18 I NEW NATURAL HISTORY Ml - 



trip] trohes, to the ninety-feet width of hall, lead to the first 



floor galleries, th I Mineralogy, being already open. 



The whole west wing of the building cannot be filled for some time to 



(•Mine, owing to tin- expenses of I I ing the Zoology from the old 



inn-, in : but the Botanical collection, the conservatory-like fitting's of 



which are already in tin ir place on the second floor, may shortly bo 



ivailable; while the Geological department has been brilliantly 



i Eorward and thrown open, as far as the Mammalia and Reptilia 



icerned. We may add that the public are admitted free on 



every week-day, the hours throughout the summer being from ten A.M. 



to six P.M. 



The Minerals are seen to full advantage in their gallery lighted from 

 Lrst the incongruity of the double row of terra- 

 cotta piers and the bare wall-surfaces, as contrasted with the panelled 

 inted roof , produc aewhat strange effect. The fossil fishes, 



i over the wave lined slabs, might, moreover, have 

 been confined to the lower floor; but the impression of the whole, 

 it arch at the cut ranee and at the passage to the end 

 undoubtedly one that grows. There is, under a circular 

 bas-reli Dodo, a staircase that leads directly to the Palaeont- 



ology beneath, though this doorway, if indeed intended for the public, 

 is so closed that the doubtful visitor must traverse again the Mineral 

 collection and twice the length of the Type Museum before he reaches 

 to the loftier ground-floor room. Here, between a similar 

 arrangement of rectangular pi rs and beneath a second tasteful roof, 

 we recognise our ol 1 friends the Mastodon of Ohio, the Deinotherium 

 skull of Eppelsheim, the [rish Eli, and, far away in the centre of the 

 pavilion, the cast of the amiable Megatherium, all profiting grandly by 

 the space and light around them. The Saurians have the benefit of a 

 gallery on the north, and opening from this at right angles run 

 dso li [hted from above, alternately wide and narrow, and 

 each aboul 1 10 Eeet in length. These will eventually contain the lower 

 from the fishes downward to the plants. 



The basement, which is completely above ground, owing to the 



slope of the gardens fnnii the ( 'roniwell Road, contains laboratories and 

 a variety of working-rooms, while each department possesses its special 

 library, to be united, it is hoped, in time, as the nucleus of that general 

 one so great l\ needed. 



Of course the bach and sides of the building present the usual 

 barren] uncompleted structures. How long will it be before 



it the Cromwell Road hides these from view, 

 in the noble work. 1 We h red to dwell upon that 



portion open to the public, though the kindness of Dr. Woodward has 

 guided as throuj b the whole east wing; but the work of removal will 

 now be steadily p until the whole collections are spread out 



with an instructive breadth unattainable in the old .Museum. Certainly 

 a number of artisans and children will suffer from the removal of 



