27 



ing, a steam-engine and boilers can be placed on the southwest corner, with the 

 out-buildings, and pipes be laid to convey to each apartment steam to keep up 

 an artificial warmth in winter of about 60 to 65 Fahrenheit, on a plan similar 

 to that adopted at the Nashville University, and constructed for the buildings of 

 their literary department by Mr. Miles Greenwood, of Cincinnati. 



The plan of a centre wall, dividing the main body into rooms 80 feet long by 

 30 feet wide, enables us to secure, however, two other advantages, viz : much 

 light from the outside walls, which is greatly wanted for examining, and much 

 room for depositing, specimens of every size and shape. Against this centre 

 wall are to be raised, on heavy trestlework, or on an iron frame, three terraces, 

 making, with the cases on the level of the floor, four ranges in each room of the 

 museum proper ; each terrace to have a walk of four feet wide in front of the 

 three upper cases, which occupy two feet in width consequently, eighteen feet 

 for the three upper terraces, and two feet for the lower cases, thus leaving ten 

 feet for a passage next to the windows, beneath which might be deposited a few 

 large specimens, such as could not enter the cases, yet should occupy a position 

 opposite their appropriate places in the terraces. The ascent from the floor to 

 the terraces may be made by light cast-iron steps and balustrade. The total 

 height of room from the floor, provided we make the cases six feet high, even 

 if we drop the four-foot walks one foot below the back of their anterior cases, 

 would necessarily be four times five, or twenty feet to the ceiling. The glass 

 doors of the cases should slide on iron-rollers. The rooms in the east wing are 

 designed chiefly for lecture-rooms ; those in the west are to contain some of the 

 adjuncts, and serve as working rooms for the respective departments. 



A. South side of the building. To obtain the necessary height for rooms 

 having four tiers of cases, it is necessary to have only two stories on one side 

 of the building. 



a. First story the geological cabinet. This is designed to exhibit, in accord- 

 ance with Professor Dana's text-book the best yet offered to the public illus- 

 trative specimens of the azoic period in the first row of cases, the paleozoic 

 fossils in the second row of cases, (on the first terrace,) the mesozoic in the 

 third row of cases, the ccnozoic in the fourth row. 



In the first range of cases, when arranging the most characteristic azoic rocks, 

 we should begin on the lowest shelf of the left case, with the oldest granite or 

 plutonic series, closing that case on the right upper shelf with the plutonic 

 porphyries, which form an easy transition to the second case. Here we arrange 

 the ancient volcanic rocks, in the third case the recent volcanic, and in the fourth 

 case the metamorphic rocks. 



In occupying the second tier, or range of cases, with paleozoic fossils, we 

 commence on the left with the lower silurian fossils, and finish on the right with 

 the permian. 



In the third range of cases we place the fossils from the triassic to the cretaceous 

 formations, inclusive. 



In the fourth range of cases would be found the tertiary and quaternary 

 fossils, from the lowest eocene tertiary on the left, such as we find at Vicksburg, 

 to the remains found in the quaternary deposits of the Ohio, Mississippi, &c., 

 as the megalonyx, and the shells in the marl, equivalent to the loess of the 

 Rhine, such as those found at Vicksburg, superposed just over the tertiary. 

 The latest quaternary closes the series on the extreme upper shelf of the last 

 right-hand case, as viewed when facing the collection. 



If a mineralogical cabinet is to be arranged here, as well as one in the room 

 adjoining the laboratory, there would probably be room for a tolerably full suite 

 of specimens on the right of the azoic rocks, and these mineralogical constituents 

 of rocks should be arranged according to Dana's manual on mineralogy, which 

 is also the best text- book on that subject. 



It may not be amiss here to remark, with regard to all collections, that their 



