2 
THE HALL. 
more at the attainment of useful and practical results. In this view it’ is 
impossible to estimate too highly the advantages to be derived from 
an institution like this, intended to direct the researches of science and 
to apply their results to the development of the immense mineral riches 
granted by the bounty of Providence to our isles and their numerous 
colonial dependencies. It will always give me the greatest pleasure to 
hear of, and, as far as I am able, to contribute to, the continued success of 
the Museum of Practical G-eology.” 
The Museum building consists of the following parts, open 
to the public, viz. : — 
1. The Vestibule and Hall. 
2. The Principal Floor, reached by two staircases, one on 
each side of the Hall, near the Vestibule. At the end of this 
floor, next to the entrance, is the section devoted to the Ceramic 
Collection, whilst at the further end of the floor are the Model 
Rooms. 
3. The Lower Gallery, devoted mainly to British Palaeozoic 
fossils and reached by a staircase on each side of the Principal 
Floor. At the northern, or curved, end of this gallery is the 
entrance to the galleries of the two Model Rooms. 
4. The Upper Gallery, containing the collection of British 
Secondary and Tertiary Fossils, and reached by a staircase on 
each side of the Lower Gallery. 
5. The Rock Room, containing the Petrographical Collections, 
situated at the south end of the Upper Gallery. 
Besides the public rooms and galleries mentioned above, the 
building contains the offices of the Museum and of the Geological 
Survey, the Library, a Lecture -room, and a small Laboratory. 
THE HALL. 
On entering the Museum from Jermyn Street the visitor 
passes into the Vestibule, the walls of which are decorated with 
polished slabs of Derbyshire alabaster, on a base of grey Irish 
granite. The steps leading from the Vestibule to the Hall are 
of Portland stone, while the pilasters (Nos. 7 and 197) at the head 
of the steps are of the grey granite of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. 
In front of the visitor are bronzed zinc busts of Her Majesty 
the Queen (No. 1) and the late Prince Consort (No. 3) 
mounted on columns of red Peterhead granite (Nos. 2 and 4). 
The centre of the Hall is occupied by a handsome tesselated 
pavement, executed in Messrs. Minton’s tesserae from designs 
taken from various pavements discovered towards the close of 
the last century among the remains of a Roman villa at Wood- 
chester in Gloucestershire. The central area is surrounded by 
polished slabs of grey Aberdeen granite, and these again by 
others of red Peterhead granite, the whole being bordered by a 
