ee 
“That group,” pointed out Birtha, “consisting mainly of mum- 
mies and fine textiles from the prehistoric graveyard at Ancon, 
Peru, is of exceptional interest.” 
“Aha.” 
“What are you doing, speaking broken English?” 
“No; destructive English.” 
“Well, do not let your annihilating expressions explode during 
my presence, because I do not wish to be killed by the furious 
vibrations of your powerful utterances.” 
“Ha, ha, ha!” 
As we walk on slowly, we do not utter another word for 
about ten minutes. During this short silence of speech, we pass 
through halls nine, ten, and, according to the systematic ar- 
rangement of the halls, we continue our silent and philosophical 
promenade through halls twenty-four, thirty-two and thirty- 
three. After going throughout these departments, we finally 
ascend the sublime staircase of marble and bronze, and, on en- 
tering hall twenty-five, of the second floor, we proceed through- 
out the various departments of botany, which comprises six 
halls. And, just as soon as we finish our observations in the 
departments of botany, we continue throughout the geological 
departments, which are five halls. When we reach the last 
geological hall, we stop for a short time before the skeleton 
of a dinosaur. : 
“Oh, but what a huge skeleton!” said she. _ | 
“Tt is a giant lizard; it is about twenty feet high and seventy 
feet long. A single bone of that skeleton weighs six hundre 
fifty pounds.” : . 
We now re-enter one of the geological departments, hall thir- 
ty-four, and sit down on a fine bench. within the observation 
of the William J. Chalmers crystal collection. Here we sit to 
rest our limbs. While doing so, the following conversation 
takes place: . . me 
“It must have cost a great deal to build this Museum,” said 
Bi 
irtha. 
“$6,750,000.” 
“Really!” aan 
“Exactly.” 
“That surely is an enormous amount of money.” ie 
“Besides, there are $15,000,000 worth of collections within 
the entire building.” : < . 
“How long did it take for the construction of this magnificent 
Muesum?” ; ey 
“Six years; that is to say, six years to merely build it. To 
be more exact, why, the plans. for this building began as a 
sketch in 1902, and reached the form of final working plans in 
1906, and went under contract in 1911. The building was actu- 
ally put under construction on the present site, in 1915, and is 
45 
” 
