Central Saloon-Antelopes, goats, and sheep; horns of oxen; on the floor are giraffes from North and South Africa, the African rhinoceros, Manilla buffalo, and the walrus.

Southern Zoological Gallery-Oxen, deer, camels, llamas, horses, swine, armadillos, manises, and sloths; horns of antelopes; elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and wild oxen. The aurochs, or shaggymaned Lithuanian bison, presented by the Emperor of Russia, is said to be the finest specimen of stuffing in the Museum. Above the bison of the prairies is the ornithorhyncus, with a bird-like bill,-the watermole of Australia.

Mammalia Saloon-Old World monkeys, including the chimpanzee, closely resembling man; New World monkeys, including the howlers; lemurs; feræ, a black leopard, which killed its keeper; the bear tribe; a Mexican lapdog, very minute; marsupials, or pouched animals, from Australia; cete, or whale-like animals. Corals in the table-cases; above are the sword-fish, sturgeon, and conger.

Eastern Zoological Gallery, 300 feet long and 50 feet wide, contains a magnificent collection of stuffed birds in the wall-cases, and their eggs in table-cases; horns of deer, and a fine collection of shells. Here is a Reeves's Chinese pheasant (tail-feathers 5 ft. 6 in. long); and next the ostriches are a Dutch painting of the extinct dodo, a foot of the bird supposed to be more than two and a half centuries old, and a cast of the head; also, a specimen of the rare apteryx, or wingless bird of New Zealand.

Above the wall-cases are 116 portraits of sovereigns, statesmen, heroes, travellers, and men of science,-a few from the Sloanean and Cottonian collections: including two portraits of Oliver Cromwell (one a copy from an original possessed by a great-grandson of Cromwell; the other an original presented by Cromwell himself to Nath. Rich, a colonel in the parliamentary army, and bequeathed to the Museum, in 1784, by Sir Robert Rich, Bart.); three portraits of Mary Queen of Scots; Richard II., Edward III., Henry V., Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and II., &c.; three portraits of Sir Hans Sloane; Peter I. of Russia, Stanislaus Augustus I. of Poland, Charles XII. of Sweden, and Louis XIV. of France; Lord Bacon; the poets Pope and Prior; Dr. John Ray, the first great English naturalist; George Buchanan, 1581, on panel; Sir Francis Drake and Captain Dampier; Martin Luther, 1546, on panel; Guttenberg, the inventor of printing; Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist; Vesalius, by Sir Antonio More; Mary Davis, 1688,"ætatis 74," with a horn-like wen on her head; Sir Robert Cotton, Dr. Birch, Humphrey Wanley, Sir H. Spelman, and Sir H. Dugdale; Camden, on panel; Thomas Britton, the musical small-coal-man; Andrew Marvell, said to be the only portrait extant of him; &c. This is, probably, the largest collection of portraits in the kingdom: many are ill-painted, others very curious, and some unique; the majority of them had long lain in the lumber-lofts of the old Museum, when they were hung up, chiefly at the suggestion of the late Mr. William Smith, print collector, of Lisle-street. A very interesting catalogue raisonnée of these pictures appeared in the Times, Nov. 27 and Dec. 8, 1838.

Northern Zoological Gallery contains five rooms. 1. Bats, and nests of birds and insects; annulose animals; and shells. 2. Lizards, snakes and serpents, tortoises and turtles, crocodiles and amphisbænas, batrachian animals, sea-eggs, star-fish, &c. 3. The British zoological collection. 4. Exotic bony fish, insects, and crustacea (to be seen every Tuesday and Friday): here are the praying-mantis, walking-leaf, and a Brazilian wasp's-nest. 5. Sharks, torpedoes, rays, sponges, &c. The Collection of Insects is as extensive as the entomological collection at Paris. Over the wall-cases are the Herschel pike-fish, from the Cape of Good Hope; the sudia, from Berbice; and the bony pike, from North America.

MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY.-North Gallery-General collection of Minerals (mostly on Berzelius's system), in four rooms: mass of

meteoric iron (1400lbs.) from Buenos Ayres; native silver from Konsberg; trunk of a tree converted into semi-opal; large mass of Websterite from Newhaven; tortoise sculptured in nephrite, or jade, from the banks of the Jumna; Esquimaux knife and harpoon, of meteoric iron; a large collection of meteoric stones chronologically arranged. Here, also, are diamonds of various forms, and models of celebrated diamonds. The collection is superior to any in Europe, and includes a splendid cabinet of minerals from the Harz Mountains, formerly preserved in the Observatory at Richmond.

Fossils, in six rooms: 1. Vegetables; ferns and palmæ, fossil wood and sandstone, with supposed footmarks of animals when the stone was in a semi-fluid state. 2. The megatherium from Buenos Ayres, gigantic tortoise, and bones of extinct dinornis. 3. Frog, tortoise, and crocodile fossils: gigantic salamander, mistaken for a human skeleton; remains of iguanodon, 70 feet long, from Tilgate Forest, Sussex; of the hylæosaurus, or wealden lizard; and the plesiosaurus. 4. Large specimens of ichthyosaurus; hyena remains from the Torquay and Kirkdale caverns; phlascotherium Bucklandi, from the great oolite, Stonesfield, Oxon. 5. Fossil fishes, arranged after Agassiz; skull of the sivatherium; teeth of rhinoceros, found in Essex; complete skeleton of the large extinct Irish elk. 6. Remains of dinotherium (18 feet high), mastodon, and elephant; cast of the skeleton of the megatherium Americanum, found in Buenos Ayres; fossil human skeleton from Guadaloupe, &c. In Saurian Fossils the Museum is eminently rich; as well as in gigantic osseous remains, and impressions of vegetables, fruit, and fish."

THE BOTANICAL OR BANKSIAN DEPARTMENT contains the Herbaria of Sir Hans Sloane (336 volumes bound in 262); the Herbaria of Plukenet and Petiver; collections from those of Merret, Cunningham, Hermann, Bobart, Bernard de Jussieu, Tournefort, Scheuchzer, Kamel, Vaillant, Kampfer, Catesby, Houston, and Boerhaave; the plants presented to the Royal Society by the Company of Apothecaries from 1722 to 1796, as rent paid by the Company for the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. Also the Herbarium of the Baron de Moll; the Herbarium of Sir Jeseph Banks, mostly in cabinets, nearly 30,000 species, including Sir Joseph's collections upon his voyage with Captain Cook, and the plants collected in subsequent voyages of discovery; Loureiro's plants from Cochin China; an extensive series presented by the East India Company; Egyptian plants, presented by Wilkinson, &c. The flowers and fruits preserved in spirits, and the dried seeds and fruits, are fine.

GALLERY OF ANTIQUITIES.-Assyrian Sculptures, collected by Layard: fragments of the disinterred Assyrian palaces of Nimroud (Nineveh) and Kouyunjik; cuneiform (arrow-headed) and other writing; gypsum or alabaster bas-reliefs that lined the interior walls; detached sculptures; ivories and other ornaments; winged lions, weighing 15 tons each; winged bulls, each 14 feet high; sculptured slabs of battle-pieces and sieges, combats, treaties and triumphs, lion and bull hunts, armies crossing rivers; winged and eagle-headed human figures; religious ceremonies; sculptured obelisks; inscription on a bull, connecting the Assyrian dynasty of Sennacherib with Hezekiah of the Bible; fragments of a temple built by Sardanapalus; and a basalt Assyrian statue, closely resembling the Egyptian style; costumes, field-sports, and domestic life of 2000 years since. Here also are a few stones with cuneiform inscriptions, excavated by Mr. Rich from the presumed site of Nineveh, near Mosul; but previous to Mr. Layard's researches, "a case scarcely three feet square enclosed all

that remained not only of the great city Nineveh, but of Babylon itself!" (See Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, Monuments, &c.)

Phigaleian Saloon-Bas-reliefs of the battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha, and the combat of the Greeks and Amazons, from among the ruins of the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, near Phigaleia; built by Ictinus, contemporary with Phidias, and architect of the Parthenon (Pausanias). Their historical value, representing the art of the Praxitelian period, is scarcely less than that of the Parthenon marbles. In two model pediments from the eastern and western ends of the Temple of Jupiter Parhellenius, in the island of Ægina, are, west, 10 original statues, representing Greeks and Trojans contesting for the body of Patroclus; east, 5 figures, expedition of Hercules and Telamon against Troy, these statues being the only illustration extant of the armour of the heroic ages. In this saloon, also, are the Canning Marbles, or Bodroum Sculptures, from Bodroum, in Asia Minor, the site of Halicarnassus; 11 bas-reliefs (combat of Amazons and Greek warriors), formerly part of the celebrated Mausoleum erected in honour of Mausolus, King of Caria, by his wife Artemisia, B.C. 353: it was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These, and other sculptures from Bodroum, were presented by the Sultan to Sir Stratford Canning (whence their name), and by him to the British Museum.

British and Anglo-Roman Remains-Tesselated pavements, Roman altars, sarcophagi, Roman pigs of lead; tesselated pavements from the Bank of England and Threadneedle-street and other parts; Roman mill fragments from Trinity-House-square, and a sarcophagus from Haydon-square.

Greek and Roman Sculptures-Statues and bas-reliefs by Greek artists, or from Greek originals; busts of mythological, poetical, and historical personages; statues and busts of Roman emperors; architectural and decorative sculptures and bas-reliefs; sepulchral monuments, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman; Roman altars; pavement from Carthage; bas-relief of Jupiter and Leda; the group of Mithra; the Rondini Fawn; torso of Venus, from Richmond House; bas-relief of the Apotheosis of Homer, cost 1000l.; Persepolitan marbles, presented by Sir Gore Ouseley and the Earl of Aberdeen; a Venus of the Capitol; and other high-class marbles from the collections of Sir W. Hamilton, R. Payne Knight, and Edmund Burke, including, from the latter, the copy of the Cupid of Praxiteles, presented by the painter Barry to Burke. Here also are a sarcophagus from Sidon, sculptured with combats of Greeks, Amazons, and Centaurs; and a magnificent marble tazza 4 feet 3 inches high, and 3 feet 7 inches diameter.

The Towneley Collection of bas-reliefs, vases, statues and groups, heads and busts, includes 83 terra-cottas: the famed Discobulus, or Quoit-thrower, in marble, from the bronze of the sculptor Myron; Venus, or Dione, the finest Greek statue seen by Canova in England; Venus Victrix, of the highest style of art; busts of Pallas, Hercules, Minerva, and Homer; bust of "Clytie rising from a sunflower;" and busts of Greek poets and philosophers. The Bacchus is finest-so beautiful, self-possessed, and severe; Bacchus, the mighty conqueror of India-not a drunken boy—but the power, not the victim of wine.

These stores of Greek and Roman art were collected by Mr. Charles Towneley, chiefly at Rome, between 1765 and 1772; and were arranged by him at No. 7 Park-street, Westminster, with accompaniments so classically correct, that the house resembled the interior of a Roman villa. The dining-room had walls of scagliola porphyry; and here were placed the largest and most valuable statues, lighted by lamps almost to animation. Mr. Towneley died in 1805; and his collection of marbles and terra-cottas was purchased by the British Museum for

20,000l., and first exhibited in a gallery built for their reception in 1808. Mr. Towneley's bronzes, coins, gems, drawings, &c., chiefly illustrating the sculptures, were subsequently purchased by the Museum for 82007. A bust of Mr. Towneley, by Nollekens, is placed near the entrance to the Central Saloon.

Elgin Saloon-The Elgin marbles, brought from the Parthenon at Athens by the Earl of Elgin: some are the work of Phidias himself. (See in this room two models of the Parthenon, each 12 feet long, made by R. C. Lucas, described in Remarks on the Parthenon by R. C. Lucas, Sculptor; Salisbury, 1844: 1. The temple after the bombardment in 1687; 2. The Parthenon restored.) The Metopes from the Frieze (15 originals and 1 cast), representing the battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha, in alto-relievo: for the original the English government agent bid 1000l. at the sale of the collection of the Count de Choiseul Gouffier; but he was outbid by the Director of the French Museum, where the metope now is. The Panathenaic Frieze, 524 feet in length, is probably the largest piece of sculpture ever attempted in Greece: its men, women, and children, in all costumes and attitudes; horsemen, charioteers; oxen and other victims for sacrifice; images of the gods; sacred flagons, baskets, &c. have an astonishing air of reality. Of the 110 horses, no two are in the same attitude: "they appear," says Flaxman, "to live and move; to roll their eyes, to gallop, prance, and curvet; the veins of their faces and legs seem distended with circulation." Here are about 326 feet of the Frieze; 76 feet casts, and about 250 feet of the genuine marble which Phidias put up.

"The British Museum," says Professor Welcker, "possesses in the works of Phidias a treasure with which nothing can be compared in the whole range of ancient art." Flaxman said that these sculptures were as perfect representa tions of nature as it is possible to put into the compass of the marble in which they are executed-and nature, too, in its most beautiful form.' Chantrey spoke enthusiastically of the exquisite judgment with which the artists of these sculp tures had modified the style of working the marble, according to the kind and degree of light which would fall on them when in their places.' Lawrence said that, after looking at the finest sculptures in Italy, he found the Elgin marbles superior to any of them.' Canova said, in reply to an application made to him respecting their repair or restoration, that it would be sacrilege in him or any man, to presume to touch them with a chisel." "

Pedimental sculptures, placed upon raised stages: East, the birth of Minerva; Hyperion, and heads of two of his horses; Theseus, ideal beauty of the first order, the finest figure in the collection, of which more drawings have been made than all the other Athenian marbles put together: "the back of the Theseus is the finest thing in the world." Head of a horse from the chariot of Night, valued at 2501., the finest possible workmanship. West pediment: Contest between Athena and Poseidon for the naming of Athens; the recumbent statue of the river god Ilissus, pronounced by Canova and Visconti equal to the Theseus; torso, supposed of Cecrops, grand in outline; fragment of the head and statue of Minerva. Also, a capital and part of a shaft of a Doric column of the Parthenon; piece of the ceiling, and Ionic shaft, from the Temple of Erechtheus at Athens; imperfect statue of a youth; piece of a frieze from the tomb of Agamemnon, exceedingly ancient; circular altars from Delos; bronze sepulchral urn, very richly wrought; casts from the Temples of Theseus, the best preserved of all the ancient Athenian monuments; the Wingless Victory and the Choragic monument of Lysicrates; from the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus, a colossal statue of Bacchus, inferior only to the Phidian sculptures; Eros (Cupid), discovered by Lord Elgin within the Acropolis (headless), has in the limba the grace and elegance of the age of Praxiteles; the Sigean inscription, most ancient Grecian, in the Boustrophedon style: i. e. the lines read as an ox passes from one furrow to another.