62 THE NAUTILUS. 
he cannot ignore stratigraphy; therefore, the collection most con- 
venient to him is one arranged geologically ; again, he is making 
a special study of the tertiary mollusca, and has, for instance, 
a collection of Paris Basin fossils, he would not want to travel 
two or three hundred linear feet, on two or three different gal- 
leries to determine his material. Neither would the collector of 
recent shells want to delve among the overwhelming mass of fossils 
to name his collection. I think that we can therefore lay aside this 
plan (which is advocated by many) as being entirely inconsistent 
with our present system of investigation. The specimens in the 
Museum are mounted on tablets, the recent on white and the fossil 
on yellow, the label being pasted on the lower edge of the tablet. 
The collection of mollusca in the Museum of Natural History of 
Berlin, presents many features of interest. It occupies one-half of 
a large room, that is divided into small alcoves by tall, upright 
cases. All of the aleoves open into a passage-way along the side of 
the room, leaving three sides for the display of specimens. Each 
aleove is about 20 x 30 feet, and in the center of each is a long hori- 
zontal case, with drawers beneath, containing an exhibit of the land 
and fresh water shells of Germany, and the mollusca of the North 
and Mediterranean Seas. The latter are arranged longitudinally in 
a series, the one above the other. The conditions of the two seas 
being so different, the two collections form a very interesting com- 
parison. The general collection is arranged in the upright cases in 
cardboard trays, above which the printed label is held by a small 
card holder. In the upper part of the cases are a series of enlarged 
drawings of the animals, radulz, jaws, darts, etc. On top of the cases 
is a light iron framework, on which are hung excellent charts of the 
‘Weichthiere,’ showing the anatomical features of the leading groups. 
Throughout the entire museum great emphasis is placed on geo- 
graphical distribution. At the entrance to the rooms is a large chart 
of the world, each faunal region having a different color. Under 
. each chart is a series of the labels used in the museum, the labels 
having a wide colored border to indicate the different faunze. Small 
charts are also placed among the specimens, the areas inhabited by 
certain species being colored. 
In the Zoological Garden at Amsterdam, are two museums of 
natural history. The one devoted to the fauna of the Netherlands 
contains a very good collection of the shells of Holland. The other 
occupies the second floor of a long building, extending each side 
