Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/84

 �of manne iDVcrtebratce to an almost iinriTalled perfectiOD Case afl^r case, all splendidly ligbted of rare and bnlliant shells from every part of the norld ^ le with one another in nttractiveuesa; while magnificent series crabs, sea-iir- lins, star-flshce. corals, cor- allines, hjdi'oids, and sponges, illus- trates the classifica- tion, and exhibits the vast variety, of more lowly life along- shore and on the Itottom of the deep

��lu no room does the casual visitor lin- ger longer than in this one; while its contents are uuubu- ally interesting to specialists, because of the la:^e proiwr- tion of type-speci- incliided. In many iuatancea these are nnique; as, for c sample, some of those beautiful or- ange and scarlet gor- gooius or ' sea-fans, " — flat, branchless. mossy growths of calcareous matter, which resemble great masses of pressed seaweed. One case is wholly niled with these corallines; and it is doubtful whether any museum in the world can make a better show- ing of them.

The corals, also, are very fine, embracing many rare and even unique forms, as miglit be expected, remembering Prof. J. D. Daua's labors in that direction; so that only the Mu- seum of comparative zoology e<|ua]s this part of the cabinet.

In the way of deep-sea forms of crustaceans, and echinoderms also, a great unmber of novel spedes are publicly displayed, which were procured in recent dredgings by the fish-com- missioa. Among them stand large jars hold- ing alcoholic remains of the giant cuttlefishes upon which Verrill has written so many learned pages: and overhead hang Emerton's paper

��NCL. [Vol.. T.,

models of Architeuthis and a huge Octopus, which half the visitors take to be real devil- fishes stuSed, and gaze at with fearful curiosity. The system of mounting dry objects of small size, adopted here, is perfect. It consists in using a small standard of wire set in a block of wooti stifficiently firm to stand upright with security, upon the top of which (thai is, on the tip of the wire) the specimen is fixed in any attitude desired by means of a bit of leather oi' cork glued to it at some inconspicuous point (see tigs. 4-7).

In the case of shells, this produces a singu- larly handsome effect. They are poised up- right, and can be viewed from all sides without handling, while the label attached to the foot- block is neither hidden by tlic object, nor hides it. The wires, often requiring much ingenious twisting and looping to adapt them to the needs of the irregular specimens and ijositions, are of brass; but. after each piece has been bent into the proper shape, it is silvei'-plat«d. The crabs are mounted in an equally attractive and accurate manner, these brittle and otherwise difficult preparations being treated by a com- bination of the method described above, with the twisted -wire arrange- ment familiar to osteolo- gists. Upright tablets of ground or colored glass, to which specimens are glued, are also made use of for many objects. Here, loo, as in the vertebrate hall, there is a synoptical col- lection of the invertebrates of New England, instruc- tively epitomizing the local fauna.

The remaining rooms on tills fioor arc occupied as laboratories or leclnre- rooms by Professors Ver- rill and .Smith of the Sbef- lield scieulilic school.

The fourth story con- tains storerooms filled with fossils; a collection (on exhibition) of about two thousand antiquities of great value (torn Central America: and a fair show of archeol<^ieal relica, the most notable part of which is the pottery from the mounds of the Ohio valley.

But the glorj' of the Yale museum is its pate- ontological treasures, brought together wholly

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