86 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, HM), r ,. 



changes were made in the hall devoted to the graphic arts, but in the 

 gallery of ceramics the collection of purely artistic ware in porcelain, 

 glass, lacquer, and metal work was arranged by countries in a series 

 of separate cases along the west side and the inner edge of the gallery. 



The historical collection which occupies the north hall has been 

 maintained in good condition, the principal addition being a case 

 assigned to the National Society of the Dames of 1S46 for the 

 exhibition mainly of relics of the war with Mexico. 



The most conspicuous additions to the exhibition collections in the 

 Department of Biology resulted from the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 

 tion. This was especially the case in regard to the mammals, of 

 which specimens of several large and interesting species hitherto either 

 unrepresented or only poorly so in the Museum halls, were prepared 

 for St. Louis in accordance with the latest advances in taxidermy and 

 the preparator's art. Their transfer to Washington unfortunately 

 found the mammal hall so overcrowded that many could lie given 

 only a temporary position, and for the most part without cases. The 

 new additions consist of a polar bear, black bear, giraffe, hippopota- 

 mus, zebra, gnu, musk ox, Sandbur stag, Olympic elk, and the cast 

 of a sulphur-bottom whale. The great amount of labor entailed in 

 securing and preparing the last mentioned object has been referred 

 to in a previous report, and it may be stated that the result has much 

 more than justified the effort. The whale, about SO feet long, was 

 grounded at a whaling station on the coast of Newfoundland, where 

 a sectional mold was made of the exterior of the body and the entire 

 skeleton removed. The cast, appropriately colored, is now suspended 

 from steel trusses connected with the framework of the roof in the 

 mammal hall. The skeleton was at the close of the year being 

 installed in the adjoining hall of osteology. 



Besides the above, 35 mammals, mounted by the taxidermists of 

 the Museum, were added to the exhibition collection. They con- 

 sisted, besides a tiger, chiefly of rodents and other small forms from 

 the African, Oriental, and Palearctic regions, including such impor- 

 tant species as the large aquatic African insectivore, Potamogale, the 

 Tasmanian marsupial wolf, Thylacinus, the jerboa, dormouse, mar- 

 mot, Philippine Island rats, paradoxure, ermine, Java porcupine, etc. 

 The South American forms comprised a paca, capabara, and aguto. 

 All of these specimens were mounted separately, but chiefly with 

 some indication of natural environment. The collection of heads of 

 Las! African antelopes, on deposit from the Hon. William Astor Chan- 

 ler, and other smaller heads placed with them, were thoroughly 

 cleaned and repoisoned, and the panel to which they are attached 

 was extended the entire length of the cast gallery. The contents of 

 the large east wall case were partly rearranged, and many temporary 

 bases on which the specimens were mounted were replaced by perma- 

 nent ones. 



