CHAPTER I. 



PART I. 



INTRODUCTION GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP THE GALLERY OP ORGANIC RE- 

 MAINS PLAN OF ROOM I. SYNOPSIS OP CONTENTS OP ROOM I. FOSSIL 

 VEGETABLES MINERALS METEORITES. 



INTRODUCTORY. The extensive and admirably classified 

 Museum of Zoology, presided over by that eminent natu- 

 ralist, JOHN EDWARD GRAY, Esq., through which the visitor 

 approaches the Gallery of Organic Remains, presents a rich 

 assemblage of the principal types of animated nature which 

 now inhabit the earth, and forms an appropriate and instruc- 

 tive introduction to the suite of apartments, in which are 

 preserved the vestiges of the extinct races of Animals and 

 Plants, that successively tenanted our planet during the in- 

 numerable ages which intervened between the earliest dawn 

 of organic existences, and the creation of the human race. 



The Gallery of Organic Remains is situated on the north 

 side of the north wing of the Museum, extending from east 

 to west in a suite of six rooms, nearly 400 feet in length by 

 36 in width. The large specimens are for the most part 

 placed in upright cases affixed to the south wall ; and as the 

 rooms are lighted by side-windows, instead of by sky-lights 

 as in the Zoological department, nearly half the wall space 

 is rendered unavailable for cabinets. The complete and 

 excellently arranged Mineralogical Collection is distributed 

 in a series of 60 table-cases, occupying the floors of the Rooms 

 I. to V. ; the other tables contain various organic remains, 

 as bones, shells, corals and other zoophytes, echinoderms, &c. 



The arrangement of the Fossil Animals and Vegetables is 

 still incomplete : several cases are almost empty, and the con- 



