a new department of Natural History calls for attention. This noble gallery consists of four or five rooms in one range, every room having wall-cases 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 substance which each specimen contains. First occur 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 selenium; 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 algæ 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 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.

THE UPPER ROOMS:-WESTERN GALLERIES.

In the western wing of the building are three rooms-the Egyptian Room, the Bronze Room, and the Etruscan Room; opening one into another, and containing an immense assemblage of curious productions.

Who that has entered the Egyptian Room can fail to be struck with the strange appearance of the mummies and mummy-cases? Who can resist the impulse to carry the thoughts back to the time-reckoned by an interval of thousands instead of hundreds of years-when Kebhsnauf and Sioumautf, Menka-re and Oukhsnope, Iriouirooui and Khousmos, and the other heroes and heroines, whose unpronounceable names are recorded-were among the walking and talking inhabitants of Egypt! Great, indeed, must have been the pains taken to prepare the dead bodies so as to remain uncrumbled for three, or perhaps four, thousand years. The cleaning and embalming of the body, the wrapping in bandages of fine linen covered with gum, and the enclosure in a profusely-painted wooden case-all show how much care was taken to prevent the destruction of the body. Some of the mummies, which are filled with aromatic resins, present an olive-coloured tint; their skin is dry, flexible, and contracted, like tanned leather; the features are distinct, and appear to be like those that existed in life; and the teeth, hair, and eyebrows are generally perfect. It is certainly calculated to give rise to an interesting train of thought, when we

reflect that the mummies placed in this room (some of them at least) were mummies so far back as the period when Moses and the Israelites were in Egypt: and that they have remained undestroyed and unrotted throughout all the busy scenes of the intervening period.

There is scarcely a branch of art or industry but is illustrated by the contents of this room. They are all worthy of close attention: for in some cases the material, in others the form, in others the colour, and in others the uses, furnish instructive evidence of the arts of the ancient Egyptians. The wooden figures brought from tombs; the bronze offerings of private worship; the porcelain figures, perforated for attachment to the network or necklaces of mummies; the painted, gilt, stone, bronze, silver, and porcelain deities, from one inch to twenty inches in height-these relate to religious notions on the part of the Egyptians. So likewise do the figures of sacred animals, such as the jackal, the hippopotamus, the baboon, the lion, the cat, the ram; and also the strange compounds of half-man, half-brute, in which ancient paganism so much delighted.

The articles of household furniture, or models of them on a small scale, are interesting in another point of view, as carrying the imagination to the homes of the ancient dwellers on the banks of the Nile. The stools and chairs; the couches and pillows; the keys, locks, hinges, bolts, and handles; the tables, and salvers, and baskets; the models of a house, a granary, and a yard; then, again, the articles of the toilet, such as the black wig, the caps, aprons, tunic, sandals, shoes, combs, pins, studs, cases for containing the eyelid paint, and painting implements-all are deserv ing of a little examination. Numerous, too, are the vases and lamps, the bowls and cups, the agricultural implements, the warlike weapons, the writing and painting implements, the working tools and weaving looms, the toys, and the musical instruments. One of the cases in the room contains a vast number of amulets, and scarabæi or sculptured beetles; they once formed portions of necklaces, bracelets, rings, or other articles of personal adornment; and, whether in the form of beetles, hogs, or other animals, and whether formed of amethysts, carnelians, basalt, serpentine, marble, or porcelain, they were all intended as charms to avert evil from the wearer.

The Bronze Room next adjoining the Egyptian Room, obtains its name from the chief of the Museum bronzes being there placed; but it contains many other articles formed of other materials. The beautiful, the grotesque, the ingenious-all meet with illustration among the bronzes which occupy the table-cases in this room. Many of the small figures were Penates, or family and domestic deities of the Romans: some of them tiny specimens not above an inch in height, and few of them reaching to the height of twelve inches. Roman weights and trinkets, and metal mirrors, tripods, and candelabra, and lamps-are among the articles of metal.

The Etruscan Room, next beyond the Bronze Room, is one of the most interesting in the Museum, in respect to the passion (for it seems almost to have amounted to such) which the Etruscans showed for vases. The Etruscan tombs were long known to contain relics of the departed race; but it is only within the last few years that attention has been forcibly directed to the matter. Subterranean tombs have been opened, and sarcophagi and vases found in them. Many of the sarcophagi, so obtained, are now deposited in the lower saloons of the Museum, as we have stated; and hundreds of the vases are placed in the Etruscan Room. Many of the tombs were almost filled with vases; and of the character of these vases the contents of the Etruscan Room will afford us a very sufficient notion. The shelves and cases exhibit a variety of elegant forms, from the flat salver to the tall and slender vase. Some of these vases are made of heavy black

ware with figures on them in bas-relief; others have pale back-grounds, with figures of a deep reddish maroon colour; then come others with black figures upon red or orange back-grounds. The figures are, for the most part, in an early and formal style of art, many of them grotesque, and all less remarkable for artistic taste than as illustrations of the mythology and train of thought at that period.

The rooms and galleries southward of the Etruscan Room, on the west side of the building, though finished and open, are not yet filled with specimens.

THE UPPER ROOMS:-ETHNOGRAPHICAL ROOM.

At the south-west corner of the building we turn again to the left, and enter a long gallery called the Ethnographical Room. Now, it would not be amiss if the superintendents of the Museum would condescend a little to the wants of their visitors, in respect to such a 'hard word' as this. The word is a rare puzzle to many an unlearned person. The Chinese bell, and the bows and arrows, and the skin dresses, and the grotesque figures-how do they become 'ethnographical,' and what does it mean? It might be worth while to adopt some secondary inscription, to denote that ethnos is the Greek name for nation or tribe, and that national manners and customs, arts and implements, are illustrated by the specimens deposited in this room. The room is divided into nations, and in that sense it becomes ethnographical.

The nations whose productions are here exhibited to us, have certainly displayed very curious and varied ingenuity. Look at the Chinese department, with its little figures of beggars, mandarins, gods, and goddesses: its trinkets in ivory and hard wood. Look in succession at the Burmese, the Hindoo, and the Japanese departments. There is the gilt image of Guadama, the Burmese idol, in all its hideous glitter; the Hindoo deities, in wood and bronze; the Hindoo measures, and vessels, and arms; the Chinese and Japanese matchlocks, bows, arrows, shoes, mirrors, screens, musical instruments, inlaid boxes; the collection of half-clothed little figures, six or eight inches in height—all, if not beautiful, are at least curious specimens of the things which meet with admiration in the East. The stands in the middle of the room, too, contain two specimens of much interest. One is a Chinese bell, about five feet in height, which was cast about seven years ago, and was captured by the British troops from a temple at Ningpo, in 1844. The figures of Buddha, on the upper part; the Buddhist inscriptions beneath; the handle formed of a crouching dragon-all are worthy of close inspection, as a very creditable specimen of Chinese manufacture in metal. The other article on the floor-stands is a model of a gaudy moveable temple, such as would excite the reverence of the inhabitants of the Carnatic, in the southern part of India.

Pass on from thence to the compartments containing the African, the North American, the Peruvian, the Guianian, the Chilian, and the Mexican antiquities ; and see the numerous illustrations there afforded of the religion, the arts, and the industrial occupations of those nations. How creditable to the weavers of Central Africa is that richly-decorated piece of cloth, woven in narrow strips; and the Foulah cloak, from Sierra Leone; and the striped specimens from Ashantee! Then the Ashantee loom, by which such fabrics are wrought, is worth looking at. As for the other Ashantee curiosities-the umbrellas, the padlocks, the tobacco-pipes, the flyflappers, the sandals, the musical instruments-they meet the eye by scores. The stone and terracotta figures of the Mexican collection, mostly purchased from Mr. Bullock's museum, carry the thoughts back to a period in the history of America long anterior to the time of Columbus; and so likewise do the Aztec vases, idols, and ornaments; the Peruvian mummies, silver ornaments, vessels, silver images; and

Chilian antiquities of a similar kind. Nations once flourished where now forests abound; and large portions of the human family have passed away in America, with hardly any relics left behind to say who or what they were.

Thus may the visitor go round the Ethnographical Room, cultivating acquaintance with each nation in succession. The Esquimaux of North America, the Friendly and Sandwich Islanders, the Australians, and our own British ancestors-all are presented to our view. The fur dresses, the whalebone nets, and the fishing implements of the Esquimaux; the winter and summer dresses, the ornaments and implements and vessels of the Tahitians; the New Zealand weapons and cordage and carvings; the tortoise-shell bonnet, from one of the Polynesian islands-all have their points of interest to those who regard them as a sort of book, in which to read the social history of distant and rude nations. The models of the ancient Druidical cromlechs, in the centre of the room, and some of the metal and earthenware specimens in the northern wall-cases, belong to the early curiosities of our own country. There is also deposited in a case on the floor of the room a model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. But perhaps the most extraordinary model here placed is that of a body of Thugs murdering a traveller in India; there is a multitude of figures, all a few inches in height, and dressed in proper costume; and the outlying, the waylaying, the strangulation, the digging of the grave, the burial, the partition of the booty-all are depicted, or rather modelled, by a native artist.

Thus have we taken a hasty glance at this great national collection, a collection which is honourable to the country and the individuals by whom it has been gradually accumulated. The expenditure on the collection has, of course, been very great. In the first place, Sir Hans Sloane's collection, which cost him £50,000, was, at his request, offered to the nation for £20,000; and this sum was paid for it. £10,000 was paid for the Harleian collection of MSS., £10,000 for Montague House, £13,000 for altering and repairing the house, and £30,000 were set apart as a fund for salaries and wages of keepers, &c. The purchases then went on with such rapidity that we cannot follow them. Among them was the Lansdowne MSS., £4925; the Arundel MSS., £3560; Colonel Greville's minerals, £13,727; the Hamilton vases, £8400; Phigaleian sculptures, £20,000; Elgin sculptures, £35,000-it is in vain, however, to enumerate all the purchases. For many years past the House of Commons has voted very large sums annually for these purposes connected with the Museum: to make additions to the various collections, to build the new structure, and to pay the various salaries and current expenses of the establishment.

It is pleasant to think that a spirit is now abroad which will probably lead to the formation of museums in towns which have hitherto had nothing of the kind. On referring to the statutes passed in 1845, we shall find that one relates to the formation of museums, by enacting that "it shall be lawful for the council of any municipal borough, the population of which exceeds 10,000 persons, if such council shall think fit so to do, to purchase lands, and to erect thereon buildings suitable for museums of art and science;" and by arranging how the expenses are to be defrayed. The rate of admission is "not to exceed one penny for cach person ;" but if the expenses are provided by a borough rate, it becomes a question whether a gratuitous admission would not be far preferable. If only a single penny were charged at the British Museum or the National Gallery, it would make a most enormous difference in the daily number of visitors. As matters now stand, visitors need not think about money at all in connection with their visits; and this is far preferable.