Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/489

Rh was told by Dr. Annandale of the interesting museum at Kuala Lumpur in Selangor, the federal capital of the Malayan states, which promises to be most complete. A building is here in process of construction, which will make this museum Twice the size, for example, of the well-known museum at Colombo. Its present curator is the ornithologist, Mr. H. C. Robinson. formerly of Liverpool. I learned also of the museum at Thai Ping, capital of Perak, which contains a remarkable ethnological cabinet and an extensive collection of Malayan reptiles. This museum, under the direction of Mr. Leonard Wray, is, I was told, one of the most interesting in Asia. The museum at Bankok, on the other hand, is less important, in spite of the apparently more favorable conditions under which it has grown up. And its arrangement leaves much to be desired.

Of the museums in the Dutch East Indies, that at Batavia is easily the first, containing extensive local collections, both ethnological and faunistic. A second museum, at Trevandrum on the west coast of Java, has received the favorable comment of experts. Its collection of whales is especially complete.

The museums in China may be dismissed with but few words. In the Chinese treaty-ports there is little interest in museum matters on the part of resident Europeans, whose ways are commercial, and under existing conditions the Chinese authorities can hardly be expected to grant funds for such purposes. The best Chinese museum is the one at Hong Kong. It has a separate building with well-lighted galleries, and exhibits a fairly extensive series of natural history and ethnological objects, coins, etc. It is clear, however, that its resources are very restricted, and such a museum, whatever its effect upon the oriental visitor, is apt to be uninspiring. In Peking, however, in connection with the Imperial University of China, an important museum will soon be opened; it may be mentioned that this branch of the governmental educational work has been largely directed by the Japanese.

The museums of the following cities may be given a more detailed report, viz., Singapore, Colombo, Madras, Calcutta, Lahore and Jaipur. The museum in Bombay is said to be uninteresting, and I neglected to visit it.

The museum at Singapore, known as the "Raffles Museum," had itsorigin (1844) as a proprietary library in which local curiosities came to be preserved. In 1874 the institution was taken over by the British government (Straits Settlements), and in 1887 the present building was provided to house a collection acquired at the time of the Victorian Jubilee. The building is well proportioned, suitably lighted and planned, Fig. 1. but too small for its needs, and the authorities are now constructing an addition. This will be of the same size as the