128 LOOSE LEAVES ETC. 



of implements, dresses, instruments, divinities, models, figures, fruits, 

 sculpture, hieroglyphics, ornaments, and ten thousand other things of 

 Indian, Chinese, North American and African nations. 



The Mammalian Saloon has 52 large cases, and all the animals are, 

 of course, systematically arranged, and so set up, that they can be seen 

 to the best advantage. In four table cases, i. e. horizontal, is arranged 

 a series of the skulls of the smaller mammalia, to explain the characters 

 of the order and families, which is indispensable to the comparative 

 anatomist. 



The birds are contained in 166 cases, and I suppose there are 6 or 

 7000 specimens. The eggs of birds are placed in the smaller table 

 cases along the sides of the rooms ; they are arranged in the same 

 series as the birds in the upright cases. 



The univalve shells, in 31 horizontal cases, are shown to great ad- 

 vantage, and the hi-valves in 15. Here the conchologist has a glorious 

 treat, such a one as is seldom afforded. 



Suspended from the walls of this section of the zoological gallery 

 are 116 portraits of distinguished men. 



In anotlier section, you see an immense collection of reptiles and 

 Batrachian animals, preserved dry and in spirits, and near them, the first 

 part of the collection of the hard part of radiated animals, including 

 the sea eggs, sea stars, and encrinites. 



In another apartment there are 43 cases of monkeys and squirrels ; 

 20 cases of corals, and in another 26 of fishes, and 11 of Crustacea. 

 The room for the minerals is immensely long, and contains 60 large 

 horizontal cases full of them ; and it is well known to oryctologists, 

 that this museum contains one of the richest collections of fossil organ- 

 ic remains in the world. 



The Gallery of antiquities is almost endless. The famous Elgin 

 marbles are known the world over. The Egyptian saloon is almost 

 imequalled, and the infinite number of medals, coins, inscriptions, and 

 every thing ancient that is curious, 1 cannot begin to mention. 



This British museum is a great place of resort, and crowds of visi- 

 tors constantly throng its long saloons. Admission is free, and you are 

 not even allowed to give the men a fee who take charge of your cane 

 and umbrella. It is not so on the continent ; there, every one expects 

 and receives a fee, and well powdered, liveried, white stockinged lackeys 

 who keep your cane, hold out their hand and bow obsequiously when 

 you drop the Kreutzer. More than 550,000 persons visited this mu- 

 seum in one year, and the whole establishment is a magnificent and en- 

 during monument to the liberality and scientific zeal of the British 



