126 LOOSE LEAVES 



space of five or six days, during which time, it was said, that at least a 

 thousand teeth had been extracted in the manner above described. 



After lying in state for ten or twelve days, the remains of the Prin- 

 cess were deposited in the vault of the Island Kings. 



Philadelfhia, Feb. 25th, 1847. J. K. T. 



LOOSE LEAVES FROM MY JOURNAL. NO. VI. 



BV J. G. M. 

 THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



A naturalist abroad will, of course, seek out every collection, pri- 

 vate and public, that is of any special interest, and in most instances, 

 unusual facilities of examination are afforded him. You can always 

 distinguish a naturalist even among a crowd of spectators in a museum; 

 there is a knowingness in his inspections, a spccialness of observation; 

 a comparison of one animal, mineral or plant with others of the same 

 genus, and a fixedness of attention to many objects superficially or en- 

 tirely passed over by the mere gazer, that always distinguishes the con- 

 noisseur. — " I see you are a naturalist," — said a stranger to me one day 

 in a public museum. " How do you know that .' " — I asked. " From 

 your manner of looking at this collection," — was his reply. This gentle- 

 man was a returned missionary from Ceylon in bad health, and was 

 now amusing himself with natural history studies, which I regard as the 

 most efiicient dispellers of ennui or sick room taedium that any man 

 can employ. 



No palace, cathedral, monument, church, park, exhibition, gallery of 

 pictures, or the thousand other "lions " of London, interested me so 

 much as the British Museum. I happened to have one of the Profes- 

 sors as a correspondent, and I was most cordially welcomed by him, 

 and introduced to five or six of his colleagues, among whom are names 

 which have gone to the ends of the earth. Day after day, 1 went into 

 Iheir sanctum, an immensely large room, where they are all at work, 

 writing, describing, cataloguing, arranging, drawing, or painting figures 

 for illustrated books. I was happy in meeting here a countryman who 

 was painting an animal .for Audubon and Bachman's great work on the 

 mammalia of our country. Does it not appear strange that an Ameri- 

 can must come all the way to London to paint an American animal? 

 Yet, so it is. It was a rare one, it is true, and found in no American 

 collection, but brought to London by the agents of the North West 

 Fur Company. I never before felt the truth of an observation made to 

 me some years ago by a distinguis-hed countryman of ours, said he : " If 



