D. C. Danielssen. 



35 



table, and ready for further additions when funds permitted. The 

 natural history collections, on the contrary, were bad, and the 

 matter was not only to think of additions, but also of renewing 

 nearly every thing in them, except a few specimens in spirits. 

 The old museum's stuffed mammals and bircls were full of mites, 

 the specimens in spirits were mouldy, the skeletons brown, and 

 therefore it is not far from the truth, when it is said that every 

 thing at present in the natural history department, has been pro- 

 cured and prepared after the new building was opened, or in any 

 case in the course of the 42 years that dr. Danielssen, as chief of 

 the natural history department, was the administrator of this 

 collection. Of course, he was well assisted by the other members 

 of the boarcl, especially by Herman Friele, known for his valuable 

 zoological works on molluscs, and also by head-surgeon (J-. A. Hansen 

 and by curator Koren; but none of his co-directors were able to 

 do such effective work for the success of the museum, and no one 

 therefore had quite so large a share in the unprecedented progress 

 of the institution in these years. 



After what has been said above, the present state of the col- 

 lection shows its progress during these years, for what was left from 

 Christie^ time is next to nothing. Of the present condition of the 

 collections we can form an idea, though a feeble one, by a 

 statement of the number of specimens comprised in the various 

 sections. 



The collection of lower animals, some of them dried, but the 

 greater part in spirits, comprises between 9 and 10,000 numbers,. 

 not including the insect collection, which is not very large however. 

 Most of these were collected by Danielssen himself, or by Friele 

 and Hansen, partly in the North Atlantic Expedition, or during the 

 excursions made each summer by the curators of the museum, during 

 which great part of the coast nearest to Bergen has been very 

 fully investigated with regard to zoology. Still more, however, has 

 been brought together by exchanges with foreign museums, and the 

 collection is therefore very rich also in foreign specimens. 



The fish collection consists of about 1200 numbers, comp rising, 

 besides a great deal of stuffed specimens, a complete collection of 

 Norwegian fishes preserved in spirits. There are 300 species of 

 reptiles and bufones ; and of stuffed bircls, besides a complete Nor- 

 wegian collection, in which as a rule every species is represented by 

 numerous specimens of various ages and sexes, there are from 15 — 



