminary invo- 

 cation of fupitcr tonaus, who you 

 know is the patron Deity of meteorite- 

 huniers, I boarded a Caspian steamer 

 and sailed away southward. For two 

 days and nights we followed the east- 

 ern coast, the low shore having a mag- 

 nificent background of high snow-cap- 

 ped mountains — the south-eastern pro- 

 longation of the Anti-Caucasus range. 

 These mountains at length swung 

 around to an east and west trend, and, 

 now called the Elburz range, crossed 

 our track and reached far away east- 

 ward toward Afghanistan. The Cas- 

 pian ended, and we went ashore at the 

 little port of Enzeli, on the north bor- 

 der, or coast, of Persia. There I 

 joined with several of our passengers, 

 who, like myself, were headed for the 

 capital, and engaged riding-horses and 

 baggage- mules for our caravan-trip of 

 about 300 miles to Teiieran. 



I must not tell you of the incidents 

 of this trip. They were legion, but to 

 narrate them would take me too far 

 from the specifi: subject of this letter. 

 Suffice it to say that we had si.x da}s 

 of delightful views of nature in her 

 grandest display in the vallejs and ra- 

 vines and slopes and cliffs and colossal 

 peaks which we went through, over, 

 and among in mounting to the pass 

 over the Elburz mountains, 7,000 feet 

 above the sea-level. Si.x days delighte 

 in the natural beauties and the 

 country's novelties which were offered 

 us, yet most wearisome from the fati- 

 gues of wretched horses, poor food, 

 and beds upon the hard dirt floors of 

 dilapidated caravanseries and crumb- 

 ling mud huts at which we shopped 

 wherever night overtook us. Then 

 two days more, part of horse-back and 

 part of carriage, took us across the 



