228 THE GAKDEN OF PLANTS ]N PARIS. 



But let us enter one of the large, massive buildings we see on all 

 sides. Yes ; I have heard before of this long suite of rooms filled with 

 skeletons of almost all animals in creation. This is ihe 7miseum of com- 

 parative analomy, in which Cuvier immortalized himself. Only twelve 

 large rooms, and most of them with galleries, are filled with specimens 

 of this department of science ! Every thing that could possibly be 

 anatomized is to be seen here, and those things which could not be pre- 

 served, have been most admirably figured in wax. In this way, for in- 

 stance, is represented the gestation of many animals, the human not ex- 

 cepted, from the very beginning to the end of it ! 



Are you tired of looking at these dry bones and artificial anatomies ? 

 Well, just enter another immense edifice near at hand and mount to the 

 second story first. You will there see about six long rooms crowded 

 with prepared mammalians exclusively, but these are done up in the 

 highest style of the taxideiraic art. 



VVhen you are satisfied here, just walk on and you will come to a 

 suite of rooms containing fifty-seven of the largest sort of glass door 

 cases full of birds. You are bewildered and do not know where to be- 

 gin. You are wearied with the gorgeousness of their plumage, and al- 

 most wish that there had never been so many birds created, for it seems 

 impossible for you to inspect the half of them. 



Do you like to look at reptiles? Just go down the broad stairs and 

 enter a large apartment towards the south and there you will have an 

 opportunity of examining more tlian three thousand specimens. 



Of the^.s7ies, there is no end ; thirty-seven cases contain this match- 

 less collection. This is the place in which Cuvier and Valenciennes work- 

 ed out their system and produced their immortal book on Fishes. In 

 walking through these rooms and knowing that here these and other 

 illustrious naturalists worked and wrote and some of them died, it makes 

 a man feel solemn, as though the spirits of these mighty men still hov- 

 ered round, reluctant to leave the place where their strongest efforts were 

 put forth. 



I do not think it necessary to enter minutely into an account of the 

 collection of spiders, crabs, myriapodes and insects — of the shells, an- 

 nelidce et radiata. Their number is twenty legions — and their arrange- 

 ment perfect. 



Perhaps, you are fond of geology. Here you will see almost every 

 thing which that science has developed in the way of fossils. Six large 

 rooms are occupied with the specimens. 



If you love minerals, here your eyes have a feast which you will 

 never forget. Sixty large gla:is door cases arc filled with the finest spe- 



