minute and important investigations successfully, and more especially in that which constitutes the great gratification of the ambitious and highlygifted and persevering naturalist, viz., the discovery of new genera or species; or, in other words, those who have the good luck to be the first to christen a new bird, insect, fish, or plant, are compelled to be confined in the house, or the museum, by the side of lifeless insects, disguised plants, motionless fish, and birds whose wings have ceased to fly.

In a museum, shells look just as well in the glass cases, frequently better, than in their native locality the shore, the rock, or the bed of the ocean. The various tribes of insects, beautiful as they are, when their joyous song of humming has ceased to vibrate upon the ear, and when there is an end to all the varied and fantastic movements of their exquisite little bodies, may be said to be placed in a large glass coffin, and if not similar to Egyptian mummies in the swaddling clothes, they are certainly cribbed and confined within the precincts of a covering of glass. The birds, especially those of the humming tribe, from the fact of their being treated as birds ought to be, viz., that of being perched on the branch of a tree; possess some of the attitudes which belong to them in their native elements, and consequently look passablement bien.

Other tribes of birds, however, of the great sub kingdom of the vertebrata, are far from having such happy arrangement as the beautiful little humming bird. Fancy that nimble legged turkey of the great North American prairie, stuck in a corner, whose legs have lost their activity and agility, and which now take upon themselves the functions of acting as pedestals only to his noble figure, accustomed to roam over that ocean of fairy flowers where he first

drew his breath, and where, if he had not been a most unfortunate bird, he ought to have died.

Look at that albatross, the largest winged bird of the feathered tribe, whose powerful and outstretched wing has enabled him many a time to paddle the air with rapid movements, with equal facility in the hurricane, the gale, the thunderstorm, the zephyr and the calm, and over the wide and wondrous ocean over which he has roamed as extensively as an Australian steamer; and when the latter has sunk to rise no more by the overwhelming influence of the mountainous waves of the ocean, he has rode on the wings of the wind with perfect security to himself, making use of the fearful elements which toss the mariner into his watery grave, as a means of recreation and amusement; there stuck in a glass case, with his wings wrapped round him like a cloak, instead of gracefully waving in the air like the beautiful banana leaf of the tropics.

Observe that grouse, that first commenced his career as a volant animal on the moors of Scotland, whose habitation has been the red, pink, and scarlet heather spread out on the hills and valleys of his native land, far more lovely than the most costly and variegated carpet of the most exquisitely furnished drawing-room, there sitting by the side of some uncongenial member of the feathered tribe, whose company and habits are quite foreign to his taste, and whose society he would have considered in his life time as derogatory to his dignity as an individual, without a sprig of heather upon his wing to enliven his most melancholy aspect. As poverty brings many a man into strange company, in like manner the stuffed bird is frequently similarly

associated.

Take a view of that magnificent eagle, with his piercing eye, his wiry legs, his powerful wings

united to a body by the firmest ties of muscle and ligament, joined to a body whose hard muscular

structure is calculated to endure all the extremes of heat and cold that characterize the diversified climate of his native mountain region. Let imagination delineate his flight from the base of the mountain to some hanging peak of his Alpine home, where he sits in all the pride of a truly exalted individual, perfectly conscious of the superiority of his elevated and commanding position, either glancing at his prey quickly to be sacrificed to appease his hungry stomach; or, if inclined for a little recreation, quietly reconnoitering with his all piercing eye some distant pinnacle of his romantic domicile to which he is about to direct his course with almost the rapidity of a fiery meteor. Then see him soaring high up in the heavens to look at the sun, and take a distant and balloon-like survey of the earth, and all that it contains, the sea and his native Alpine crags-there stuffed and stuck in the middle of a group of ignoble birds, in the old dusty glass case, who if they had dared to associate with him during his lifetime would have suffered for their impertinence in the most summary manner possible, most probably by being skinned alive, and eaten up into the bargain, and by so doing would have kept company with him in the dark and uncomfortable recesses of his capacious stomach, thus contributing to stuff the old mountain monarch while he was yet alive. When you see this monarch of the feathered tribe within the narrow and dusty confines of the glass case, you may truly say it is only his effigy.

I find that the carrying out what I intended in this chapter, would take more pages than that division of a book conveniently requires, consequently I must now take my leave of my reader for the present, trusting that I have not produced

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ennui in taking him through the museum, with the few remarks made in reference to it. I may here inform him that I have visited all the great museums of Europe, especially those of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, in which latter some of the most wonderful minerals may be seen, such as are not found in any other museum. There exists, however, in our own country the most extensive and most beautiful museum in the world, where the traveller, after having visited distant regions and the many and various climates of the world, can step into it and there renew his acquaintance with all those various creatures of animated nature which deserve the especial attention of a travelled individual, and which cannot fail to attract the attention of the untravelled at the same time. To the illiterate and thoughtless, the British Museum must have some attraction; for where is the man, however ignorant, that can fail to be charmed with the wonderful and extensive collection of birds, fishes, shells, insects, and quadrupeds which he has there the opportunity of seeing? To the travelled naturalist, it is an epitome of the world. All those extraordinary animals which he has seen at many a thousand miles distant from the place of their birth are there again presented to his view.

CHAPTER IV.

Museums and their Collections-Incapacity of the Attendants -Fish out of their Element-Connexion of the Sciences as developed in Nature.

IN visiting our National Gallery and British Museum many years ago, I was invariably struck with the circumstance of the extreme paucity of attendance of those, who, at that time, were scarcely ever to be seen within their precincts, viz., the lowest classes and working population of our country -those classes which form the basis of all our manufacturing, agricultural and commercial pursuits, and who have enabled England to take that high position which makes her stand unrivalled among the nations of the world. Since that, however, I have perceived a gradual increase in the numbers of our working people to my very great gratification.

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Upon one occasion, observing a far greater number of working people than ordinary in the National Gallery, I observed to one of the officials what a delightful circumstance it was to see that class of people flocking to the gallery to improve their taste. He replied, "I am sorry to say we have far too many of those dirty creatures." replied, "The more the better." Surely this was a most unfit person to have the care and charge of any establishment so well calculated to improve the bad taste and the unfortunately lost condition of many of the poor people of this most wealthy country. This man must have been one of the rabble himself elevated to his position, whose heart, mind, taste and education had been utterly neglected,