April 2, 1 885 J 



NA TURli 



5M 



express the desire of the investigators within for all the 

 light they can get. 



Entering the basement-floor we find the posses- 

 sions of the U.S. Fish Commission, deposited for sorting 

 and examination under the eye of Prof. A. E. Verrill, 

 who is chief of the zoological part of the museum, 

 or by some of his associates. In another part of the 

 basement, Prof. O. C. Marsh keeps "greate store" of 

 fossils, cleaning the gigantic bones from Rocky Mountain 

 quarries preparatory to study and display. Considerable 

 pakeontological property of the U.S. Geological Survey 

 is under inspection here also. 



Only favoured visitors go to the basement, or care to 

 go. The public entrance is above, opening underneath a 

 magnificent rose-window into a spacious court with tiled 

 floor, and walls of variegated bricks. This region is 

 garnished by great slabs of the celebrated footprint sand- 

 stones from the Connecticut valley, and a huge stump 

 taken entire from a coal-bed. Iron staircases, clinging to 



the wall in spiral flight, lead to the top story, and the 

 court is roofed with glass. On the right and left of the 

 entrance are doors leading to business offices, the blow- 

 pipe laboratory, and the lecture-rooms of the Professors 

 Dana (father and son), where large audiences frequently 

 gather to hear the instruction designed for undergraduates 

 alone ; and in the rear of the court, on the ground-floor, 

 is the exhibition hall for minerals, of which the museum 

 possesses an almost unrivalled collection. This might be 

 expected, considering the men — Dana, Silliman, Brush, 

 and others — of whose labours it is the result. 



The only thing in this room not locked up is a meteorite 

 weighing 1600 lbs. The metal in one spot has been 

 sawed off, and polished until it looks like burnished steel, 

 and has been engraved with an historical inscription, from 

 which it appears that this meteorite fell in Texas, pre- 

 sumably the only State in the Union large enough to 

 receive it safely. 



After the brilliant and many tinted ores, the endless 



variety and beauty of the quartz crystals, and the sub- 

 stantial interest inspired by the metals, visitors always 

 pause with new gratification before some curious rosetted 

 crystals of a form of lime, though they usually quite over- 

 look the " educational series," which has been spread 

 with such pains for their instruction. This educational 

 collection, which seems to be extremely apt and well 

 selected, concentrates in a single case a practical glossary 

 and text-book of mineralogy. To this epitome of the 

 science all the rich and rare examples in the wall-cases 

 are only attractive illustrations ; and, the further to help 

 the inquirer to understand them, several copies of Dana's 

 " Mineralogy " will be found upon little tables near by. 

 Here persons may sit and read, acquire and carry away 

 the information, but not the book, for that is chained to 

 an iron pillar. 



The third floor is that most popular with the public, 

 since it is devoted chiefly to modern animal life. The 

 first thing to strike the eye in the south room is a fine 

 series of comparative skeletons of primates, from civilised 



will appear when completed. 



man down to the humblest of monkeys, all hanging in a 

 beautiful row by hooks screwed into the tops of their 

 heads. Beyond them, the whole side of the room is filled 

 with cases containing an orderly succession of skeletons 

 illustrating all the vertebrate orders ; while the centre of 

 the room is occupied by the skeletons and stuffed hides 

 of the larger mammals, like the camel, rhinoceros, a very 

 dejected polar bear, &c. 



In the same room several cases are filled with stuffed 

 skins of mammals, birds, and reptiles. Beside most of 

 the land birds are placed their nests, with the eggs ; or 

 else the eggs are glued upon upright tablets of ground 

 glass, in which position they show to excellent advantage. 

 One large case is devoted to a collection of New England 

 birds alone, excellently mounted upon the branches of a 

 tree. This is the work of Prof. W. D. Whitney, who, 

 before he became prominent as a linguist, was known as 

 a good ornithologist ; as, in fact, he still is. 



Passing to the west room on the same floor, one sees 

 invertebrate preparations most attractively displayed. 



