THE NAUTILUS. 53 
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE, 
Lonpoy, August 11, 1896. 
The providential occurrence of a rainy day gives me the oppor- 
tunity to make good my promise to write something about the mu- 
seums and collections of England before my departure next Saturday 
for Paris. 
The main collection of shells in the British Museum (Natural 
History) occupy a room (or gallery, as it is called) about 140 feet 
in length and 40 feet wide. The shells are arrayed in 52 beautiful 
mahogany cases, about 8 feet long and 44 feet in breadth. They 
extend longitudinally in pairs, making four rows. The cases are of 
the horizontal type, with inclosed drawers below. The specimens 
are mounted on wooden tablets, which are covered with blue-gray 
paper, the smaller and fragile species being in glass-covered boxes 
which are also placed on tablets. On each side of the room are 
four smaller cases, which contain special collections, viz., some of 
the economic uses of shells, the pearl-bearing mollusks, eggs and 
egg-capsules of various species, Brachiopoda, some groups of the 
Cephalopoda, etc. At the entrance of the gallery there are two 
table cases, the one on the left containing pathologic monstrosities 
produced by disease and the reparation of injuries, the other sections 
of shells showing the internal structure and mode of growth, also 
specimens of rock and coral illustrating the boring power of mol- 
lusks and several kinds of wood perforated by various species of 
boring mollusks. Near the latter, against the wall, are four upright 
cases, two on each side; these contain the specimens too large for 
the cases containing the general collection. In one of these, pro- 
tected by a glass cover, you see the great Plewrotomaria adansoniana, 
from Tobago. This shell a friend of mine saw in an office in Tobago, 
being used as a paper-weight! but, when we wrote for it, “the bird 
had flown.” They are evidently not made for paper-weights. Two 
large valves of Tridacna gigas, 36 inches in length and weighing 
310 pounds, also greet you on entering this magnificent room, and, 
if it was near dinner-time, they would probably increase your appe- 
tite (since they have become the trade-mark of one of our leading 
restaurants) ; but you would soon forget the “inner man” when you 
got among some of the conchological gems. I have spent many 
hours going over the great collection, and hunting up some of those 
old rarities we have read about since boyhood: COypraea princeps 
