NATURAL HISTORY. 



477 



THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM. 



Five years ago, Mr. Andrew Carnegie — 

 who spends his wealth for the people about 

 as fast as he accumulates it — gave to the 

 city of Pittsburg a grand pile of buildings 

 containing a fine library, museum, art gal- 

 lery and music hall. It cost $800,000, and 

 all its contents are free to the public. The 

 only condition exacted by the generous 

 founder of what should be called " The 

 Carnegie Institute," was that the city of 

 Pittsburg should annually appropriate the 

 sum of $40,000 for the maintenance of the 

 library and music hall. 



For the maintenance of the museum and 

 art gallery, Mr. Carnegie has given $1,000,- 

 000, as a permanent endowment fund, the 

 income from which amounts to $50,000 a 

 year, and is divided between the 2 institu- 

 tions. 



The museum has been the last of the 4 

 features to get under way, chiefly for the 

 reason that while it is possible to buy the 

 contents necessary to a library, or an art 

 gallery, a really fine museum must be cre- 

 ated from the crude materials, by careful 

 and intelligent selection and handiwork. 



For more than a year the Museum Com- 

 mittee of the Board of Trustees has been 

 considering what course to adopt for the 

 development of the museum. Nine large 

 halls stand ready to be filled. After full in- 

 vestigation, the Committee has chosen Mr. 

 Frederic S. Webster, of New York, to serve 

 the museum as taxidermist and general 

 preparator in zoology, and on May 1 he 

 assumed the duties of that very responsible 

 position. 



The founder of the museum, and all the 

 promoters of the new treasure house of 

 zoology, are to be heartily congratulated 

 on their choice. Mr. Webster has for 

 years stood in the front rank of his pro- 

 fession, and he is, beyond question, the 

 best man that could have been found for the 

 place. His years of experience at Ward's 

 Natural Science establishment, when its 

 taxidermic department was at its best, gave 

 him a wide and valuable experience in the 

 mounting of birds, mammals and reptiles, 

 of all possible degrees of difficulty. It was 

 there he accomplished the difficult feat of 

 mounting both the skin and skeleton of a 

 rare New Zealand lizard (Hatteria punctata), 

 a task which at first seemed impossible. 

 In the 13 years Air. Webster devoted to 

 custom taxidermy in Washington, and in 

 New York, the amount of fine work, in 

 mammals and birds, which left his hands, 

 both singly and in groups, was really im- 

 mense. His exquisite artistic taste in the 

 preparation of bird groups has won for him 

 numerous prizes and general praise. 



To all lovers of zoology it must be a sin- 

 cere pleasure to see so capable a man, and 

 so true an artist, chosen to produce the 

 work which will fill the elegant halls of the 



new Carnegie Museum. I understand it is 

 the intention of the Museum authorities to 

 give Mr. Webster as free a hand as any 



•taxidermist could possibly expect in his 

 work, and the public will look for good 

 results. His first official act was the pur- 

 chase, from Lieutenant Peary, of a fine 

 series of soft skins of the Atlantic walrus, 



♦with which to create a huge group. 



DESTRUCTION OF AFRICAN 

 GAME. 



About 2 years ago the rinderpest broke 

 out in Uganda, Eastern Africa, and slowly 

 marched Southward, sweeping down about 

 90 per cent, of all domestic cattle. A year 

 ago it struck Mashonaland and Matabele- 

 land, and spared so few oxen that traffic and 

 travel by wagon became almost impossible. 

 It is now going on down toward the Cape, 

 and bids fair to completely ruin thousands 

 of small farmers whose wealth has, until 

 now, consisted chiefly of cattle. 



One of the worst features of this awful 

 cattle plague is that it attacks and kills off 

 certain species of wild game, as well as do- 

 mestic cattle. Even the hardy and vicious 

 Cape buffalo cannot withstand it. A party 

 of English hunters, who have recently re- 

 turned to Buluwayo, from the Zambesi 

 country, report that in the region where 

 eland, sable antelope and buffalo were 

 plentiful a year ago, scarcely any of those 

 animals now remain; and for this reason 

 their trip was a complete failure. 



While it is hardly probable that any of 

 the species of African antelopes will be ex- 

 terminated by the rinderpest, it is fairly 

 certain that many years must elapse before 

 the herds increase to anything like their 

 numbers 3 years ago, even if they ever do; 

 for from now on hunters will be more nu- 

 merous than ever before. 



WHY IS IT? 



I have already published an account of 

 the way in which wolves signal across coun- 

 try, and shall have more to say on this sub- 

 ject, in a later number. I write now to in- 

 quire if any of the readers of RECREATION 

 have noticed the habit w'olves have of roll- 

 ing in carrion that they would not deign 

 to eat. 



The only explanation I can offer for this 

 strange habit is that a wolfs personal odor, 

 or body scent, is very strong, and that all 

 animals know and fear it; so that it must 

 often betray him while hunting. From time 

 to time, therefore, he " dopes up " when he 

 finds some exceptionally stinking filth. No 

 wild animal is frightened by the smell of 

 carrion, and if its potent odor does not en- 

 tirely overpower that of the wolf, it at least 

 dispenses it in a measure. Thus the wolf 



