xxiii 



recesses, the bookcases are placed, back to back, behind the columns ; thus 

 dividing the whole length of the Queen's Room into twelve open apartments. 



The distribution of the books on the first floor is shown on the block plan 

 in the Appendix. Each recess is capable of containing 2,000 volumes, and the 

 classification, made under the direction of the Librarian, Mr. Tulk, has proved 

 alike convenient to the public and to the individual student, by conducting the 

 latter to the subject of his study, and by diffusing the former through the rooms. 



The resources of the Library on any subject may be thus discovered at a 

 glance, and the wants and desires of all being ascertained, provision can be 

 made to meet the demands of any particular section of visitors, while the 

 flexibility of the system will admit of the expansion of the arrangement without 

 any material disturbance of the general plan. 



In the Galleries the books are arranged against the exterior walls ; and here 

 are found the works presented by the Honorable the Commissioner of Patents, 

 2,020 volumes*; a collection of about 3,000 volumes of works of law, statistics, 

 political history, and economy ; and also a collection of about 1,200 volumes 

 treating of medical and surgical subjects. To these latter departments readers 

 and professional students are admitted by tickets, obtained from the Librarian. 



Light is admitted in the outer chamber by windows in front, 9 feet by 

 4 feet, and in the Queen's Room by windows of equal dimensions, in front and 

 rear, one in each compartment, as well as by cupolas in the roof of each room, 

 and horizontal windows deeply sunk in panels in the galleries. 



In addition to the air occasionally introduced through the windows, 

 ventilation is secured by open spaces being left over every bookcase, communi- 

 cating with flues carried through the main walls ; also by air tubes leading 

 from the base of the columns to the roof. 



The Rooms will accommodate about 350 readers, as follows : 



The centre table, 10 ; the long tables, 40 50 



The tables in Recesses, 100 ; Side and other tables, 100 ; 



Gallery tables, 100 300 



350 



There are 760 running feet of bookcases, or 6,400 running feet of shelving ; 

 and, calculating that, on an average, one foot will hold five books, the present 

 Library will contain 32,000 volumes. 



The general tone of the painting is a light cream color for the lower 

 parte, and a tender light blue for the ceiling ; the whole agreeably broken up 

 by a judicious introduction of gilding and ornaments of Etruscan red, blue, and 

 white. The relievo ornaments, such as enriched moulding, guilloches, &c. are 

 picked with color and touched with gold. 



The walls of the building are principally constructed of basalt (blue stone), the 

 front faced with freestone from Kangaroo Point, Tasmania. It is carried out in 

 the Corinthian style of architecture, the columns and pilasters standing in stylobate, 

 and surmounted by a parapet, partly of moulded panelling, and partly of balusters ; 

 the total height, from the ground to the top of the parapet, being 52ft. 



* The number in 1880 ia 4,870. 



