tents of others are but provisionally placed. This circumstance has rendered it necessary to introduce an arbitrary notation in the subjoined plans of the rooms which I have drawn up for the present work.

The classification of the Organic Remains is botanical, and zoological; but in consequence of the want of space, and the continual additions which have been made of late years to various departments, the arrangement is necessarily somewhat irregular.

The Fossil Vegetables are placed in Room I., and occupy the wall-cases: the collection commences with the Cryptogamia, which are deposited in the cases on the right hand of the entrance, and terminates with the Conifera, of which there are examples of large petrified stems in the window-recesses. The wall-surface over the upright cases is for the most part vacant and bare; and the visitor who has previously strolled through the Egyptian Saloon and Gallery, the walls of which are adorned with paintings illustrative of the archæological treasures they contain, will doubtless feel surprise and regret that a suite of rooms devoted to objects of such surpassing interest, and which especially require pictorial illustrations to render them intelligible to the uninstructed observer, and that present a variety of subjects suitable for such decorations, should be suffered to retain their present uninviting and cheerless aspect. If on the walls over the cases in which the coal-plants are placed there were figures of the trees which flourished during the carboniferous epoch,-as for example, the Lepidodendra and Sigillariæ, with their foliage, and fruits, and roots; and above others, representations of Arborescent Ferns, Palms, Conifers, Cycadeæ, &c., how greatly would the pleasure and instruction of a visit to this Gallery of "Organic Remains of a former World," be enhanced! The same observation applies to the other apartments, in each of which there are unoccupied spaces, that at a small cost might be rendered pleasing to the eye, and instructive to the mind, if restored figures of the animals whose remains are in the cabinets, or sections and sketches of the strata and localities whence they were obtained, were painted or suspended on the walls.1

1 This method was adopted in the Author's Museum at Brighton, and proved highly attractive and useful

Room VI. The coup d'œil of this part of the Gallery, which is chiefly devoted to Fossil Mammalia, is very imposing. Immediately opposite the entrance is the model of the skeleton of the Megatherium, or colossal Sloth of South America, from Buenos Ayres; and beyond it, the skeleton of the Mastodon of the Ohio, from North America; between them is placed a most extraordinary specimen,-the skull and tusks, (fourteen feet long,) of the Elephas Ganesa, from India.

In the wall-cases is an unrivalled series of the crania and jaws and teeth of Mastodons and Elephants of numerous species, in a marvellous state of preservation. They have been cleared from the very compact incrustation which originally surrounded them, with great skill and labour by Mr. Dew. The greater number are from the Sewalik or Sub-Himalayan Mountains of India, and were collected by Major Cautley and Dr. Falconer. Some very fine specimens of the Mastodon Ohioticus are from Big-bone Lick, in Kentucky, United States of North America.

This room also contains many choice examples of the crania, teeth, and bones of the Megatherium, Dinotherium, Sivatherium, and other extinct genera of Mammalia; and the celebrated Fossil Human Skeleton in limestone, from Guadaloupe.

With these cursory observations, I would introduce the reader to Room I., requesting him to notice on the lobby, to