32 jRcrieus — L. Fletcher s Guide to the Mineral Gallery. 



II. — A Guide to the Minekal Gallery of the British Museum 

 (Natural History), Cromwell Eoad, South Kensington. With 

 AN Introduction to the Study of Minerals. (By L. Fletcher, 

 M.A., JF.G.S., etc.) Printed by Order of the Trustees. 1884. 



THE removal of the Natural History Collections of the British 

 Museum from their old home in Bloomsbury to the larger 

 buildings at South Kensington has permitted, not only of their more 

 complete exhibition, but also of their being arranged in such a way 

 as to be of far greater value for educational purposes. The curators 

 of the several divisions of the Museum have hastened to take advantage 

 of the opportunities now offered to them. The Index Museum, the 

 Osteological Collection, and the beautiful illustrations of the 

 nidification of birds, all bear witness to the desire on the part of 

 the director and keepers to make the Museum something more than 

 a mere show : and every gallery as it is thrown open to the public, 

 after the heavy task of re-arrangement is completed, exhibits to a 

 greater or less degree evidence of a determination to consult the 

 wants of students while those of the general public are not lost 

 sight of. 



We have much pleasure in calling attention to the excellent little 

 Guide to the Mineral Gallery, in which the present arrangement 

 and the reasons for adopting it are explained and illustrated with 

 admirable clearness by Mr. Fletcher, the Keeper of the Collection. 



Mr. Fletcher first tells us the history of this now famous collection 

 of Biinerals — one which he speaks of with just pride as of 

 "perhaps unrivalled excellence as well in its general completeness 

 as in the perfection of individual specimens." He shows how 

 around the nucleus of a few agates and other worked specimens in 

 Sir Hans Sloane's museum, the collections obtained by purchase or 

 bequest were gradually gathered. Among the chief collections of 

 minerals which were thus acquired by the British Museum were 

 those of Cracherode, Greville, (3-eorge IV., Heuland, Lady Aylesford, 

 and Dr. Bright ; but most imjiortant of all, on account of the care with 

 which they were made, those of Allan and Greg and of Kokscharow. 

 Mr. Fletcher bears testimony to the judgment with which Mr. Story- 

 Maskelyne, his predecessor in the office of Keeper during nearly a 

 quarter of a century, advised the Trustees in the purchase of the 

 specimens which were required to make the collection complete in 

 its various departments. 



As the author of the Guide points out, it is very difficult to make 

 the grounds of mineralogical classification clear to persons who have 

 not made a special study of the subject. Those who walk through 

 the galleries will be struck by the fact that minerals of very similar 

 appearance are placed far apart from one another, while others which 

 differ in colour and general aspect to a most surprising extent are 

 grouped together under the same name. To make the reasons of these 

 apparent anomalies clear to the general public is the object the " Intro- 

 duction to the Study of Minerals," which occupies some forty-four 

 pages of this little guide. 



In writing this charming little sketch, Mr. Fletcher has, very 



