FOSSIL MAMMAL GALLERY. 69 



At the west end of the portion of this gallery open to the 

 public stands an instructive and interesting case exhibiting 

 many of the structural differences distinguishing the Man-like 

 Apes from Man himself; and also showing different types of 

 human skulls and the method of measiiring the same. On the 

 adjacent screens and partitions are diagrams, photographs, 

 and sketches illustrating hand and finger prints, identification 

 by means of the latter, " palmistry," &c. 



EAST WIFG. 



Geound Flooe. 



The ground floor of this wing consists, as on the other side of Fossil 

 the building, of a gallery running west and east the whole length Collection, 

 of the wing in front, of a smaller parallel gallery behind it, and 

 leading from the latter a series of galleries running north and 

 soutL With the exception of a certain number of recent 

 skeletons introduced for comparison, and most of the series of 

 specimens of Elephants and Sirenians, or Sea-Cows, the whole 

 of this floor is occupied by the collection of the remains of 

 animals and plants which flourished in geological periods 

 previous to that in which we are now living. Some of these 

 belong to species still existing upon the earth, but the great 

 majority are extinct. They are arranged mainly upon zoological 

 principles, that is, the groups which are believed to have natural 

 affinities are placed together; but within some of the great 

 divisions thus mapped out, especially of the Invertebrata and 

 Plants, it has been found convenient to adopt a stratigraphical 

 or even geographical grouping, the fossils of different geological 

 formations being kept apart, and those of the British Isles 

 separated from those of foreign localities. 



This portion of the Museum is more fully described in the 

 Illustrated Guides * than is possible in the present work. 



* " Gruide to the Exhibition G-alleries of the Department of Geology and 

 Pateontology." Part I. Mammals and Birds ; price sixpence. Part II. 

 Reptiles, Amphibians, and Pishes, Northern Galleries ; price sixpence. 



