for the yeciT 1866. 123 



our coast line eastwards as far as the entrance of tlie Gipps 

 Land Lakes. The maps of this survey are now considerably 

 advanced, and a new map of the colony, based on the accnrate 

 determination of the surveyors employed, is in progress. 



Thei-e have been some important improvements and 

 extensive additions made during the past year to our 

 national museum. The half of the museum building erected 

 by order of Parliament two years ago, adjoining to the 

 University, contains a very fine hall about 150 feet by 60, 

 lofty, well lighted, and ventilated, yet perfectly free from 

 the dirt and dust of the town, owing to the extensive 

 planted gTounds surrounding it. The students of the 

 University are referred daily to the various collections for 

 illustrations of the scientific lectures ; and of the general 

 public, 78,536 visited the building last year. In this way 

 the best practical and general use is made of the collections, 

 of which upwards of 100,000 specimens are now fully 

 classified and named by the director. Professor M'Coy. 



The ground floor on the north-east side contains a nearly 

 perfect collection of minerals, all carefully labelled, after 

 testing, with their chemical composition in symbols and 

 system of crystallisation, in addition to the name of the 

 locality, giving the greatest facility for study. On the same 

 side of the hall is a magnificent collection of skeletons, Jfrom 

 those of the gorilla down to the fishes, including elephant, 

 whale, manatu, and several hundred others, most instruc- 

 tively arranged in zoological series ; and a commencement 

 has been made of a novel plan for facilitating the study of 

 osteology in the museum, by marking the various bones with 

 a number corresponding with the anatomical name of the 

 part set for that length in inscriptions on the walls. On the 

 north-west side the floor contains the tertiary quadi^upeds, 

 the bones of which may thus be compared with those of the 

 living allies. 



