i894- 



THE LA PLATA MUSEUM. 29 



the last few years by the untiring energy of its Director. Probably 

 many persons in England are under the impression that the La Plata 

 Museum and the Buenos Aires Museum (of which thepalaeontological 

 contents were so admirably described by its late Director, Dr. 

 Hermann Burmeister) are one and the same thing. This, however, 

 is far from being the case, the Buenos Aires Museum being the 

 National institution, while the La Plata Museum pertains to the pro- 

 vince only. Without entering into the question whether or no the 

 establishment of two such institutions within forty miles of one 

 another was strictly advisable in the interests of science, we may 

 state that at the foundation of the La Plata Museum, the National 

 Museum at Buenos Aires was left untouched, and the collection of 

 the former started almost de novo. And we may add, in no disparage- 

 ment to the elder institution — which must always claim the prestige 

 of containing the whole of Burmeister's types — that the younger sister 

 has shot far ahead, so far as palaeontological treasures are concerned. 

 So far as we can gather from an account published by the 

 Director in 1890, it would appear that the principal aim of the 

 Museum is to illustrate the whole fauna — both recent and fossil— of 

 the Argentine Republic. It has, however, been recognised that it 

 would be impossible to study the unrivalled series of fossil mammals 

 without the opportunity of comparison with the skeletons of the living 

 members of the same class from all parts of the world ; and the 

 Director has accordingly paid special attention to the acquisition of a 

 representative series of specimens of mammalian osteology ; our 

 second plate showing the gallery where the greater number of 

 these skeletons are exhibited. Among those of more than ordinary 

 interest are the fine series of skeletons of South American Cetaceans, 

 most of which have been obtained from the estuary of the Rio de la 

 Plata and the coast of Patagonia, where several of them have been 

 found stranded. The series includes skeletons of Balcsnopteray 

 Megapiera, Hyperoodon, and Orca, most of which have been referred 

 to species distinct from those of the northern hemisphere ; and among 

 these the splendid skeleton of a member of the first-named genus, 

 seen suspended on the left side of our plate, is remarkable for its 

 large size, the total length being upwards of 22J metres. Of 

 still wider interest is the skeleton of an individual 'of Neohalcvna 

 marginata — a cetacean which we believe to have been hitherto 

 recorded only from the South Seas. With the bare mention that 

 a large number of both native and foreign animals are represented 

 by stuffed specimens, we must bring to a close these few remarks 

 relating to the recent section of the Museum, and proceed to the 

 palaeontological department, which is the one from which the insti- 

 tution will derive a world-wide celebrity. 



Before setting out on my recent visit to La Plata, I had been 

 prepared by the glowing accounts sent to me by the Director, as well 

 as from the published writings of other palaeontologists, to find the 



