ever could be so little.

visits. Let us now, therefore, suppose that-forgetting | yard in height, one can hardly fancy that an elephant all Fine Arts and Antiquities for the present-the Natural History, or Zoological and Mineralogical treasures, are the object of the second visit. The shilling Synopsis' or catalogue of the Museum is well worth the money which it costs; but for those who have not that book at hand, we may observe, that the stuffed beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, and the specimens of small animals kept in spirits, are exhibited in wall cases, glazed enclosures about twelve feet high, ranged round the walls of the galleries; that the larger quadrupeds, who are too bulky to be placed in these cases, are supported on pedestals or planks on the floors of the rooms; and that the shells, corals, seaeggs, star-fishes, crustacea, insects, the skulls of small beasts, and the eggs of birds, are kept in table cases, covered at the top with plate glass, and so arranged that the visitors can walk all round them. In locked drawers and recesses under these table cases are insects and other specimens, the colours of which would fade by exposure to the light.

First, then, we ask the visitor to accompany us up the grand staircase. Do not look to the right, into the 'Ethnographical Room,' for we have nothing to do with that just now look the giraffe boldly in the face, and collect your thoughts into a Natural History' channel. The giraffe is alone in his glory he occupies the centre of the floor; and all the other animals are placed in wall-cases round the sides. Here we find the gazelle, the deer, and the antelope; many varieties of each, all presenting those graceful forms, and many of them those mild and gentle traits, which distinguish animals of these kinds. Some of the little delicate gazelles, not much more than a foot in height, and with legs scarcely thicker than one's finger, are indeed most light and graceful objects, deserving all the encomiums which their soft blue eyes' and almost infantine expression of innocence have won for them. Mark, as you pass round the room, the different degrees of vigour, of size, and of strength, in animals brought from different countries. There are numerous inscriptions, within and in front of most of the cases, which give tolerably clear information as to the country whence the chief specimens were brought; although the Latin names of the animals are sometimes rather a stumbling-block. Going eastward into the next room, we find a more formidable list of animals · animals belonging to a different zoological group, and of more strength and resolution than the antelope group In the wallcases are the bison, the buffalo, some rare species of bull, the camel, the dromedary, the zebra, the elk, the llama, and various others; some more robust than beautiful, some more beautiful than robust. On the floor of the room, ranged on either side of a central avenue, are various thick-skinned animals; such as the elephant, the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, &c. It is quite plain that the rhinoceros had had a fierce battle for his life, and that he had not been vanquished offhand, for there are numerous bullet-holes in his tough horny hide. As for the little elephant, not above a

Then we come to the 'Mammalia Saloon'—a room where many hours might be spent in studying the structure and appearance of the higher class of animals. The wall-cases are filled with specimens of rapacious and hoofed animals: over the cases are seals and porpoises of various kinds; and on the floor of the room are a few large specimens of quadrupeds. This is the room which would answer most to one's ideas of wild beasts,' in respect to the hyenas, the tigers, the jaguars, the bears, the wolves, and the leopards, which it contains. But it is also rich in specimens of a less formidable kind. There are, for instance, the civet and the zibet, the ichneumon and the glutton, the fox, the otter, numerous furred animals, the racoon, the mole, the weasel, the opossum, the kangaroo, goats, sheep, llamas, musks, sloths-and an array of others which would take no little time to enumerate. All these consist of the stuffed skins of the animals, with glass eyes, stained to imitate as closely as possible the real organs; and every endeavour is made to give to the inanimate object such an attitude and general appearance as will impart some idea of the living being itself. The strange-looking animals over the cases comprise the various kinds of seals, porpoises, and dolphins, which seamen know much more about than landsmen. The specimens placed on the floor of the saloon are very instructive, because they can be examined on all sides. How beautiful is that cleverlyprepared skeleton of the grampus, brought from the tertiary strata of Lyme Regis! In the whole extent of its length, upwards of twenty feet, the joints of the bones, and the adaptation of the spine and ribs to the peculiar wants of the animal, are everywhere observable, and deserve close attention,

But the birds and shells! What a magnificent range is that into which we next turn! There is hardly anything in Europe finer of the kind than the collection deposited in the Eastern Zoological Gallery;' indeed there are but few collections which approach near it in excellence. The visitor will find it the best way, here as elsewhere, to walk through this gallery with some sort of system, or he will have the various objects driving each other out of his mind. The gallery is set off into five large square compartments, the walls of which are covered with cases containing stuffed birds. On either side of the central avenue through the gallery are table-cases, filled with shells; and smaller table-cases adjacent to some of these contain the eggs of the birds placed in the wall-cases at the corresponding part of the gallery. We would therefore say to the visitor-walk round the entire gallery, beginning at the left of the entrance; look at the successive cases of birds, and turn round occasionally to glance at the eggs belonging to those birds, in the smaller table-cases. Do not attend to the shells until you have feasted your eyes and your mind on the glorious plumage of the feathered tribe: the shells are a feast in themselves.

The birds are all arranged upon a particular system, is a never-failing source of admiration to visitors. in such a way that those whose structure or habits These shells are not, any more than the birds, placed most resemble each other are placed together. The in a confused and dis-arranged manner. All the shells scientific names given to them are often rather diffiare in the first instance divided into two great porcult to put into plain English; but the meaning can tions, the univalve and the bivalve: the first of which be pretty nearly guessed by an examination of the are simple, or formed of one continuous substance; birds themselves. For instance, in the first cases while the second consist of two distinct parts, like the which come under our inspection, it is not difficult to oyster or the mussel. The fishes who were once the see that 'raptorial' birds must mean birds of prey. inhabitants of the bivalve shells had the means of Here are the fierce and carnivorous vulture, the shutting up their houses completely, by closing falcon, the eagle, the goshawk, the osprey, the kite, together the two halves of which each house consisted; the buzzard, and various others, of which the forms of whereas the denizens of the univalve shells had one the beak, the strength of the talons, and the piercing aperture, which served for door and window, and had glance of the eye, tell a significant tale as to the to be protected by other means. means by which the food of such birds is obtained. Next come the 'perching' birds: including the goat-in shape as in size; so that the variety is almost insucker, the swallow, the swift, the tody, the kingfisher, &c. Passing onward we meet with a collection of ' tenuirostral' or slender-beaked birds. The creepers and nuthatches and wrens, the glorious hoopoes and sun-birds, the honey-eater of the Sandwich Islands and the paradise-bird of Molucca and the exquisite little humming-bird-all belong to this division. It is quite a treat to watch any young party as they proceed along this gallery, accumulating new notes of admiration as they go. How does the tiny humming-bird, no bigger than the top of one's thumb, delight them! And the matchless colours of the plumage of others!

Thus will the visitor proceed, examining case after case, and picking up crumbs of knowledge as he goes along. If he is a country rambler, if he is one who knows how to enjoy a walk in the fields, he will meet with many "old familiar faces" among the birds of the collection, interspersed with foreign birds whose acquaintance he now makes for the first time. He will come to a group of 'passerine' birds, such as live on insects and worms, and includes the warblers, the wheatears, the wagtails, the thrushes, the orioles, the fly-catchers, the chatterers, the butcher birds, &c. He will then encounter the 'conuirostral' or cone-beaked birds: such as the crows, the rooks, the ravens, the jackdaws, the jays, the choughs, the starlings, the grosbeaks, the larks, the bulfinches, and a host of others. When he sees the name scansorial' birds, and bears in mind that scansorial means " climbing,' he will be prepared to look for the gorgeous parrots and parrakeets and lories and macaws, and the less splendid but still interesting woodpeckers, &c. Then will come under his notice a large family of pigeons and doves, pheasants and peacocks, turkeys and partridges and grouse, and others which obtain the collective name of 'gallinaceous,' or fowl-like birds. The ostrich and other wading' birds, the swan and similar web-footed' birds-all are deserving of his notice; and by the time he has returned to the northern end of the gallery, he will have formed some idea of the vast extent of ornithological science.

From one path of beauty we pass to another. The exquisite loveliness of some of the shells in the tablecases of this gallery is hardly to be exceeded, and

The shells differ as much in size as in colour, and

terminable. The pink-mouthed stromb shell; the wide-mouthed triton or trumpet shell; the curious jagged surface of the murex; the spirally-formed spindle shell; the turnip shells, which are used as oil-vessels in the Indian temples; the twisted forms of the volutus; the gorgeously-coloured haliotis; the tiny littorina, not larger than a pin's head; the purpura, which yields a purple dye; the cowries, which are used both as ornaments and as money in the East; the wood-piercing pholas and teredo; the exquisitely coloured mytilus; the nautilus, respecting which Pope wrote a couple of lines, very pretty but very erroneous-all deserve as much time as the visitor can afford to bestow on them.

Do not, just now, look at the portraits above the wall-cases in this room: they have nothing to do either with the birds or the shells. Go onward to the northern end of the gallery, and turn to the left, where of two ranges, the Northern Zoological Gallery' claims present attention.

The most striking portions of this gallery are the coral specimens, some of which are singularly remarkable and attractive; but there are abundant other objects well deserving attention. The gallery consists of five rooms, opening into each other, all provided with wall-cases and table-cases. The skulls of the larger mammalia; a collection of reptiles preserved in spirits; another collection of the hard part of radiated animals, such as sea-eggs, sea-stars, &c.; lizards and crocodiles, snakes and serpents, turtles and tortoises, toads and frogs, monkeys and apes, fishes, insects, corals-all these present such a claim on the notice of a visitor, that he cannot, if he would, pass them by.

If this large zoological collection do not already exhaust the gazing power of one visit, we may turn out of this gallery into the adjoining Mineralogical Gallery,' where a new department of Natural History calls for attention. This noble gallery consists of four or five rooms in one range, every room having wallcases and table-cases. For the greater part, the specimens in the table-cases illustrate mineralogy, while those in the wall-cases belong to fossil geology. Here, again, order and system are observed: the minerals being arranged according to the principal chemical

of a former state of animal existence, prior to any species now known upon the earth. The salamander, the gigantic -iguanodon, the plesiosaurus, the ichthyosaurus, the extraordinary specimen brought from Lyme Regis by Mr. Conybeare; the fossil fishes, some of huge size; the skeleton of the extinct species of elk, and that of the monstrous mastodon-all appeal to us as pages in the past history of creation.

substance which each specimen contains. First begin the minerals containing iron; then those whose importance is due to copper; then bismuth, lead, silver, mercury, and so on. Considerable pains are taken to make the arrangement intelligible to all visitors, by inscriptions on the cases and on the chief specimens; and opportunities are here afforded for seeing how gorgeous is the appearance of many of the metallic ores and minerals. The large masses of meteoric iron which have fallen from the atmosphere; the brilliant-coloured anthracite from Ceylon; the medallion of Berzelius, wrought in the metal selenium, which he was the first to discover; the intensely-yellow sulphuret of sele-"found within a few years in England, France, and nium; the dazzling ores of zinc; the pure rock crystal; the sparkling diamonds, and jaspers, and amethysts, and other gems; the delicate wood-opal, wrought into boxes-these are some among the almost innumerable objects which rivet the eye, and merit examination.

A new science is illustrated, and a new train of thoughts interested, by the contents of the wall-cases on either side of this gallery. They comprise, for the most part, specimens of fossil geology, many of which are calculated to excite strong attention. The commencement of the series shows examples of fossil botany, such as submerged algae or weeds; impressions of leaves on strata of coal-slate; other impressions of ferns in clay-slate; and beautiful specimens of polished fossil-wood, as hard as stone, but yet exhibiting the ligneous structure.

But it is in the fossil animal remains that this collection is most remarkable. Here we have evidence

How wonderful are these examples of animated beings no longer recognized among living species! Let us take one kind only-the saurian or lizard-like: "The remains of the saurians," says Professor Silliman,

other countries, indicate animals of twenty, forty, fifty,
and even seventy feet or more in length. They are
generally amphibious, and there is every reason to be-
lieve, that when only portions of England stood out as
islands, above the water, these enormous animals
swam and sported about in the interinsular waters of
primitive Britain, or basked upon the shores of its seas
and estuaries.
and estuaries. Mr. (now Sir Gideon) Mantell, of
Lewes, in Sussex, has described an enormous saurian
animal, the iguanodon, (so called from its resemblance
to the iguana of the West Indies ;) it was an herbivorous
reptile, and appears to have attained the length of
seventy feet or more, with a height of nine or ten feet.
Still his remains are interred in solid ferruginous sand-
stone, far below the chalk, and probably more than
one thousand feet beneath the upper strata, that were
subsequently formed over him, many of which have
been swept away by diluvial action, or by other
catastrophes."