NATURAL HISTORY. 
181 
GALLERY.] 
The two Cases placed against the piers, between the windows of the 
E. wall of the room, contain a suite of varieties of wood opal from 
Van Diemen’s land, presented by Mrs. Howley, the lady of His Grace 
the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Among the objects separately placed in Room I. are—near the 
window opposite to the Table Case containing the native silver, a 
branched variety of that metal from Kongsberg, presented by H. Heu- 
land, Esq.; — in the window, near the Table Cases containing the sul¬ 
phates, a very large mass of Websterite, from Newhaven, Sussex, pre¬ 
sented by Dr. Mantella large specimen of the brown coal of Ice¬ 
land, called Surturbrand, presented by Sir Joseph Banks;—two busts 
carved in jet-like bituminous brown coal, the one of Henry VIII., the 
other of his daughter the Lady Mary. 
The Wall Cases 1 to 4 in Room II. contain osseous remains (and 
casts of the same, marked with asterisks) of Pachydermata and Eden¬ 
tata : among the more prominent specimens belonging to the former 
of these natural orders, may be specified the remains of the Deinotherium , 
the most gigantic of terrestrial mammalia, chiefly found at Eppelsheim, 
forty miles N.W. of Darmstadt,—jaws, tusks, molar teeth and other 
osseous parts of Elephas primigenius Blumenb., especially those of the 
Siberian variety, the Mammoth of early writers; and, above all, the 
cranium of the Himalayan Elephant, distinct from the preceding 
species, and to which the name Elephas Cautlcei may properly be given, 
as being among those presented by Capt. Cautly, to whose indefatigable 
exertions science is indebted for the formation of a magnificent as¬ 
semblage of fossil remains obtained in the Siwalie or Sub-Himalayan 
ridge situate between the Jumna and Sutlej rivers, the greater portion 
of which collection is about to be deposited in the National Museum. 
From the same collection is the most perfect and instructive skull of a 
species of Mastodon, apparently distinct from those hitherto noticed or 
described. The cranium and suite of molar teeth, &c., of the American 
Mastodon (M. Ohioticus) also deserve particular notice.— Another 
striking object at this side of the room are the casts of a great portion 
of the skeleton of Megatherium found in the bed of the Rio Salado, 
near Buenos Ayres. The remaining genera of the thick skinned and 
edentate mammalia, of the Rhinoceros, the Hippopotamus, &c., are 
under re-arrangement, but several of them are already placed in the 
Wall Cases. 
In a distinct Case at the N. side of this Room is deposited the fossil 
human skeleton embedded in limestone, brought from Guadaloupe by 
Admiral the Hon. Sir Alexander Cochrane, and presented to the 
British Museum by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 
The Wall Cases in Rooms III. and IV. will contain the osseous re¬ 
mains of the Class Reptilia; the greater part of them is already arranged. 
Cases 1 to 4 are set apart for the Batrachian, the Chelodonian and 
Emydosaurian reptiles, now under arrangement. To the first named of 
these orders belongs the gigantic Salamander, the subject of Scheuchzer’s 
dissertation, Homo diluvii testis et theoscopos , Tiguri, 1726. Also the 
specimens illustrative of the Chelonians will be placed in one of these 
Wall Cases. Among the specimens of the third of these orders, may 
be specified the Crocodilian division, containing very interesting objects, 
such as specimens of the head with other bones of the gavial (or rather 
