262 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



but as the present order will be preserved, and 

 all the new species carefully labelled, it will be 

 easy, whatever are its additions and the space it 

 may occupy, to adapt the present description to 

 its future state. 



This important examination being finished, 

 we will not dwell so long upon the collection 

 of formations, which is contained in the two 

 sets of drawers in the middle of the room. 



This collection is designed to represent the 

 structure of the solid crust of the globe accord- 

 ing to the actual state of our knowledge. It 

 was only begun in 1821, and therefore is far 

 from being complete. As space is wanted to 

 display it properly, it has been necessary to shut 

 it up in drawers, and a small number of large 

 specimens, which maybe considered as a sort of 

 index to the contents of the drawers, which 

 cannot be seen at all times, are placed in glass- 

 cases above them. When the two sets of drawers 

 are filled they will contain about ten thousand spe- 

 cimens from 3 to 4 inches square : it would more 

 than furnish the shelves of a room as large as the 

 one w r e are now considering. The drawers there- 

 fore answer the purpose of a much larger space. 



The formations, or, in other terms, the dif- 

 erent strata which, by their superposition, con- 

 stitute the solid crust of the earth, are placed 



