Report of a Journey Around the World. 261 



I do not know a remedy that is satisfactor)-. The compilation of 

 a work on what is known of the implements of the Pacific Islands 

 would be a help ; and so far as wooden implements go the publi- 

 cation of microscopic sections of authentic specimens of all woods 

 in common use on these islands would be a check : but some woods 

 commonly used, as Casuarina, Calophylliim, Aieurites, are found 

 all throvigh the tropical regions, so the protection would not be 

 complete, and the list of authentic specimens from all the groups 

 would help more as indicating the rarity of such specimens. On 

 the other hand the rarity would be an additional incentive to the 

 devilish ingenuity of the forger. Perhaps personal skill and famili- 

 arity with the native work will remain the best securit)^ against 

 imposition, and photographic illustrations of genuine specimens as 

 proposed in the projected work mentioned below must do the rest. 

 In the meantime all museum curators must be on their guard 

 against collecflions made by inexperienced persons, or offered for 

 sale by unknown parties. 



I am coming presentl)' to the financial element of museum 

 work ; we all feel how important that is, and I confess I have never 

 found a good museum that had half enough money to meet the 

 wants of its staff. I have often noticed in my many journeys that 

 an Englishman was pretty sure, if he found a rare specimen, to 

 think first of the British Museum, and while I frankh* confess that 

 I have now and again shifted the points and run the specimen into 

 our own museum, it was pleasant to know that there was a loyal 

 feeling toward the great museum of their home. I suppose the 

 graduates of the great English universities who wander to the 

 uttermost parts of the earth, remember the museum of their Alma 

 Mater ; if the}" do not they have failed to fully profit b}- their so- 

 journ on the banks of the Isis or the Cam. 



In some of the American museums I have found a method of 

 contributing to the good work which seems pleasant. In one a 

 company of persons interested in bird life, although not perhaps 

 scientific students, combine and raise a fund of which the income 

 is to be devoted to the better mounting of bird groups, and pres- 

 ently that museum is able to employ an artist who transfigures the 

 solitary and stiff specimens on perch or stand, into a beautiful home 



[409] 



