PARIS. 
464 
dens in which are confined the fiercer beafls of prey. 
Several lions, tigers, panthers, hyenas, and wolves, amufe 
or terrify the fpeftators by their howlings. Where it 
could be accomplifhed, the trees and flirubs of the animals’ 
native climes, or the vegetables in which they molt de¬ 
light, flourifh within their enclofures. Several bears inha¬ 
bit fome funken enclofures, and, having been accuftomed 
to confinement from their birth, appear to be reconciled 
to their fate, and often amufe the fpeftators by many 
clumfy feats of agility. Two camels are perfeftly domef- 
ticated, and more than earn their fubfiftence by turning 
the wheel of a machine which fupplies the gardens with 
water. The varieties of antelopes, deer, and fheep, are 
numerous. 
The Aviary contains a collection of every bird known 
in France and the neighbouring kingdoms, arranged ac¬ 
cording to their fpecies and habits; but does not boaftof 
many rare fpecimens. 
The Mufeum of Natural Hiftory is at the end of the gar¬ 
den. The building is more than 600 feet in length, and 
its external architefture is Ample and plain. 
The library is firft vifited ; and, although many of its 
riclieft treafures have been reftored to their proper owners, 
it contains almoft every publication in every language on 
the fubjeCt of natural hiftory. To this fubjeCt it is 
limited. The manufcript figures of Aldrovandi, and the 
liortus-ficcus of Haller, are no longer to be feen ; but the 
herbals of almoft every celebrated French botanift are 
open to infpeftion. At the entrance is a ftatue of Buf- 
fon with its well-known vain-glorious and profane in- 
fcription. 
Five halls are occupied by an immenfe collection of 
minerals. The firft room contains the earths and ftones. 
They are arranged according to the claflification of Hatiy, 
and moftly by his own hand. Many of the calcareous 
fpars, the gems, and the quartz, cryftals, are very beautiful. 
In the fecond hall are the ores, and they prefent a moll 
fuperb difplay. The third apartment affords fpecimens 
of the primary and fecondary rocks, with every variety of 
French marble. 
In the fourth is an aflemblage of peculiar intereft. It 
is compofed of the animal remains of the antediluvian 
world. The bones of the mammoth are perfeCt, and 
flrike the beholder with aftonifhment. The fkeletons of 
numerous animals, now unknown or extinCf, are ex¬ 
hibited here. Cuvier arranged the innumerable fpecimens 
of this divifion. All parts of the world have contributed 
to this collection. Among other wonders, are the frag¬ 
ments of an elephant’s tulk, which, when complete, mull 
have been at leaft eight feet in length. Several cafes are 
filled with the bones of the Siberian mammoth, or ele¬ 
phant, the American mammoth, or maftodonton. There 
is a fpecimen of the hair of that mammoth which was 
found in 1805, preferved in a block of ice on the fit ore of 
the Icy Sea, in the country of the Tongufes in Siberia: 
when extricated, the dogs devoured its flefh, which mult 
have remained in a ftate of complete prefervation for a 
long period. After the bones of rhinocerofes, hippopo¬ 
tami, and tapiirs, come thofe difcovered by Cuvier in the 
plafter-quarries of Montmartre, and of which he has con- 
ftituted feveral new genera of extinft quadrupeds. 
In the next apartment is a more plealing collection of a 
fimilar nature, comprifing the vegetable remains of former 
times, and particularly the impreftions of ferns, leaves, 
and plants, procured from coal-mines, and eftablilhing 
the vegetable origin or connection of this foil'd. A part 
of this hall is occupied by numerous fpecimens of volcanic 
productions, principally from Naples, Sicily, and the 
Lipari iflands. Two other apartments on this floor belong 
to the mufeum of zoology, and contain the reptiles and 
the fifh tribes. 
The long gallery, on the fecond floor, is occupied by 
quadrupeds and birds, generally preferved in a molt ad¬ 
mirable manner. The collection is Arid to be complete; 
and fome of the animals and a few of the birds are unique. 
They were introduced to the knowledge of Europeans, 
by Tournefort, Vaillant, and other travellers. Few ani¬ 
mals are wanting in the feries of quadrupeds and birds. 
Of monkeys alone there are at leaft two hundred fpeci¬ 
mens, and often more of a Angle family of birds, as of the 
genera Motacilla and Tanagra. Here are the camelpard 
brought from Africa by Vaillant, the bifon, the lama, and 
the vicugna of Peru. Many fpecimens were prefented by 
the late emprefs Jofephine. There is a regular arrange¬ 
ment of the whole, which adds confiderably to their in¬ 
tereft and value. In different parts of the gallery appear 
buffs of Tournefort, Linnaeus, Adanfon, Daubenton, and 
Fourcroy. The paintings are only two—a lion tearing a 
goat, and an eagle pouncing on a lamb. 
The infeCts principally occupy large cafes in the centre 
of the gallery, where is likewife a pleafing arrangement of 
the eggs and nefts of molt fpecies of. birds, and a beau¬ 
tiful aliortment of corals, and other marine productions. 
Among the infeCts, after the fplendid Papilios are glanced 
at, and the Sphinges, may be feen a feries of the filk- 
worm, with their cocoons, and the caterpillars, formed 
of wax fo as exaftly to refemble the living animals. Near 
them are the gall-nuts, and woods pierced or formed by 
infeCts. Additions, illuftrating the hiftory and habits of 
the infeCt, are often procured ; thus the cunning Formica 
leo, or lion-ant, is placed at the bottom of its fiindy pit, 
down the Ad'es of which infeCts are crawling, unconfcious 
of their danger. 
When the reftitution of the treafures from neighbour¬ 
ing countries was determined on, it was rumoured that 
the allies would not only reclaim what had originally be¬ 
longed to them, but complete their cabinets at the ex- 
penfe of what really appertained to France. An amicable 
arrangement, however, took place, creditable to every 
party. Numerous minerals, and many zoological fpeci¬ 
mens, had been taken from the Auftrian dominions in 
Italy. When a duplicate exifted in the mufeum of the 
garden, the original article was reftored ; but, when the 
reftoration of the purloined mineral would render the 
French collection incomplete, another fpecimen of equal 
value, and of which the Auftrian cabinets were not al¬ 
ready poflefled, was fubftituted. The Dutch collection, 
and efpecially of minerals, had materially enriched the 
French mufeum. If it had been reftored in its original 
ftate, the mufeum of the Garden of Plants would have 
been rendered fadly imperfeCt. A friendly and equitable 
arrangement was here likewife effected. The greater 
part of the purloined articles were left untouched, and a 
collection was formed out of the private ftore of the du¬ 
plicates of the mufeum, more valuable than the original 
articles could poflibly have been. It is faid that 260 
quadrupeds, 800 birds, 338 reptiles, 800 fifties, and 4.00 
ffiells, were given to the Dutch, not one of which were 
drawn from the public cabinet. 
The traveller now proceeds to the Cabinet of Com¬ 
parative Anatomy, originally founded by Daubenton, 
and newly arranged, and much increafed, by Cuvier. It 
profefles to contain, or will ultimately contain, a Ikeleton 
of every known animal, with a complete fet of the bones 
of each feparated, that they may be more ealily compared 
with thofe of other fpecies. 
In the firft of the public rooms are the mummies and 
fkeletons of the human fpecies. One Egyptian mummy, 
difengaged from its coffin and wrappers, is dry,- dark- 
brown, and with the thighs and arms almoft exhaufted of 
flefh. There are male and female mummies of the 
Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of Tenerifte, white 
and diftorted. A mummy of the ancient Gauls is marked 
as having been found near Riom. Among the fkeletons 
is that of the aflaflin of general Kleber, who held for a 
fhort time the chief command of the French army in 
Egypt. An extenfive feries of human bones illuftrates 
the difeafes to which they are fubjeCl. The lkeletons 
which follow, and crowd the apartments, are all clean, 
and comprehend the greater number of quadrupeds. Tire 
fkeletons 
