SECRETARY'S REPORT. 337 



the other liand, personal liberty appeared to be as fully 

 respected, and everywhere as secure as I have ever known it at 

 home. 



Vienna is a city of some four hundred and. fifty thousand 

 inhabitants, beautifully situated on the Danube, and sliowing 

 every evidence of prosperity and splendor. The most extensive 

 and magnificent buildings rise as if by magic. It is estimated 

 that the building in progress at the present time is sufiicicnt to 

 accommodate a hundred thousand additional population. It 

 seemed as if in the midst of a new American city, with build- 

 ings on the most gigantic scale rising new and fresh on every 

 hand, warehouses and residences, a new opera-house, to be one 

 of the largest and finest in Europe, while the new public 

 garden, or Prater, gave evidence of the expenditure of immense 

 sums, in filling, grading, landscape gardening, flower culture, 

 <fe;c. "We have nothing that can compare with the noble public 

 grounds in and around Vienna, either in the extent and magni- 

 ficence, or in the taste and elegance with which they are laid 

 out. 



The first step on arriving was, of course, to report myself at 

 the office of the American minister, Mr. Motley. Having the 

 good fortune to find there an old university friend from whom 

 I. obtained all necessary information as to what to do first, little 

 was needed but to improve the time in studying the most 

 beautiful or the most interesting objects. Vienna is full of 

 such. 



There is the grand Royal Zoological Museum, connected with 

 the old palace. I spent a day there with much pleasure and 

 profit, filled with astonishment at the extent and completeness 

 of the collection. Room after room, story above story, crowded 

 with well preserved specimens, to illustrate the natural history 

 of the world. The director very kindly took me over the whole 

 establishment, pointing out the objects of most striking interest, 

 and expatiating in German, the common language of Austria, 

 upon various parts of the collection, as we went along. This 

 grand, scientific museum is open to the public free on certain 

 days of the Aveek, and is accessible to students at all times. 

 Many hundreds of people, men, women and children, and 

 teachers with their classes, were visiting the collection like 

 myself, and I could not help observing the earnestness with 



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