166 



THE OOLOGIST. 



World's Fair Notes- 

 An extensive display of postage 

 stamps may be expected at the World's 

 Fair. The American Philatelic Assoc- 

 iation and the Philatelic Society of New 

 York have both appointed committees 

 to work to that end. 



California may show at the World's 

 Fair, as a part of its exhibit, the finest 

 collection of minerals in the United 

 States. Instead of making a special 

 collection as was done for the New Or 

 leans, Philadelphia and Paris exposi- 

 tions, there is a strong probability that 

 the state will send the magnificent col- 

 lections belonging to the State Mining 

 Bureau Museum. The State University 

 has the collection of the State Geologi- 

 cal Survey, the Voy collection, Hanks 

 collection, Keene collection, and several 

 others. These are all classified, arrang- 

 ed, identified and labeled. Each county 

 and district in the state is properly re- 

 presented. Every department of the 

 mining industry has its separate place 

 with locality indicated. No other state 

 or territory of the Union has any such 

 collection as belong to California now. 



Tulare, California, proposes to furn- 

 ish a very novel exhibit for the Fair. 

 From a gigantic redwood tree, 390 feet 

 high, and 20 feet in diameter, will be 

 cut two lengths forty-five feet long, and 

 these will be transformed into full-sized 

 railway coaches by hollowing out the 

 interior. The rough bark of the tree 

 will be left on the roof and on the sides 

 the natural wood will be left unpolish- 

 ed. The interior will be finished after 

 the style of Pullman cars. One will be 

 a buffet dining car, with bath, barber- 

 shop and kitchen, and the other a sleep- 

 er, with observation room. Ordinary 

 car trucks will be put underneath, and 

 the men of Tulare, with their wives and 

 children, will make the trip to Chicago 

 in these strange coaches and live in 

 them while there. The intention is to 

 keep these cars in theExpositiongrounds 

 and to sell as mementos the portions of 

 the tree cut away in their construction. 



Captain Alexander Rodgers, the spec- 

 ial World's Fair Commissioner to Bra- 

 zil, reports that the botanical exhibit 

 from that country will be the finest ever 

 made. The director of the botanical 

 garden at Rio de Janeiro, Dr. J. Barbo- 

 za Rodriguez, probably the leading 

 scientist in that republic, is taking a 



great interest in the work of preparing 

 a fine display for Chicago, He will 

 send the fullest possible collection of 

 plants, and make a full exhibit of or-. 

 chirds and palms, on both of which he> 

 is a high authority, having himself dis- 

 covered over five hundred new varities 

 of. orchids and fifty new varieties of 

 palms. He will send also his private 

 ethnological collection of over a hun- 

 dred pieces, the most valuable and the 

 rarest that he found during his stay in 

 the Amazon country. Dr. Ladislao 

 Neeto, the director of the national mus- 

 eum at Rio., is also very earnest in hav- 

 ing a fine exhibit at Chicago, and has 

 already made requisition for funds for 

 that purpose. Dr. Neeto organized the 

 Brazilian section of the Berlin fisheries 

 exhibition, and promised to get up a. 

 similar display for Chicago. This may 

 be given to the United States fishery- 

 commission in exchange for something 

 of theirs. 



The fish exhibit at the World's Col-, 

 umbian Exhibition is to be a wonderful 

 one, and not the least interesting por- 

 tion of it, naturally, will be the Aquaiv 

 ial or Live Fish display. This will be 

 contained in a circular building 135 feet 

 in diameter, standing near one extrem- 

 ity of the main Fisheries building, and 

 in a great curved corridor connecting 

 the two. 



In the center of the circular building 

 will be a rotunda sixty feet in diameter, 

 in the middle of which will be a basin 

 or pool about twenty-six feet wide from 

 which will arise a towering mass of 

 rocks covered with moss and lichens. 

 From clefts and crevices in the l'ocks 

 crystal streams of water will gush and 

 drop to the masses of reeds, rushes, and 

 ornamental semi-aquatic plants in the 

 basin below. In this pool gorgeous gold 

 fishes, golden ides, golden tench, and 

 other fishes will disport. From the 

 rotunda one side of the larger series of 

 aquaria may be viewed. These will be 

 ten in number and will have a capacity 

 of seven thousand to tweney-seven 

 thousand gallons of water. 



The entire length of the glass fronts 

 of the aquaria will bo about 575 feet or 

 over 3,000 square feet of surface. They 

 will make a panorama njvcr before 

 seen in any exhibit: :i and will rival 

 the great permanent aquariums of the 

 world not only in siz" t, 1 in all other 

 respects. 



