A visit to the British Guiana Museum* 
By the Editor, 
JS a prefatory notice it might be remarked that 
the colle6lions representative of the colony 
are incomplete and unsatisfa6lory. That goes 
without saying in such a colony as British Guiana, where 
from the nature of the country and from life conditions 
generally, constant difficulty is experienced in collecting 
desirable objects, in preserving them, and in rendering 
them available for general information ; and where the 
Museum, of but recent formation, has filled the double 
office of a colonial Museum proper, and of a sort of 
storehouse from which to draw objefts for extra-colonial 
Exhibitions. 
Since its formation, moreover, the Museum, as regards 
its representative character, has unavoidably suffered 
* Until it has been possible to carry out the contemplated re-arrange- 
ment of the Collections, it will be inadvisable to issue a guide to the 
Museum, however desirable such a guide may be for ordinary visitors. 
A catalogue, of any real value, it will be impossible to publish until a 
careful revision has been made of very many of the named specimens 
and until determinations have been completed of the large number of 
unidentified objects— matters, which, in both cases, present consider- 
able difficulty, and require a considerable amount of time. Besides 
this, a catalogue in spite of its high-sounding title, is practically desti- 
tute of interest for visitors to a Museum, and is of use chiefly in 
exchanges with, and presentations to, other Institutions and Societies, 
for which purposes scientific accuracy is the first essential in its pre- 
paration, and indeed the only justification for its publication. Under 
these circumstances, the following discursive general account of a visit 
to the Museum, will, it is hoped, serve as a temporary guide, directing 
attention to some of the more interesting obje&s to be seen. 
CC 
