Thus the gradations of life may be clearly apprehended by the visitor.
The highest development of animal life he has seen in the MAMMALIA SALOON, all the animals of which produce their young alive and suckle them; the order of life immediately below the mammalia, he has examined in the marvellous varieties of birds arranged in the NORTHERN GALLERY; then he turned to the west, and examined the third order of animal life in the REPTILES; then the fourth order represented by FISH; and so on till he watched the simpler forms of life in the STAR-FISH and the SPONGE.
The history of this marvellous progress of animal life, so far as scientific men have gazed into its deep mysteries, is surely worth attention. Few have the courage and the enthusiasm to follow each footstep of the tiny ant at his complex labours,--few are the Hubers that dwell among us; but to us all is given the love of that knowledge which opens our eyes to a few of the mysteries that lie thickly on our path, in the formation of the gravel upon which we tread, the clouds that grandly glide above us, and the leaves that gather upon the trees. After all the labours of our learned men, we are only now pressing, with trembling footsteps, the avenue to the endless schemes, and systems, and wonders, that lie buried in and about our world.
Still let all who enter our museum, go there with the resolve to accomplish something by their visit. Even in the common concerns of life; in the petty matters that wear away the brain at last; in the market-places of the world, this insight is not without its effect.
The heart is humbled as the eyes open to the grandeur of the scheme, and to the consequent littleness of individual manhood; but again, the breast swells with the purest of all pride, when the thinker says to himself: I am the King--because the hero or highest type of the Articulata, Radiata, Mammalia, or any order of vegetable or animal life. All these great and complicated developments are the beautiful works of the Great Unseen, but I am His masterpiece. One may well dream in this zoological museum, amid the staring gla.s.s-eyed skins of an inferior brotherhood--of the long, long time ago when the fossils, which are now scattered here and there, to a.s.sure us of their former vitality, moved about the world, before they were stricken with universal death, and buried by nature, deep in her teeming bosom, to flourish presently in the veins of plants--the plants to die again, and be dug, long ages after, from our deep coal-fields. These thoughts towards nature, towards the marvellous records of an antiquity, the remoteness of which we cannot realise, will rise to the minds of all visitors who can see in the vast collection of animal life through which we have guided them, revelations of the endless forms and the endless beauties that pa.s.s often unnoticed, because not understood, under every step that man takes in the many journeys that lie between his hopeful cradle and his inevitable grave.
END OF THE FIRST VISIT.
VISIT THE SECOND.
On entering the British Museum for the second time, the visitor should ascend the great staircase, pa.s.s through the south, central, and mammalia saloons; traverse the eastern zoological gallery, and continue north, direct into the first room of the most northern gallery of the northern wing;--where the studies of his second visit should begin. His first visit was occupied in the examination of the varieties of animal life distributed throughout the surface of the globe. The greater part of his time on this occasion will be devoted to the study of the wonders that lie under the surface of the earth; of the revelations of extinct animal life made by impressible rocks; and of the metallic wealth which human ingenuity has adapted to the wants and luxuries of mankind. In the fossil remains he will be able to recognise traces of an animal life, of which we have no living specimens; of trees, the like of which never rise from the bosom of the soil at the present time. The lessons that lie in these indistinct, disjointed revelations of the remote past, are pregnant with matter for earnest thought to all men. They are part of our history--links that hold us to the sources of things, and recall us again and again to the condition of our universe, as it trembled into s.p.a.ce, and as now we inhabit it--a great and marvellous globe, every grain of which has an unfathomable story in it. Philosophers have laboured long at the story of the earth; and their revelations have tended to settle it, in a form not unlike the following:--
Originally, within the s.p.a.ce bounded by the orbit of Ura.n.u.s, a gaseous matter was diffused at a high temperature. By laws, the origin of which we have not yet traced, the condition of the diffused heat was changed, and the particles of the gaseous matter, condensed and agglomerated by attraction, into a series of planets, of which our earth is the third in point of size. That the earth has undergone vast changes, is evident to the most superficial geological student. We are only able to investigate the crust of the earth, with all our ingenious boring instruments: but even in this crust we may trace a gradual change, and recognise the silent operations of nature in ages never counted by man. According to the popular theory, the earth must have been sixty times as large as its present size, and have cooled to its present dimensions, retaining still, in its unfathomable bowels, a burning heat. The conclusions of geologists, after long and patient examination, are, that certain rocks mark the age of the world--that, in fact, the crust of the globe consists of a certain number of strata, each belonging to a certain era, as the rings of a tree tell its years of growth. The more they test this theory, the more certain are they that the history of our globe may be accurately read in the strata which compose its crust. "A granitic crust, containing vast and profound oceans, as is proved by the extent and thickness of the earliest strata, was the infant condition of the earth. Points of unconformableness in the overlying aqueous rocks, connected with protrusions of granites, and other similar presentments of the internal igneous ma.s.s, such as trap and basalt, mark the conclusions of subsequent sections in this grand tale. Dates, such as chronologists never dreamed of--compared with which, those of Egypt"s dynasties are as the latter to a child"s reckoning of its birthdays--have thus been presented to the now living generation, in connexion with the history of our planet."[5] These changing ma.s.ses have been discovered with remains of organic life wrapped in their particles, each ma.s.s enclosing a petrified museum of the life that flourished while it was in course of formation: thus not only have we distinct proof of extinct forms of animal and vegetable life, but we are also able to a.s.sign the dates of their existence.
The MOST EASTERLY ROOM of the NORTHERN MINERAL and FOSSIL GALLERY, is that to which the visitor"s attention will be first directed. In this room, as in the next three, the table cases are devoted to the minerals; and the wall cases, along the southern side of the gallery, are filled with
FOSSIL VEGETABLES.
The wall cases of this room contain the various strata which have traces of vegetable life. The earliest vegetable life of which the geologist has found fossil remains is in the form of sea-weeds, specimens of which the visitor will notice in case 1. The grand harmony of the world"s development is shown in this adaptation of the earliest vegetable life to that of the earliest animal life--the polypus drawing its sustenance from the sea-weed. In the next three cases the visitor will notice various remains of fossil ferns (in clay slate) and horse-tails, all indicating the former high temperature and moisture of the localities in which they are found, since they are of large proportions, and it is observable that these plants grow in bulk according as they near the tropics. That the ferns and club mosses have diminished with the decrease of temperature of the earth, is proved by comparing the fossil club mosses, which have been found as large as beech trees, whereas at the present time the most gigantic club moss rarely exceeds three feet in height. In the lower sections of the third, fourth, and fifth cases, the visitor may notice some fine specimens of polished fossil woods; but the varieties of vegetable fossils can hardly engage his serious attention for any length of time, unless he have some real knowledge of botany and geology; yet he may gather the solemn teaching that lies in those dark ma.s.ses of early coal formation and clay slate, even though he be unable to explain the first principles of botanical science. He may notice, however, in the fifth and sixth wall cases, fossil specimens of extinct plants, including the sigillaria, which, when living, is supposed to have attained often to the height of seventy feet. Having noticed these vegetable remains, the visitor should cross to the northern wall of the room, and examine the sandstones upon which the tracks of an extinct animal called the chirotherium--and footprints, supposed to be of birds, are distinguishable.
The central object in the room is a tortoise found in Hindostan, near Allahabad. It is carved out of nephrite or jade, and is deposited upon a curious table of inlaid ancient marbles. Against the eastern wall are deposited some beautiful varieties of branched native silver from Norway; Lady Chantrey"s specimen of part of a coniferous tree, semi-opalised; and a ma.s.s of websterite from Newhaven, Suss.e.x. The table cases now remain for examination. These are devoted to varieties of
MINERALS.
and their combinations. The visitor should examine the cases in the order in which they are arranged, beginning with the cases marked 1 and 1A. These two cases contain specimens of native Iron. Native iron has nearly always proved to be of meteoric origin; and the specimens are here arranged in the order in which they have been found. They have fallen from the heavens at different places, and at different periods. The largest known aerolite is that which fell in Brazil, and was no less than eight feet in length. These huge solid ma.s.ses of iron, discharged from the clouds in a burning state, may well set the brains of philosophic men to work, to unravel the splendid mystery that contrives laboratories high up in the air, from which dense tons of pure iron are discharged upon our earth. Humboldt, discarding the Laplaceian theory that aerolites were detached ma.s.ses of the moon, which ignited on reaching the oxygen that surrounds our globe, a.s.serts that they are Lilliputian planets, having their system as we have ours; that they are identical with shooting stars, and that they occasionally fall to the earth by coming within the attraction of a body of overpowering magnitude. In the case with these meteoric specimens of native iron are specimens of native Copper--not often found in a pure state; native Lead, of meteoric origin; one specimen, exhibited in the form of a medal, having been cast out of the crater of Vesuvius about two hundred years ago; and native Bis.m.u.th, which expands as it cools.
In the second case the visitor will particularly notice the beautiful threads of native Silver from the Hartz Mountains; and the various forms in which pure silver is found; native Mercury, and combinations of mercury and silver called native amalgam, some moulded into figures by Mexican miners; native Platinum from Siberia; and Palladium.
The third case of the series is resplendent with samples of native Gold--a metal that plays so powerful a part in the affairs of men--that has roused the fiercest pa.s.sions of mankind, and been coveted by human beings from the remote times when the Phoenicians dreamt of golden lands in the east. Half of this table case is covered with native gold and alloys. Pure gold is generally found in separate crystals or grains, but the metal is mostly found combined with other substances. It is alloyed, for manufacturing purposes, with copper and silver.
Half of the third case, and cases 4, 5, and 6 in this room, are covered with various electro-negative metals and metalloids, cla.s.sed according to the system laid down by Berzelius. In the third case are Tellurium and Tellurets. In the fourth are samples of native a.r.s.enic, and its combinations with nickel and cobalt; Carbon in its various forms, pure as in the diamonds, which the visitor will notice attentively, some imbedded in the earth in which they were discovered, and models of celebrated diamonds; Black Lead in porcelain earth, for which c.u.mberland is celebrated; Selenium in its combinations with lead, mercury, sulphur, and other metals; and a medallion, in selenium, of Berzelius, who discovered this metal in 1818. The sixth case is covered with Sulphurets, chiefly of iron, these being commonly known as iron pyrites. These specimens of the commonest of metallic ores are from various parts of the world. Upon this table also are deposited Lord Greenock"s sulphuret of cadmium, commonly called greenockite; and sulphurets of nickel. Having examined the first six cases of the series ranged along the southern side of the room, the visitor should turn to the six last cases of the series (55-60). The first northern case (55) is covered with various Sulphates, or metals in combination with sulphuric acid, exhibiting beautiful crystals and colours, including sulphate of magnesia from Oregon; sulphate of zinc, or white vitriol; sulphate of iron, or green vitriol; and the splendid blue sulphates of copper from Hungary; beautiful sulphates of lead from Anglesea; sulphates of alumina; common alum; and the splendid specimens of lazurite, or lapis-lazuli,--
"Blue as the veins o"er the Madonna"s breast,"
from which the beautiful pigment called ultramarine is extracted. In 1828 M. Guimet succeeded in making an artificial ultramarine, known now extensively as French ultramarine, which is little, if at all, inferior in beauty to lazurite. The next case (56) contains the a.r.s.eniates, including a.r.s.eniate of lime, crystallised; a.r.s.eniates of copper; a.r.s.eniate of nickel; and red cobalt, or a.r.s.eniate of cobalt.
The next case is devoted to the Phosphates, or metals mixed with phosphoric acid, including crystals of the phosphate of iron from Fernando Po, Bavaria, and Cornwall; phosphates of manganese; phosphate of copper; yellow and green uranite; phosphates of alumina, including the blue spar, which has been mistaken for lapis-lazuli, and the phosphate of alumina known as turquois, found only in Persia, and esteemed as an ornament. In the two supplemental table cases, 57 A and B, the visitor may notice specimens of Pyromorphite, a combination of phosphate and chloride of lead, and a combination of chloride of calcium with phosphate of lime. These combinations, however, cannot interest the general visitor.
The case marked 58 contains the varieties of Fluorides, or combinations of fluorine and the metals. These include the fluoride of calcium, of which the most familiar variety to Englishmen is that known as Derbyshire spar, of which many useful articles are manufactured in this country. Ladies particularly will halt with interest before the case marked 58 A, where the fluorides, better known as the topaz, are deposited. These include a fine series of crystals from the Brazils, Siberia, and Saxony.
The 59th case is covered with Chlorides, or combinations of chlorine with other substances, including rock salt, or chloride of sodium; sal-ammoniac from Vesuvius; fine chloride of copper, exhibiting beautiful crystals; and chlorides of silver and mercury. The two last cases in the room (60 and 60 A) contain samples of coal, bitumen, resins, and salts. Here will be found the honey-stone of Thuringia; crystals of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia called struvite; beautiful specimens of amber, some pieces of which inclose insects; and copal, also containing insects; fossil copal; mineral pitch, from naphtha to asphalt; the elastic bitumen of Derbyshire, exhibiting its different degrees of softness; Humboldt"s dapeche, an inflammable fossil of South America; and brown and black coal. Having noticed all these varieties, the visitor should advance at once westward into the second room of the mineralogical gallery.
Here, against the southern wall, are groups of
FOSSIL ANIMALS
ranged inside and upon the top of the wall cases. The most remarkable of the remains inclosed in the wall cases of this room are the remains of the carapace and other portions of the gigantic Fossil Tortoise from the Sewalik Hills, Bengal, discovered by the enterprising Major Cautley; and the gigantic fossil bones of an extinct genus of birds that inhabited New Zealand in the remote past. But these wall cases are mainly devoted to the exhibition of chelonian, or tortoise fossils, which are the highest cla.s.s of fossil reptiles, except the serpents, and found only in the later or oolite formations of the earth. The regularity with which the various families of reptiles are discovered in the earth"s strata, according to their order, is remarkable. First the Lizards are found in the magnesian limestone, immediately above the coal deposit, indicating their early appearance on the earth; the next deposit, or new red sandstone, introduces us to the Frogs; the oolite to the Tortoises; and the recent tertiary strata to the Serpents. The bones of the tremendous wingless birds, which are deposited in the third case of this room, have been recognised by Professor Owen as the remains of an animal that must, when living, have stood eleven feet high. By the windows in the northern wall of the room are deposited the beautiful crystallised ma.s.s of Selenite, or sulphate of lime, found in the duchy of Saxe Coburg, and presented to the museum by Prince Albert; and a ma.s.s of carbonate of lime, presented by Sir Thomas Baring. Having noticed these prominent attractions of the room, the visitor should direct his attention to the table cases, and first to those ranged along the southern half of the room (7-13). Five of the tables are loaded with further specimens of the Sulphurets, or metals in combination with sulphuric acid. In the first case (7) are sulphurets of copper, and copper iron; in the second case (8) are the series of sulphurets of lead, or galena, from various parts of the world; in the third case (9) are specimens of sulphuret of bis.m.u.th, needle ore, or sulphuret of bis.m.u.th, copper, and lead, and sulphurets of mercury, or cinnabar, chiefly from Spain, the light variety of which is the bright vermilion used by artists; in the fourth case (10) are the sulphurets of silver, the beautiful crystallised sulphurets of antimony, chiefly from Transylvania, and the delicate plumose antimony, or feather ore; in the fifth case (11) are the sulphur salts, including the ruby, silver, &c.; and in the sixth case (12) are the sulphurets of a.r.s.enic, red orpiment, of which the best comes from Persia, cobalt glance, &c., bringing the series of sulphurets to a conclusion.
In the next case (13) the series of Oxides begins. Herein are the oxides and hydrous oxides of manganese.[6] Having examined the sulphurets and oxides, the visitor should cross to the northern suite of tables marked from 48 to 54. Here are arranged a series of the Carbonates, or combinations of carbonic acid with earths, metallic oxides or alkalis.
In the first case (48) are some specimens of brown spar from Hungary, fibrous and crystallised carbonates of iron, and manganese spar; in the second case (49) are the varieties of zinc spar, or carbonates of zinc, lead spar, or carbonates of lead, and carbonates of bis.m.u.th and cerium; in the third and fourth cases (50, 51) are the carbonates of copper, the 51st case containing those splendid green carbonates of copper from the mines in the Uralian Mountains, known commonly as Malachite, and when in a polished state vulgarly mistaken for a green and beautifully veined marble. Most visitors on examining these lumps of malachite will think of the beautiful colossal furniture manufactured of it by the Russians, and exhibited by them in their department of the Great Exhibition. The next three cases (52-54) are filled with series of sulphates, and some nitrates, including native nitre, or saltpetre. The Sulphates in the cases include glauber salt, or sulphate of soda; heavy spar or sulphates of baryta, among which are some splendid crystallisations from Piedmont, Hungary, Spain, and other countries; sulphate of strontia, known also as celestine, among which are some delicate blue crystals from Sicily; sulphates of lime, as gypsum, including some fine specimens of alabaster, and the fibrous sulphate known vulgarly as tripe-stone. The visitor has now examined the contents of the second room; the fossil tortoises and great wingless birds; the mineral combinations--nearly all of which are useful to man; and the way westward may be resumed to the third department of the northern mineralogical gallery. In the wall cases of this room are deposited some of the most interesting
FOSSIL ANIMALS.
Of these the celebrated fossil Salamander (which a German enthusiast mistook for a fossil human skeleton), deposited in the first case, will probably be most attractive to the general visitor. The first three wall cases are devoted to the batrachian or Frog fossils; some of the chelonian or Tortoise fossils; and the fossil crocodiles.
Fossil lizards are the most numerous of all fossil remains. Of these, including the fossil crocodiles, the visitor will notice specimens in the wall cases of this room, indicating the enormous size to which these extinct reptiles must have grown. One, the Iguanodon (case 3) was an animal that measured seventy feet in length. It existed in this country; various bones of it are in this case. The remains of the fossil Alligator, known as the mosasaurus, are also here, together with the wealden lizard of Kent, which was about twenty-five feet in length, and part of Cuvier"s wonderful fossil Flying Lizard, or sterodactylus, which is described as a reptile having mammalian characteristics, a bat"s wings, enormous eyes, and a bird"s neck. In the westerly cases of the room the visitor should notice the fossil sea lizards divided into two families--the Plesiosaurus, and the Ichthyosaurus. The plesiosaurus was an extraordinary reptile, of gigantic size, the length of whose neck exceeded that of its body and tail. It had ribs like a chameleon, and the body of a whale: it chiefly inhabited the water; but as the visitor will find the chief types of these extraordinary extinct reptiles in the next room, he may at once, with the comfortable a.s.surance that the Weald of Kent yields nothing in the present day like the wealden lizard, turn to the table cases of the room, in which he-will find further varieties of
MINERALS.
The southern range of tables is numbered from 14 to 23; and the northern range from 38 to 47. The first three tables of the southern range (14-16) are covered with the varieties of Oxides of Iron, including magnetic iron ore; natural magnets; the salam-stell of the East Indies; iron glance from Elba, Vesuvius, and Stromboli, some of which are very beautiful; brown iron stones, including the variety used as hair powder by natives of South Africa; and the pea ores that fell in a shower, on the 10th of August, 1841, in Hungary. In the next case (17) are the Oxides of Copper; bis.m.u.th; red oxide of zinc; cobalt ochres; oxide of uranium; and pitch ore. In the nineteenth case are the Oxides of Lead; and in the twentieth are the first of the oxides of electro-negative substances. This case contains the valuable alumina known as n.o.ble corundite, and to jewellers in its formations of ruby, sapphire, and the oriental emerald, topaz, and amethyst.
Herein also is the kind of corundum known as emery, and esteemed for its polishing properties. In this case also are the Aluminates of Magnesia, including the sapphirine; the chrysoberyls from Brazil, and those inclosed in quartz and felspar with garnets. The next four cases (20-23) are loaded with the varieties of the Acid of Silicium or silica, which const.i.tutes the greater part of hard stones and minerals with which the earth is encrusted. It is nearly pure in the rock crystal, of which there are many specimens in the first case (20), including those crystals called Bristol and Gibraltar diamonds, cairngorms, the smoky topaz; rock crystals inclosing foreign substances, and in a wrought state: of these Dr. Dee"s snow-stone is one. The next two cases (21, 22) are devoted to the varieties of common quartz, including the flexible sandstones of Brazil (of which there are some larger specimens upon a separate table) and to those of the east; milk quartz; the Salzburg blue quartz, &c.; some varieties of the cat"s eye; hornstones, including wood changed into hornstone: and herein begin the flints, including some specimens changing into calcedony, smalt blue calcedony from Transylvania; the Icelandic stalactical calcedony; and the fine Cornish calcedony. Upon the last southern table (23) are ranged further varieties of calcedony. These include the blood stone; the curious Mocha stones; and agates, including the agate nodule from central Asia. Having sufficiently examined these beautiful varieties of calcedony, the visitor should pa.s.s at once to the northern range of tables.
Upon the first of these tables (38) are some new scientific varieties of mineral substances, in which the unscientific visitor will not take any interest; herein also are Oxides of Antimony, including white antimony from Bohemia; red antimony, or kermes, not to be mistaken for the ancient dye used by the old Greek and Roman dyers, which was obtained from the female _coccus illicis_; and tungstates of lime, lead, and of iron and manganese.
In the second case (39) are the Molybdates and molybdic acid; the Chromates, including red lead ore from the Siberian gold mines of Beresof; chromate of lead and copper, and crome iron from Var, in France;--the Borates, including borates of magnesia, and borate of soda, or borax. In the third case (40) are some remarkable varieties of silicates, which contain borates from Norway and other countries; and in the fourth case (41) are the first in order, of the carbonates, including carbonates of soda, the beautiful crystals of carbonate of baryta, carbonate of strontia and aragonites, from Aragon, Hungary, Bohemia, and Vesuvius; and in the next case (42) are deposited further varieties of aragonite, and some remarkable varieties of calcite, or carbonate of lime. The next three cases (43-45) are chiefly devoted to the various crystallisations of calcite, including that generally known as the Fontainbleau crystallised sandstone, and the stalactic and fibrous varieties from Africa, Sweden, and c.u.mberland; while the two cases marked 45 A and B are covered with polished samples, known to people generally as marbles, including the beautiful fire marble.
The forty-sixth case is also covered with calcites, including the reastone, the limestone incrusted upon a human skull, found in the Tiber at Rome. In the 47th case are varieties of carbonate of magnesia, and magnesian limestone, including a remarkable one from Ma.s.sachusetts. Some marble tables are also in this room, placed here to exhibit the beauties of various calcites. The table of Serpentine is here: also the table inlaid with porphyries; one with a series of bivalve sh.e.l.ls (25); and in the centre of the room is the stalagmitic table, from the Blythe lead mine, Derbyshire, with black marble legs from Bakewell, given to the trustees of the Museum by the Duke of Rutland. Before leaving this room the visitor should not fail to notice the Maidstone Iguanodon deposited in a bed of sandstone, and placed beneath the central north window of the room. The bones are disjointed, but the general form of the reptile may be more perfectly seen here than in any other fossil remains of the iguanodon. Having noticed this fossil, and remarked the cla.s.sed groups of gigantic dark fossil bones, which cover the southern wall, the fossil turtles from Suss.e.x and other parts, and the great fossil thigh bones of reptiles that have pa.s.sed long since from the face of the earth, the visitor should once more advance into the fourth room of the gallery.
In this room the wall cases are devoted to
FOSSIL ANIMALS.
Of these the most interesting specimens are the remains of the Marine Lizards known as ichthyosauri from the English lias formation. To the right on entering, against the eastern wall of the room, the visitor should first notice the fossil remains of various carnivorous animals, including the skulls and other osseous wrecks of hyenas, bears, &c., and also, carefully screened in an additional gla.s.s case, hereabouts, the lower jaw of a marsupial animal on a slab of oolitic limestone--an early deposit, in which the highest cla.s.s fossils generally found are the tortoises.
In this room, however, the visitor will notice the progress of early creation--first, the zoophytes; then the fish lizards; then the fossil ruminants; then the fossil carnivora. Examples of these fossil remains are all included in the room which the visitor has now reached. First, he should examine the fossil remains of the ichthyosauri, or fish lizards, ranged in the first three wall cases, particularly that eighteen feet in length, deposited in the third case, one on the upper shelf of the fourth case, and another on the upper shelf of the fifth case. The case marked F contains fossils of a higher order than the reptiles, as the bones and antlers of deer, found in later strata of the earth"s crust; and on the top of the case are the horn and skull of a species of Texan bos. Having noticed these curious remains, princ.i.p.ally of extinct species of animal life, the visitor should at once turn to the table cases which contain the last of the ill.u.s.trations of the mineral kingdom.
MINERALS.
The southern tables include the numbers 24 to 30. The first table contains a very attractive collection of minerals, including the varieties of jasper; all kinds of opals--the sun opal, the semi-opal, wood opal, and wood partially opalised. The second table (25) is covered with varieties of Silicates of Lime, magnesia, and alumina; also soapstone, keffekil, or the meerschaum, highly esteemed by smokers, serpentine, chrysolite, &c. The third case (26) is devoted to Silicates of Zinc, magnesia, serium, copper, iron, bis.m.u.th, and other minerals; the fourth and fifth cases (27, 28) to zoolitic substances; the sixth case (29) to various minerals including samples of jade or nephrite, of which the tortoise, in the first room of this gallery, is manufactured; and the seventh case (30) to felspathic substances, including amazon stone from the Urals, and Labrador felspar. The northern cases are numbered from 31 to 37. In the first case (31) are varieties of felspar; in the second case (32) are micaceous and other mineral substances; in the third case (33) are basaltic hornblende, tremolite, &c.; in the fourth case (34) are varieties of asbestus, which defies the action of fire; jeffersonite; jenite from the Elba, &c.; in the fifth case (35) are various pyroxenic minerals; in the sixth case (36) are various kinds of garnets, including the lime and chrome varieties; and in the 37th case are the silicates, including beryls, and the emerald.
Having brought his examination of the mineral kingdom to a conclusion, the visitor should notice the fossil zoophytes and sh.e.l.ls from various deposits, arranged upon the other tables of the room. He will now leave the mineral kingdom, and advancing once more westward, will reach the fifth room of the gallery, which is entirely given up to various fossil remains.
FOSSIL FISHES
The first object that will arrest the visitor"s attention on entering this fine apartment is the gigantic skeleton of the extinct elk of Ireland, which towers above every other object, from its pedestal, placed in the centre of the room. It is seven feet in height, and eight feet in length.
The southern wall cases and the southern table cases of this room are covered with the fossil remains of various fishes. These are important to the student as exhibiting high forms of animal life that existed at the time of the formation of the most ancient strata in which organic remains have been discovered. The visitor will notice the perfect forms imprinted upon the various strata here exhibited.
In case 7 he will be struck with the fossil remains of some of the sauroids or lizard-like fishes, only two species of which survive to the present day, but which, in remote ages, abounded in the seas, and were particularly voracious. On the middle shelf of the wall case marked B the visitor should notice the fossil remains of the enormous and powerful carnivorous fish called the rhizodus; also the macropoma, like a carp in shape, in wall cases 13, 14; the fossil bremus in case 19; the extinct species of fossil carps, in cases 24, 25; the fossil pikes in cases 24-27; and the fossil herrings in the middle of cases 25-27. Having noticed these fossils the visitor should examine the wall case in the north-eastern corner of the room in which are deposited many bones of mammalia from the Sewalik Hills, including the teeth and jaws of an extinct species of camel; and the skull of the remarkable livatherium; and on the top of the case are various bones of the same extinct monster. The tops of the southern cases display various fossil remains, including the head-bones of the asterolepis; the skull and antlers of the Irish elk; and various skulls of different kinds of oxen. The western wall case is filled with a curious collection of various fossil parts of an extinct species of rhinoceros found in this country, also skulls of the rhinoceros dug up in Siberia. There is something impressive in the effect--the atmosphere of this and the sixth rooms. As crowds of holiday people, inhabitants of an island in which no dangerous living animals now abide, wander amid the fossil remnants of ages when the most terrible monsters must have lived in British waters and crawled upon British ground, curious contrasts rise in the brains of contemplative men. The mind wanders back to the age of reptiles--to times when no human footprint had sunk into the earth--and the great agents of nature were silently depositing in the congregating and shifting earths dead images of the prevailing life. Ages roll on as the reptiles give place to higher animal organisation developed in carnivora, the quickening blood warms, and then as the sovereign of all the grades of life, erect and gifted with reason, comes man. Something of this vast and half-told progress is shown in the range of fossil cases with which the visitor is engaged. He has pa.s.sed the era of reptiles and fishes, and on entering the sixth and last room of the gallery, he will notice the higher series of fossils. The distribution of the
FOSSIL MAMMALIA
in this room is very striking; the central s.p.a.ce being fully occupied by the cast of the wonderful megatherium of the Pampas, and the skeleton of the North American mastodon. The megatherium is described zoologically as having combined the characteristics of the armadillo, sloth, and ant-eater. In height it averaged eight feet; its feet were a yard in length; and its claws were of terrible strength; it was encased in an impenetrable scaly armour; and it lived upon roots. The mastodon was of the elephant kind. But the gigantic tapir described by Baron Cuvier, or the dinotherium, supposed by the Baron to have reached the extraordinary height of eighteen feet, of which only partial remains have been found, and are here deposited, is the largest fossil mammalia yet discovered. It is said to have had the habits of the walrus. The southern wall cases of the room contain a fine collection of the fossil remains of elephants and mastodons, chiefly from the Sewalik Hills of northern India. The third case (c) is filled with Brazilian fossils of varieties of the megatherium, monkeys, &c. On the right of the entrance from the fifth room are some fossil mammalia from Montmartre arranged by Cuvier. Having wandered about amid these suggestive wrecks of the remote past, the visitor should approach the central upright case placed against the western wall of this n.o.ble room. Here is a fossil of part of a human skeleton, the possession of which our geologists owe to the fortune of war--it having been found on board a French ship captured by an English cruiser. As the visitor will perceive, the skull is wanting, but this important part is said to lie in an American museum. However, the spine, the thigh bones, and the ribs are distinctly visible. This precious relic was extracted, with other human fossils, from the cliffs of Guadaloupe, about forty years ago. It is the skeleton of a savage slaughtered about one hundred and fifty years ago, and buried in the spot where it was found. As yet, the period when man first appeared upon the face of the earth is not told in geology. No fossil human remains have been found even in the ancient tertiary strata. The story of human life is revealed in other records, if not in the sepulchral strata of the earth"s crust. In this very Museum, which the visitor now treads--in these cases of fossil bones which in themselves are common material enough, the lordly intellect that has traced their deep significance, proves that, of all animal types, man is the highest and the strongest--removed from the most powerful mammoth and megatherium--the bones of which he has re-fixed, that they may, as stones, tell the story of their wonderful characters when alive. A curious resurrection this, by Cuvier and others, of long ages ago, to be pondered well. Not a holiday matter, to be stared at--an hour"s wonder--and then forgotten, as of no value in the markets of the living world; but a great and a serious science, with more romances in it than shelves of novels. To know something of the early state of the world which we enjoy--to have some evidences given to us that before human animals began to play their part here, wonderful monsters, part mammalia, part birds, part reptiles, gambolled upon the scene; that wingless birds stalked upon marshy grounds; that strange and ghastly lizards crawled upon our fruitful Kent; and gigantic fish floated in our tranquil waters, but no beautiful humming birds, majestic lions, and graceful horses--only crawling and swimming life, everywhere preying, and the early sea-weed rising in the sea because the polypus wanted its food: to think of these things is to have some knowledge.
In these dim regions of the past, what glimpses are there of the great eternal laws, the natural progresses, the continual upward tendency of all things! And then, taking this revealed book of the past in his hand, how a man may sit and ponder on all that is to be--dream of times when some future geological hammer will be rapping at the clay about the stone relics of his bones, and a man will gaze upon his hardened anatomy with a mild and holy joy--when all that breathes and moves to-day will be entombed in ancient strata of the earth, and busy life will be carried on a hundred feet above the ruins of the present.
These thoughts dwell happily with good men.