16 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VIII. — General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The total number of visitors to the Museum in 1909 was 

 708,836, as against 743,413 in 1908 (when the Franco-British 

 Exhibition attracted an unusual number of visitors to London), 

 and 646,300 in 1907. The total for week-days was 644,143, 

 and for Sundays 64,693, the latter being the highest figure yet 

 reached, with the exception of 74,324 in 1908. 



The number of visits by readers to the Reading Room was 

 217,975, a lower figure than in 1908, when it amounted to 

 231,544, but higher than in any other year of the present 

 century, except 1904. The daily average was 719, as against 

 761 in 1908. 



The number of visits of Students to particular Departments 

 (other than the Reading Room) was 58,065, as compared with 

 55,676 in 1908. An increase is shown in the figures for every 

 Department, except that of Manuscripts and the Sculpture 

 Galleries. 



Work was resumed on the British Museum Extension 

 Building early in the year, when the contract for the main 

 building was given to Mr. W. E. Blake, of Plj-mouth. The con- 

 tract date for the completion of the building is the 31st January 

 1911. 



The work of constructing fire-resisting partitions in the roof 

 of the Museum has been continued ; and progress has been made 

 with the replacing of decayed stones in the outer walls of the 

 building. 



The temporary iron building, erected to contain the casts 

 of antique sculpture transferred from the Victoria and Albert 

 Museum, was completed and opened to the public on the 23rd 

 August. 



By arrangement with the India Ofiice, accommodation was 

 provided for the collections brought by Dr. Stein from Central 

 Asia, in order that Dr. Stein and his assistants might have 

 facilities for examining and cataloguing them before they pass 

 finally into the custody of the India Office and the British 

 Museum. 



The principal additions to the collections are noticed below 

 in the reports from the several Departments ; but a few of the 

 more important may be specially mentioned here. 



In the Department of Printed Books, the policy of increasing 

 the collection of incunabula, in view of the Catalogue of Early 

 Printed Books now in progress, has been continued. Sixty-six 

 books printed before 1501 have been acquired, including three 

 from presses hitherto unrepresented in the British Museum ; and 



