74 M f7.SK OX 



The specimens in the musk ox group were collected for the Museum 



by Admiral Peary in 1896. Musk oxen inhabit the snow- 



^ -T covered wastes of the Arctic barrens, livine mainly upon 



Ox Group n , 1 , 



willow leaves, dug up from under the snow. 



Note the various devices in the way of labels introduced to make the 



exhibits interesting and instructive. At the entrance attention is called 



to the principal causes influencing the distribution of mammals; on many 



of the labels are maps sho\ving the range of the species shown, and near 



the group of mountain sheep is a label including a map and miniature 



models illustrating the species of North American mountain sheep and 



their range. 



SOUTHEAST PAVILION 



Being used as a workroom; see paragraph on preceding page. 



Owing to the lack of an appropriation, no additions have been made 

 to the Museum building for the past ten years, and although a new wing 

 was authorized and the excavation for the basement actually made, 

 work was stopped in 1912. 



Owing to this fact, and the continued work of the Museum expecU- 

 tions, all space in the Museum, and especially the storage rooms and 

 work rooms, have become badly congested. When Mr. Akeley began 

 the preparation of the group of African Elephants, intended as the 

 central piece for the projected African Hall, it was necessary to clear out 

 the Southeast Pavilion in order to provide necessary space; when the 

 collections were received from the Congo Expechtion, the collection of 

 fishes was removed from the Central Corridor to the Bird Hall to furnish 

 a little storage room. The beautiful Rej^tile Groups are installed in 

 temporary quarters in the Central Pavilion, Second Floor, while nothing 

 can l)e done toward exhibiting the collection of Mammals of the Sea, 

 and the African Hall — the most beautiful antl comprehensive museum 

 exhibit yet devised — is still in the future. 



[Return to the Elevators.] 



