NA TURE 



[xMay \i. i«97 



The remaining room is entirely devoted to the South 

 African mammals, among which are an excellent series 

 of antelopes, chiefly obtained for the Museum by Mr. 

 Selous ; and the white rhinoceros, which was shot in 

 Mashonaland about two years ago by Mr. Eyre, and 

 was presented to the Museum by the Right Hon. C. T. 

 Rhodes. 



The three rooms first mentioned are lighted by windows, 

 and the cases placed at right angles, much in the same 

 fashion as in the larger galleries of the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington. The South African 

 mammal room is lighted from above, and the cases 

 extend all round the walls, together with four very large 

 free standing cases arranged in the middle of the room. 

 All the cases are made entirely of iron and plate-glass, 

 on what is generally known as the Dresden system. This 

 was found necessary in consequence of the great difficulty 

 which has hitherto been met with owing to the warping 

 of all woodwork in South Africa, which entirely prevents 



rooms are fitted with desk-cases, with underlying drawers, 

 also entirely constructed of iron and glass. 



The small rooms, together with those underneath the 

 South African mammal room, are the offices, the library, 

 and study-collections in cabinets and preserved in spirit. 

 Apart from the main building is a large taxidermist shop 

 and store room. 



Great interest was shown in the recent formal opening 

 of the Museum by the Prime Minister, Sir J. Gordon 

 Sprigg. A long report of the ceremony appeared in the 

 Cape Times, and is here abridged. 



The Hon. J. X. Merriman, addressing Sir Gordon Sprigg, 

 and those present, said it had fallen to his lot as the senior 

 trustee to ask him to open the Museum. The occasion marked 

 a very important stage in the history of the Museum, and he 

 could wish it had fallen to some one more scientific than himself 

 to sound the praises of the institution. But, in another way, it 

 was fit that he should say a few words, as he was perhaps the 

 only one in the assembly, except Sir Richard Southey, who 



The New Museum at Capetown. 



wooden cases from being secure from the attacks ot 

 insect pests. 



On the ground floor, on either side of the entrance 

 hall are two rooms ; of these, the larger one on the left 

 contains the invertebrate collections ; the smaller, the 

 antiquities. Amongst these latter, there are a certain 

 numlDer of pieces of glass and china of considerable 

 artistic merit, brought to the Cape by the Dutch settlers 

 in the early days ; and also one of the so-called post- 

 office stones on which, before any settlement existed, the 

 captains of passing ships used to engrave the dates of 

 their arrival and departure, and notices requesting subse- 

 queiitly-arriving captains to search near by for letters. 

 Similar stones are still occasionally found in the centre 

 of Cape Town, when excavations are made. 



The corresponding rooms on the right of the entrance 

 contain the geological collections ; the general collection 

 in the larger rootn, the South African in the smaller. In 

 the latter a special feature will be the exhibition of speci- 

 mens relating to the gold and diamond industry. These 



NO. 1437. VOL. 56] 



recollected the Museum in its infancy. When a boy, in the year 

 1855, he was always interested in going to the Museum. It was 

 due to two gentlemen who had now passed away, Mr. E. L. Layard 

 and Mr. Charles Fairbridge, that the Museum was first founded. 

 It was then put in the old Slave Lodge ; and it was mainly 

 owing to their exertions, and to the interest taken in it by Sir 

 George Grey, that the new Museum and Library was built, and 

 that the Museum migrated there, where it remained for a great 

 many years. At first Mr. Layard was the curator ; and amongst 

 the trustees who deserved mention were Sir Richard Southey, 

 who only vacated his oflice on being appointed Governor of 

 Griqualand West, and Sir Thomas Maclear, the Astronomer 

 Royal, who was now dead. The room was found to be totally 

 inadequate to the size of the collection, and after some negotia- 

 tions with the Government a grant was obtained, and the result 

 they saw in the building they were now going to open to-day. 



He thought it would be fitting that he should say a few words 

 as to some of the aims and objects in arranging the Museum in 

 that building. The prevailing idea, he was afraid, was that a 

 museum was a collection of all sorts, and oddments and curiosi- 

 ties ; and the name, like the honourable name of professor, had 

 been a good deal brought down ; for instance, they had Barnum's 



