6 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



wliicli bountifully provides for the publication and free distribution 

 of complete and systematic information bearing upon all branches 

 of American natural history. The reports of the Geological Survey, 

 the Bureau of Ethnology, the IVIiscellaneous PubHcations, the re- 

 ports of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, the Bulletins of 

 the National Museum, and nearly all the publications of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution are all sent free as air and postage paid to deserv- 

 ing applicants. This liberality on the part of the Government, 

 unparalleled in the history of nations, has given to science in 

 America such an impetus as could not have been acquu'ed in less 

 than a century by any other means. 



After six weeks of London, Paris came and went like a beautiful 

 dream, leaving confused memories of clean buildings, pretty parka 

 and gardens full of nude marble figures, monumental columns and 

 arches ; acres of fine paintings by masters old and new ; gorgeously 

 gilded and frescoed ceilings ; rooms full of artistically mounted 

 bones, " stuffed animals," and beautiful birds ; long rows of human 

 skeletons ; naked Hottentots in wax ; and museums of everything 

 under the sun. 



On Christmas day we crossed the Alps into " sunny Italy," and 

 landed in the lap of winter at Turin. " Sunny Italy " indeed, with 

 a foot of snow on the gi-ound ! Together, Professor Ward and I did 

 the natural history museums of Turin, Milan, Florence, Pisa, and 

 Kome, and, surreptitiously, I did the art galleries alone. 



Rome is a paradise for art, but a desert for natural history. The 

 Eternal City turns out paintings by the square mile, and regiments 

 of women and men in marble, but she cannot stuff an animal so 

 that it is fit to be seen. She has the Vatican and St. Peter's, but 

 she has not the least idea about cleaning and mounting skeletons 

 properly. There is one scientific man in Rome, the professor of 

 natural history who has charge of the University Museum ; but I 

 am sure he must feel very lonesome there. The naturalist is too 

 heavily handicapped in Rome. It requires the untrammelled genius 

 of the western world to produce a real mermaid, a Cardiff giant, 

 gorillas eight feet high, made of buffalo skins, and a forty-foot 

 whale made of bull hides sewn together. Rome ought certainly to 

 produce the most artistic taxidermists in the world, considering 

 how much artistic talent there is running to seed all over Italy ; 

 but Rome does not care a whit for natiire unless it is reproduced 

 in paint or marble. 



At Naples we spent eight delightful days, in spite of beggars 



