THE LOAFER IN THE MUSEUM.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3050, 23 November 1878, Page 4

THE LOAFER IN THE MUSEUM.

x I went round the Museum a few days since for the first time since the alterations. I find things fixed in really firstclass style. I went in company with a well known sportsman. As we passed amongst the stuffed deer, he remarked that the Irish elk had good hocks, and was very like Mata about the quarters. A similarity between the conformation of the koodoo and. Daniel Ot'Rourke also struck-him. The collection of antediluvian animals is very, interesting. They require a deal of time to examine thoroughly. I judge" so from the fact that two young people of different sexes were engaged in looking at the Megatherium when ,we entered. They were looking at the Megatherium when we left. The gentleman, I presume in case of danger, was holding the lady by the hand. In consequence of an anxiety to look at the gigantic sloth from the same point of view their faces were very close to each other. I expect it .will take these two a goodish bit to get round the Museum properly.: Among other antediluvians is the Glyptodon, a round, joyous-looking old shell-back. He would hold about three barrels of beer, and a careful farmer could keep about one to every 500 acre?. From the appearance of this specimen, I should surmise the species became extinct through busting, like- dried toadstools. The Dinotherium Giganteum is a graceful looking creature that .would weigh when alive, a,bout eighty-five tons. He ofiginally inhabited the Rhine Valley. There were no tourists in those days. Close to this placid*looking old slab is a specimen of the genius man. He is wedged up in concretionary limestone. He probably was never sat on by an in-^ quest of his countrymen. This is sad, and a warning to people that go messing about in concretionary, limestone. The " Footsteps of Extinct Animals " in hightoned mud are adjacent to the uninquested one. The following remarks by the poet Longfellow seem to apply to" them :—-

Lives.of great beasts all remind us We can make our live sublime, And departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.

There was a young woman passed when 1 we were there who, I should judge, would require a whole coast line to do justice to her track. Her foot was like the map of Africa, full size, with the Cape of Good Hope well bashed but. In the upstairs rooms the various collections are nearly laid out. The coins are very interesting. I have ever loved coin, more especially gold. 1 'It is more of a curiosity with me than, it is in.the Museum. The Romans seein^ to have had- a very poor .idea of .making coin. I once had a friend, an amature in this line, who could, to judge from appearances, give most of the Romans a long start. He was a bit extravagant, however and is now assisting at 'some important public works /; at Portland, England. The Wj^Bst: 'clipped coins are those of the reign of Antonius Pius, which induces the belief that however good a man .Tony may have been, he was not sound on the copper question. Round the walls are ranged collections of South Sea Islands clubs and spears. These are called Ethnologies. Ethnology don't strike, one as a study to go into, except quite in theory. There is a mummy in this room of an Egyptian • lady who lived 380 B.C. 1 have my doubts about this party. She don't look like a lady, and what proof is there that she didn't live 381 years B.C. Little inaccuracies like this destroy one's interest in mummies. Another fresh addition is a. portrait of Captain Cook. At least if it be not a fresh addition I never saw this depiction of the gay explorer before^ He occupies, as he ought, a prominent position opposite the 380 B.C. lady. He is painted well. He is, examining a plan surreptitiously obtained from the Land Office, with a view to spotting sections. The divided anxiety between being able to spot payable land, and as to the fate 'of his pigs, which occupy a station in the apartment beneath him,,has been beautifully jerked by the artist. The Statuaries are as usual. They are a bit de collete* some of them, but Dr. Haast don't intend to clothe them up until the present fashions change. The greater part of them are really classic, and remind the casual visitor here history repeats itself.—Canterbury Press. ;