FIRST FLOOR. 
43 
and drawings placed near the entrance of the gallery. The 
third gallery contains the remaining Molluscs, Hchinoderms, 
Annelids and Crustacea ; the fourth the Corals, Sponges, Protozoa Extinct 
and fossil Plants. In these last two sjalleries the British invertebrates 
, . , , , T , p f, . and Plants, 
specimens are placed m the table-cases, and those oi loreign 
origin in the cases round the walls. 
The fifth gallery is set apart for the reception of certain 
special collections of historical interest, which, from the circum- 
stances under which they were formed, or under which they 
came into possession of the Museum, or from their containing 
a large number of types described and figured in standard 
monographs, it has not been thought desirable to break up and 
disperse among the general collection. The principal of these Historical 
are, the original collection formed by William Smith, the CoUections 
pioneer of geology in this country, the Searles Wood Collection 
of Crag Mollusca, the Edwards Collection of Eocene MoUusca, 
the Davidson Collection of Brachiopoda, ^the types of Sowerby's 
* Mineral Conchology,' and lastly, but not least in interest, the 
specimens which, belonging to the collection of Sir Hans 
Sloane, form the nucleus of the whole Museum. 
In the wall-cases on the west side of this gallery is exhibited 
a stratigraphical collection, intended to show the most charac- 
teristic organic remains of the various geological formations of 
the British Isles, arranged in the order of their sequence in 
time, commencing near the entrance door with the most recent 
and gradually passing down to the most ancient fossil-bearing 
strata. 
EiEST Elooe. 
The one large gallery on this floor, entered from the south end GaUery of 
of the east corridor of the hall, contains the extensive and Minerals, 
well-arranged collection of Minerals. 
The value of this collection to the intelligent visitor is greatly 
enhanced by the publication of an ' Introduction to the Study 
of Minerals,' as a part of the general guide to the gallery,* and 
by the arrangement of a series of specimens in four window- 
cases on the left-hand side of the gallery on entering, illustrative 
* * Introduction to the Study of Minerals,' with a guide to the Mmeral 
Gallery. Price threepence. 
