104 KALM's ENGLAND. 



round holes turned or cut out in the boxes. It was said 

 that in this box there were 1,300 different kinds of gems. 



[Various other stones [T. I. p. 431J, various Foreign 

 curiosities, and a silly picture]. 



[T. I. p. 432.] Afterwards we went into a long narrow 

 room where the greater part of Sir Hans Sloane's rarities 

 are. This room is about 12 feet broad. The height 

 about 14 feet, the length was said to be no feet. Along 

 the sides there stood at the bottom cabinets, skap, of 

 sorts of Natural Curiosities, and other things, partly on 

 them partly hung on the walls ; but about a fathom 

 from the floor above the Natural Curiosities the walls 

 were all covered with books. 



[The rest of p. 432 and 433 descriptions of contents 

 of cabinets, also the greater part of 434, to same room.] 



[T. I. p. 434.] In another room we saw ... a 

 machine to lay books on, when one wishes to read or 

 requires several books at a time. I cannot so exactly 

 describe it. It somewhat resembles such a wheel as there 

 is in Stockholm at Norrbro (Northbridge), and is there 

 driven by the stream [T. I. p. 435] but instead of each 

 wing or board in that wheel there was here a long four- 

 sided box, which was moveable on an axle, and seems to 

 have had some weights in the bottom, for as this wheel 

 was turned round, each box always had the same side 

 downwards, The books were laid on the outer sloping 

 sides of the box, and thus stood always in the same 

 position, and went round with the wheel as it was 

 turned. The length of this wheel was about 5 feet and 

 its diameter about 3 or 4 feet. I do not remember, Jag 

 kommer ej ihog, how many boxes there were, but one 

 could have lying in front of him a very large number of 

 books at a time. 



Here we saw twenty-four volumes of rare books, all in 

 costly bindings, given to Sir Hans Sloane by the King of 

 France. 



