NATURAL HISTORY AT ST ANDREWS 291 



of the spirit-preparations were mounted in jars, and the whole 

 donation (with printed labels) was exhibited at a conversazione, 

 presided over by Principal and Mrs Shairp, in the United 

 College Hall in the spring of that year. In the same year 

 the extensive type specimens, procured during the trawling 

 expeditions connected with the Royal Commission under 

 Lord Dalhousie, increased the value both of the museum and 

 of the class collection. A series of stuffed and mounted birds 

 and mammals and other forms was likewise procured from 

 the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art in exchange 

 for various rare marine specimens. These and the type 

 specimens of the eggs and young of the food-fishes, and 

 examples from the Challenger, Travailleur, Valorous, Porcu- 

 pine, and other exploring ships were exhibited at a second 

 conversazione in the United College Hall early in 1885. 

 Students, the public, and the fishing population had free access 

 to both this and the previous conversazione. 



Since 1882 a steady stream of British marine specimens 

 has enriched the museum from various parts of the British 

 coasts, and the local specimens (not a few new to Britain) 

 have largely increased since the establishment of the marine 

 laboratory in 1884. The series illustrating the eggs and 

 life-history of the British food and other fishes may be referred 

 to as of special interest and importance, and, so far as known, 

 exceeds that of any other British collection. In one case 

 alone there are between four hundred and five hundred jars, 

 representing the eggs, larvae, and various stages in the growth 

 of the fishes. 



Amongst other important collections received subsequently 

 to the London Fisheries' Exhibition is a large series of young 

 marsupials from the pouches, several examples of Echidna, 

 and a young dugong from the Australian Museum through 

 Dr Edward P. Ramsay. Many fresh specimens of monkeys, 

 edentates, rodents, and other fresh forms from the Zoological 

 Gardens, Regents Park, were forwarded by the kindness of 



