South African Museum. 433 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Short Communications, Extracts, &;c. 



South African Museum. — The zoological collection formed 

 during the late exploring expedition into central Africa, to 

 which we directed the attention of our readers in a recent 

 Number, is now open to the public, at the Egyptian Hall, 

 Piccadilly, under the title of the South African Museum ; 

 and we take this opportunity of again appealing on behalf of 

 the objects to which the fund is to be applied, that it is hoped 

 may be raised by the present exhibition. An opportunity has 

 perhaps never been presented in which so much might be 

 effected by a little exertion on the part of those who feel in- 

 terested in extending our knowledge of the unexplored portions 

 of Africa, as in the present instance. A few hundred pounds 

 is all that the Association at Cape Town requires, so as to 

 enable them again to send out the same parties, by whose 

 exertions so much has been already achieved, and who are 

 impatient a second time to embark on this field of discovery, 

 notwitstanding the dangers with which the enterprise is neces- 

 sarily beset. 



There surely must be resident in this metropolis .500 indi- 

 viduals fully capable of estimating the important results at- 

 tached to expeditions of this nature, and who would willingly 

 lend their aid in seconding the efforts of the Association at 

 Cape Town. Now, if each of these 500 could only induce 

 8 or 10 friends to visit the collection, the sum received in this 

 way, in addition to the amount arising from casual visitors, 

 would afford all the means required. The colonists at the 

 Cape have raised among themselves 1000/.; and though the 

 whole of this has been expended, yet a considerable portion 

 of it will be refunded by the sale of the collection, thus fur- 

 nishing perhaps nearly half the means for defraying the 

 expenses attendant upon a second expedition. 



If it be desirable at all to penetrate still farther into the 

 interior of Africa, the advantages must be apparent to every 

 one of sending out an expedition at a time when it can be 

 conducted by parties who are familiar with the country, and 

 with the precise nature of the difficulties to be surmounted in 

 their route up to a certain point, and with whom, therefore, 

 the probabilities of success must be immeasurably greater 

 than if undertaken under a less favourable combination of 

 circumstances. 



Most deeply shall we regret it if a society fall to the ground 

 which has commenced its career so prosperously and promises 

 so fairly, for the want of a sum which appears paltry when 



