8o The Ottawa Naturalist. 



THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The Museum on Sussex Street is fast becoming- much too 

 small for the purpose for which it was originally intended, on its 

 being established in Ottawa. No one who visits that institution 

 to-day will say that it is not overcrowded. The fact is that only a 

 fraction of the resources of our Great Dominion are exhibited 

 -at present. Our legislators, who, during the session of Parlia- 

 ment, visit the Museum for the sake of obtaining exact and 

 useful information on the natural resources of any special district, 

 are deprived of the advantage of having the specimens 

 they require to see, exhibited in their proper place in the 

 Museum. The general public also apph' for information on 

 all kinds of topics and the fact that the Museum docs not show 

 all the specimens available for exhibition is a decided drawback. 



Nor can we insist too much upon the fact that the Museum 

 is a fire-trap. To think that the building as it stands to-day 

 from cellar to attic contains the result of fifty-three \ ears of 

 work on the part of a well organised Geological staff, in all parts 

 of Canada. Only two weeks ago a fire broke out in the 

 immediate vicinity ot the Museum and burned up a portion of 

 the boundary between two lots adjoining the lot on which the 

 Museum itself is built. We sincerely hope that the Government 

 will see its wa}^ clear to build such a Museum as will be a credit 

 to the memory of the first director of the Surve}- — Sir William 

 Logan. 



The Museum, we must not forget, is a unique one. It con- 

 tains the type specimens described by men of science and these 

 are unreplaceable in case of accident b}' fire or otherwise. The 

 constant reference which scientific men of Europe and America 

 make to specimens in the case of the Museum on Sussex Street 

 is in itself an index of the value which outsiders place upon 

 them. 



And still the question comes — " how long will these valuable 

 specimens be housed in a building quite inadequate to hold or 

 receive the specimens ready to be exhibited therein ? " We are 



