^6 ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



But, here, it may be noted, that it has been found requisite to make available a well- 

 lit locality in the basement of the building for the reception of the specimens of the 

 huger species of the Celacea other than the skeleton of the Cachalot-whale mounted and 

 displayed in the central Hall. 



If the ratio of " annual increase " of specimens desirable for exhibition should not be 

 materially augmented the proportion of the New Museum of Natural History, now 

 completed, may suffice for about 10 years to come. The relations of the several Galleries 

 and Saloons to the specimens therein exhibited, in the present year, demonstrate the 

 exactitude of the space reported on, as requisite to that end, in 1859, for the needs of the 

 ISiational Museum ; and it is satisfactory that the acreage of ground has been secured for 

 the wings destined, in the architect's plans of the entire Museum, to extend at right 

 angles from the eastern and the western extremities of the " Frontage of the Building " 

 now completed; 



Richard Owen. 



Depaktment of Zoology. 



Towards the middle of the past year two of the galleries in the new Museum, the 

 Western Gallery of the second floor, and a large Gallery in the basement, were so far 

 completed that a beginning could be made with the removal of the Zoological collections. 

 The former, called the Osteological Gallery, was chosen for the reception of the osteo- 

 logical collection of Mammalia (not including Cetaceans), and the study-series of 

 unmounted skins, an arrangement by which several important advantages Avere secured. 

 These two kinds of objects are now always studied in connection with each other, and, 

 therefore, it was of as great importance to leave them in juxtaposition as to place them 

 in the immediate vicinity of the exhibited series of stuffed mammalia. Further, this 

 Gallery being lit from above as well as from the sides, offers the greatest amount of sun- 

 light, a condition as beneficial to the appearance and preservation of mounted skeletons 

 as it would be detrimental to other parts of the collection. 



The Gallery is 234 feet long and 49 feet wide, and furnished with 24 exhibition cases of 



a I |-like shape and projecting 14 feet into the room. The space within, and surrounded 

 by, the three sides of each case, is furnished with two cabinets, containing the non- 

 exhibited portion, viz., skulls and loose skeletons as well as skins. The construction of 

 these cases and the character of the collections deposited in them seemed to permit of a 

 trial being made to carry out, in a somewhat modified form, a proposal urged by the Royal 

 Science Commission in the year 1872, viz., to arrange the study and exhibition collections in 

 two parallel series. However, it soon became ajjparent that even in this Gallery an arrange- 

 ment of this kind was feasible in a few of the cases only, because the proportions of space 

 occupied by the several groups were found to be by no means equal in the two series. 



Immediately after the removal of these collections, their general arrangement was 

 begun and is now completed, but as it is the first time that the objects are exhibited, or 

 even arranged in orderly and systematic sequence, many details still remain to be worked 

 out before the Gallery is accessible to the public and students. 



For the collection of Cetaceans, or Whales, a separate room has been prepared in the 

 basement ; it is 138 feet long and 60 feet broad, and the only locality in the new building 

 fit to receive the series of these gigantic skeletons, some of which exceed a length of 70 

 feet. The mounting of such large objects, and the arrangement of the smaller ones, will 

 occupy a considerable time, but two of the largest skeletons have been already set up, 

 viz., that of a Fin Whale (P%5aZz^s ardiqaorum), 1A\ feet long, which was found near 

 Plymouth in the year 1831, and that of Sibbald's Whale {Physalus sibbaldii), 50 feet 

 long, and obtained on the Dutch Coast. 



Beside the osteological collection and the study-series of mammalia, the entire collection 

 of MoUusca, with a part of the Echinoderms, Corals and Sponges, has been removed and 

 deposited in the galleries destined for their reception. Some other collections which had 

 to be removed on account of building operations in the Museum at Bloomsbury, viz., the 

 mammalia, birds, and invertebrates preserved in spirits, the dry specimens of reptiles and 

 fishes which were kept in store-rooms, have been temporarily stowed away in the new 

 building, until the galleries are ready for their reception. 



The packing and removal of these collections, Avhich together constitute about one- 

 fourth of the Zoological Department, interfered, of necessity, much Avith the ordinary work 

 of the staff, especially with scientific work, and the progress of arrangement. On the other 

 hand, much attention was given to the better conservation and exhibition of the 

 collections. 



I. — A rrangement. 



The additions to the collections of Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles, Batrachians and Fiehea 

 have been entered in the printed catalogues as soon as they had been examined and 

 named. 



The examination of the exhibited series of Rodentia and Pachydermata has been 

 completed ; it was undertaken with the object of withdrawing deteriorated examples from 

 the public galleries, and of replacing them, when possible, from specimens which are kept 

 as skins in tlie study series. 



The 



