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 measuring 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 WING. 
Ground Floor. 
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 CoHeci 
of the wing in front, of a smaller parallel gallery behind it, and 
leading from the latter a series of galleries running north and 
south. 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. 
* " Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the Department of Geolog}' and 
Palaeontology." Part I. Mammals and Birds ; price sixpence. Part II. 
Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes, Northern Galleries ; price sixpence. 
