xvi 
INTRODUCTION. 
voyage of H.M.SS. Erebus and Terror under the command of 
Capt. Sir James Ross (1846), and during the surveying voyage of 
H.M.S. Sulphur under the command of Capt. Sir Edward Belcher 
(1844) ; the entire Museum of the Naval Hospital of Haslar (1844) ; 
the Entomological cabinets of James F. Stephens, purchased in 1835 
(88,000 specimens), and of Sir John Bowring, who collected for many 
years in India, China, and Java, and presented the whole of his collec- 
tion in 1863 ; the vertebrate animals brought together by J. Reeves in 
China; the Conchological collection of Mr. Hugh Cuming, believed to 
be the largest ever made, partly presented and partly purchased in 
1866 ; and the collection of Coleoptera of the Rev. Hamlet Clark 
purchased in 1867. More recent acquisitions are Mr. A. R. Wallace's 
collection of Birds from New Guinea and the Malayan islands, 
purchased in 1874; the collection of Madeiran shells bequeathed 
by the Rev. R. T. Lowe in the same year; the unique collection of 
Buprestidse made by Mr. Edward Saunders and purchased in 1874 ; 
Dr. Bowerbank's British and Foreign sponges purchased in 1877; 
the collections made by the Naturalists accompanying the " Transit 
of Venus " expeditions in 1875 and presented by the Royal Society ; 
and finally the specimens collected during the late Arctic expedition 
and presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in 
1878.' 
Fossils. In the Geological Department there are at the present time upwards 
of fifty collections of Fossils, which contain the original specimens 
named, described, and figured in various works on Palaeontology, com- 
monly termed "Type specimens." Amongst these the most worthy of 
note are Dr. William Smith's collection, illustrative of his work, 
"Strata identified by Organized Fossils " (London 1816-19); Mr. 
Thomas Hawkins' collection of Reptiles, from the lias, figured and 
described in his work " Sea-Dragons," forming two great groups, 
the Ichthyosauri and the Plesiosauri ; a very extensive series of 
Mammalian remains from the Sewalik Hills, described by Falconer 
and Cautley in the "Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis "; Koch's collection of 
remains of the Mastodon Ohioticus, from Missouri, U.S.; the Bravard 
collection of South American remains of Mammalia; the Bain collec- 
tion of South African Reptile remains ; the Bowerbank Fossils ; the 
Marchioness of Hastings' collection from Hordwell, Hampshire ; Sir 
Antonio Brady's series of Mammalian remains from Ilford, Essex; the 
Van Breda specimens from the Maestricht chalk, and the Tesson col- 
lection of Oolitic Fossils, from Normandy; Dr. Ettingshausen's 
collection of Fossil Plants of Austria; the Beccles collection of 
Mammalian and Reptilian remains from the Purbeck beds of Swan- 
age ; Dr. Haberlein's Solenhofen collection ; and J. de Carle Sowerby's 
collection, containing specimens figured in his " Mineral Con- 
chology." 
Minerals. The original nucleus of the Mineral Collection was formed by the 
purchase, in 1811, of Col. Greville's minerals, among which were a 
magnificent crystalline specimen of Rubellite from Ava, and some 
of the finest specimens known of the rare minerals Phosgenite and 
