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392 for the benefit of the public. A charter was then obtained; two rooms in one of the school-buildings were set apart as a place for the exhibition of the specimens, and the museum was thrown open. From that time forth its growth was steady and rapid. The cultivated people of Minusínsk rallied to Mr. Martiánof's support, and contributions in the shape of books, anthropological material, educational appliances, and money soon began to come from all parts of the town and district, as well as from many places in the neighboring provinces.

In 1879, only three years after its foundation, the museum contained more than 6000 objects, and on the shelves of the library connected with it there were 3100 volumes. At the time of our visit it had outgrown its accommodations in the school-house, and had been removed to the building of the town council, where it occupied six or seven rooms and was still very much crowded. Its contents were classified in six departments, or sections, known respectively as the departments of natural history, ethnology, archæology, rural economy [including farm and household implements and utensils], technology, and educational appliances. The department of natural history, which comprised the plants, rocks, and animals of the district, was the largest, of course, and the most complete; but to me the department of archæology was by far the most important and interesting, for the reason that it contained a very remarkable collection of weapons and implements found in the kurgáns and burial-mounds of the Yeniséi valley, and extending in an unbroken series from the flint arrow-heads and stone celts of the prehistoric aborigines, down through the copper and bronze age, to the rusty pikeheads and chain-mail shirts of the Cossack invaders. There were nearly 4000 specimens. in this department, and the group that included the pure copper and bronze articles was extremely varied and interesting. Among the things that particularly attracted my attention, and that I still remember, were axes of pure