58 Boston — Cambridge. 



and are both lined with a woolen fabric which renders it difficult to 

 examine the nac or net. The smaller one has been used for a 

 sleigh-robe. 



The Boston Society of Natural History was visited because 

 it once had a fine colledlion of Hawaiian lavas, corals and botani- 

 cal specimens given b}- the present writer, and a skeleton of a 

 Hawaiian woman given b}- the late Horace Mann. The building 

 was found in an untidy condition,. the colle(5lions crowded, in poor 

 condition, and often incorredlly named. The La Fresna^-e col- 

 ledlion of birds has suffered much from neglect during the past 

 twenty years and the labels are often surprising as in the series of 

 the Australian Gyvnwrhina which are absurdly confused. This 

 museum possessed a dried Maori head. 



In refreshing contravSt to this was the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology in Cambridge. Certainly there was not a great deal 

 from the Pacific except in corals and mollusks, but there was an 

 Australian skeleton, and a small number of Hawaiian birds from 

 Wilson. The Ware colledlion of Blatscha glass models of flowers 

 is very attractive, although some of the tropical flowers and fruits 

 did not seem to have full size or color. Perhaps in Jamaica where 

 the material for these was mostl}- colle(5ted fruits do not color so 

 brightl)' as on the Hawaiian Islands. In this museum everything 

 was clean, w^ell presen'-ed and in order. 



The Peabody Mu.seum of American Ethnology and Archae- 

 ology certainly gives its first attention to American matters, and 

 under its distinguished Direcflor Prof. F. W. Putnam (who is also 

 Director of the American Museum in New York), it has attained 

 an important place among the museums of the world. Still it con- 

 tains, probably by the force of gravitation a number of articles 

 from the Pacific of which the following is a tolerably complete list 

 at least of the Hawaiian specimens on exhibition: 



Hawaiian Islands. 

 Auamo or Bearing-stick, common form. Broom of coconut leaf 

 ribs. Laau melomelo, large. 5 Huewai pawehi; one of com- 

 mon kind. Umeke of wood 20 >^ inches in diameter, flat. Umeke 



