﻿FIELD AND FOREST. 117 



It is easy to understand that a commerce, so conducted, is attended 

 with vast expense, consequently zoological merchandise is very dear, 

 but the customers of this bold and enterprising house never complain, 

 as it is their custom in the way of civility to send with the article 

 wanted, a series of other specimens which are always acceptable. 

 This generosity has been particularly felt by the Museum of the City 

 of Hamburg which is made up almost entirely of such donations. 



Above this Museum, or Magazine of Natural Curiosities, is a loft or 

 store room, and what the curators designate as the depositorium. Im- 

 mense glass vessels here contain the reptiles and fishes preserved in 

 alcohol. Being all thrown in pell mell as the cucumbers, cauliflowers, 

 &c, in a bottle of English pickles, the inquiry was made as to how 

 any special thing could be found when wanted — the answer was that 

 every thing is catalogued and numbered with great care, so that at 

 the slightest demand, when the time has come for a reptile, say, to be 

 exhibited in a public museum, a pair of forceps releases it from this 

 somewhat nauseatiug depositorium. Such an accumulation of dead 

 animals necessarily gives out an offensive, even an infectious odor, 

 and as if to help the matter the taxidermist's laboratory is placed close 

 by, where the carcasses are investigated, dissected, skinned or other- 

 wise prepared for sale or future keeping. 



From Hamburg M. Guimet proceeded to Stockholm and assisted at 

 the Archaeological Congress, but as his report of the sessions is not so 

 interesting as the official one, we will follow him no further. 



E. Foreman. 



On the 13th of May 1875, un der the American flag, the English 

 Arctic Expedition, erected at the foot of Captain Hall's grave, a brass 

 tablet prepared in England, bearing the following inscription ; 



" Sacred 



to the Memory of 



Captain C. F. Hall, 



of the U. S. Ship Polaris, 



who sacrificed his Life 



in the advancement of Science, 



on the 8th November, 187 1. 



" This tablet has been erected by the British Polar 



Expedition of 1875, wri0 > following in his footsteps, 



have profitted by his experience," 



