ACCOUNTS, &.C. OF BKITISH MUSEUM* 



4. The number of volumes of Music amounts to three, of whicli one, comprising one 

 work, was presented, and two, comprising two works, were acquired by purchase. 

 Besides these, 1,142 complete works, and 490 parts and numbers of works in progress, have 

 been acquired by copyright. 



5. The total number of articles received is 27,382, including 23 broadsides, of which 

 articles 14,222 are complete works. Of the complete works, 8778 were purchased, 1,064 

 presented, and 4,380 were acquired by copyright. 



6. Each article acquired has been stamped. The number of stamps so impressed is 

 48,982. 



Department of Natural History. 



Mineralogical Branch. 



Great progress has been made during last year in the arrangement of the contents of 

 Room VI. Its wall cases have been entirely filled with the gigantic Osseous Remains of 

 Edentata and Pachydermata, of which latter those of the Proboscideous Family, as most 

 numerous, have been partly arranged on supplementary shelves above the wall cases on the 

 South side ; while on the North side the Bones of the Edentata are displayed in immediate 

 proximity to the Skeleton of the Megatherium. Preparation is making for placing the 

 cast of the gigantic Himalayan Tortoise (Colossochelys Atlas) on the Upper landing place 

 of the North East staircase. 



Considerable additions have been made to tlie exhibited portion of other classes of 

 Secondary Fossils. The new table cases in Room VI. have afforded the means of display- 

 ing some groups, such as the Paleeozoic Brachiopoda, the Corals, Sponges, &c., which have 

 hitherto been less perfectly represented in the table cases of the adjoining rooms. 



The extensive Collections of Fossils acquired within the last two or three years, contain- 

 ing thousands of specimens, have required much time for their arrangement, to render them 

 available for the purposes of reference a"nd examination. This work has proceeded so far, 

 that but little remains to complete it. 1 he same may be said of the rich Collection of Fossil 

 Fishes, to which many additions have been made during the past year. The ticketing of 

 the Specimens has been diligently proceeded with. The arrangement of the Minerals has 

 undergone no changes, except such as were called for by the too crowded state of some of 

 the table cases ; for instance, those containing the Meteorites, in Room 1. Most of the 

 mineral Specimens are now illustrated by descriptive labels, and nothing remains but to add 

 to all of them their localities, which work will be completed in the course of the current 

 year. Though the Oryctognostic Collection has not increased in the same proportion as 

 the other collections of this branch of the department, yet many of the additions to it, both 

 by purchase and donation, are not undesei'ving of especial mention. 



Among the Donations may be particularized : a superb specimen of the rose-coloured 

 variety of Apophyliite, from Samson's Mine, Andreasberg, Hartz, presented by the late 

 Marquis of Northampton; some splendid groups of crystallized Thallite, from Traversella, 

 in Piedmont, presented by W. G. Lettsom, Esq.; a fine specimen of red Octohedral fluor 

 Spar from Chamouni, Savoy, the donation of John Ruskin, Esq. ; a small suite of Minerals 

 from Greenland, given by J. Taylor, Esq.; while many scarce and valuable mineral sub- 

 stances have been obtained, by purchase, of Messrs. Sowerby, Krantz, Tennant, aAd also 

 through Professors Shepard and de Klipstein, among which may be particularized several 

 of the rarest Meteorites, such as those from Charvallas, India, from Owyhee, from Cabarra 

 in North Carolina, <kc. ; various new Minerals, chiefly from the United States of America; 

 a large globular mass of filiform and dendritic native Silver, from Mexico; a suite of Tur- 

 quoises in the matrix, discovered, 1849, in Arabia, by Major Macdonald. 



Several objects relative to Fossil Botany, obtained by purchase, have been deposited in 

 Room I. 



As a valuable addition to the Collection of Fossil Fishes, may be mentioned a suite of 

 Specimens (some of them the identical ones described and figured in Agassiz's great work), 

 embedded in the yellow sandstone of Dura Den. and another from the coal-formation of 

 Gilmerton, Scotland; together with several desiderata from Monte Bolca, &c.. 



Other lately-made acquisitions deserving of particular notice, are. The very extensive 

 Collection formed by the late Frederick Dixon, Esq., rich in Fossils from the older tertiary 

 formations of the Sussex coast, and in Specimens from the chalk. To Mr. Searles Wood 

 the Museum is indebted for an extensive series of Remains, chiefly of Crocodiles and other 

 Reptiles, from the eocene formation at Hordel in Hampshire. A Collection ot Mammalian 

 Remains, including fine Tusks, &c. of the Mammoth, collected in Kotzebue Sound, has been 

 presented by Capt. Kellett and Lieut. Wood. A series of Hippurites and Sphserulites from 

 the lower chalk of Toulon, presented by S. P. Pratt, Esq.; together with Collections from 

 the upper Green Sand near Warminster, from the Oxford Clay near Chippenham, from the 

 upper Chalk at Norwich, and from the Oolite and Lias formations of Dorsetshire. 



The entries into the Register amount to upwards of Four thousand. 



A complete Catalogue of the Books hitherto obtained by purchase, and as donations, for 

 the Departmental Library, has been drawn up in the course of last year. 



; ^ Zoological 



