GROUND FLOOE. 
47 
EAST wiisra. 
Geound Floor. 
The ground floor of this wing consists, as on the other side of Palaeontologi- 
the building, of a gallery running west and east the whole length CoUecUon. 
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. The whole of this floor is occupied by the collection of 
the remains of animals and plants which flourished in geo- 
logical periods anterior 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 forms which are believed 
to have natural affinities are placed together, but within some of 
the great divisions thus mapped out, especially of the Inverte- 
brata and plants, it has been found convenient to ado]3t 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. 
As this portion of the Museum is fully described in the 
Illustrated Guides* it will only be necessary to give a brief 
account of it here. 
The large front gallery first entered from the hall is entirely Remains of 
devoted to the remains of Mammalia. Along the centre are ^^^^^jg 
placed a number of large and striking objects, of too great a size 
to be contained in the wall-cases. The first is a nearly complete 
skeleton of the American Mastodon, an animal closely allied to 
the elephant, from which it is chiefly distinguished by the 
characters of its molar teeth. Beyond this is the skull of an 
Elephant (Mephas ganesa), remarkable for the immense length 
of its tusks, from the Siwalik Hills of India, and another of the 
Mammoth (Mephas primigenms) with huge curved tusks, in a 
perfect state of preservation, found in the brick earth at Ilford 
in Essex. Then follow skeletons of the great extinct Irish Deer 
* * Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the Department of Geology and 
Pala3ontology.' Part I. Mammalia and Birds ; price sixpence. Part II. 
Eeptilia and Korthern Galleries ; price sixpence. Fossil Fishes ; price four- 
pence. 
