The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-03-23
Our 0liu.
From the New York Observer.
The National Museum at the Smithsonian
Institution.
BY MRS. LUCY E. sanford.

Exploring Expedition. 1t was transfer
red from the Patent Office to the care of
the Smithsonian Institution in 1853. II
has been increased by all the collections
made by the exploring parties of the War
Navy, Treasury and Interior Departments
and those of the Smithsonian Institution.
At the close of the Centennial, thirty-four
of the governments aud colonies there rep
resented sent it their choicest exhibits.
Many series of the geology, metallurgy,
ethnology, and general resources of these
nations are complete. Several State ex-
hibits and several private collections were
also sent. The centre building of the
Smithsonian, with its two stories and gsli,
leries, and the west wing and gallery i
full. The basement and large armory
building are crowded from floor to roof
with unlocked specimens. Prof Baird,
Assistant Secretary, and in part creator of
the Museum, says: "We have specimens
enough now to cover nine times the space
we have, and are receiving at the rate of
ten boxes daily" For many years the
Smithson fund was more than half spent
in caring for the Museum. 1t is only
within the last two years that it has been
fully relieved of that expense. 1t is open
and free to the public from 8 A. NJ. to 3
p. NJ. 1t is urged that the Government
should provide room for and take care Of
it; separate it from the Smithsonian Insti-
tute, and make it, in fact, the National
Museum
The centre building is devoted to ami
mas, fish, birds and stones. On the table
that runs through the centre is crocodile
from Florida IA feet long, and opposite
walrus from near the North Pole of about
the same length. There, too, is the clyp-
todon, with its bony armor, 8 feet long;
the longest now found is about one foot
A cast of the Himalayan tortoise, 6 feet
wide and 8 long, from India, now extinct;
the cast of the skeleton, and of the re-
stored, gigantic Irish elk, now extinct. 1t
seems to have lived in Europe as early as
the tertiary period. Cast of kangaroo liz
ard, % feet long, hind legs 10 feet, fore
arms Al feet-found in New Jersey. The
cast of the macatherium, 10 feet long
In case are two musk oxen, now extinct
in the East, but found rarely in Northern
America, small and horned animal with
dense covering of long silky hair; also
Aurucks or European bison, which seems
to have existed before the mammoth.
Pliny and Seneca speak of it. 1t would
be extinct, but the Russian Government,
by strict laws preserves herd.
There are $4,000 specimens of fish.
The saw fish has body not unlike shark,
about feet long, but the nose extends
four feet, like the blade of a sword, with
strong and trenchant teeth on each side
This easily saws fish in two, and indeed
severely wounds a whale. The devil-fsh
has been considered fabulous, but in 1873
one attacked fishing smack, throwing its
arms across it. The arms were cut, and
we're 80 feet in length. The one in the
Museum has eight arms of eight feet in
length, with suckers on the arms.
There are $4,000 birds. There are
eggs not SO large as a pea, and one from
Madagascar 12l inches long, 33 inches
in largest circumference, capacity 10 pints
or $50 hens eggs. There are 100000
insects.
The Tuscan meteorite, brought from
Arizona, weighing 14OO TBS, Prof. Baird
considers one of the wonders of the Mu-
scum.
In the west wing are some of the Gen.
tennial presents. The Lambeth copy of
one of the pedestals of the Prince Albert
Memorial; U. s. directing the onward
course of America; FIVE figures of heroic
size and bison; the terra Gotta pulpit
and font copied from Palestine, covered
with very finely carved illustrations of
our Saviour's life; terra copy also Of
Gethsemane from Palestine; each face a
study. In a glass case is ancient RoLan
and Pompeiian pottery, and vases and
pitchers from Cyprus from Gen. Cesnola
The second story of the central build
ing is devoted to ethnology, in which there
are $4,000 specimens. There is but little
of the popular element here. Nine Chi
nese figures in costume of the different
ranks. The Haidah Indians excel all
other aborigines; from them a painted
house front, carved pillars, and high and
dry on a shelf, dug-Out canoe, 60 it. by
s ft., with two Indians in costume. From
Central Alaska is a coat of armor plated
in Chinese coins, proving commerce be-
tween the two countries. Here is a bolt
to which Columbus was chained in St. Do
mingo, and part of the first steamboat
Egypt has some heavy stone cuttings, casts
of statues to Isis and Osiris and a small
sphinx, also cast of Cauopus stone, and
best the cast of Tam's stone, six feet high,
two and a-half broad and top arched. 1t
has trilingual inscription, and is more
perfect than the Rosetta stone. Japan is
very beautifully represented: the stirrup
even of a saddle is in the most elegant
lacquer work. But this collection marks
an era in the worlds history 1t was q
present to the President of the United
State from the Tycoon of Japan in 1860,
when the first japanese embassy came,
wondering and wondered at There are
relics of Sir John Franklin's and of the
Frobisher expedition that 'wintered at
FrObisher bay several hundred years ago"
! There are many Indians in costume, and
bona fde casts, by Mills, of prisoners of
war, sit perched on the different cases, TO
the number of Ga. Perhaps the most in
teresting South American object is a hu-
man head prepared by the JivarO Indians,
Peru, and held by the owner in much ven
Grafton. This room is for the scholar. 1t
offers material to study man in every age
and land. Here is a finer specimen Of
archaeological remains of North America
than in any other museum, and of the
Western Esquimaux than in all other mu-
seums in the world OF the Stone Age
there are many relics from the grottOes
and caves and caverns in the limestone
rocks of Europe. Indian graves in the
Island of Omotepee, Lake Nicaragua, have
been found between successive volcanic
formations and the rifed contents are here.
There are heaps of extinct shell-fsh along
our coast, remains of feasts in long gone
ages, and in the jovial time many knife
was lost and here they are. The pre-his-
toric inhabitants of Unalaska, of whom
the natives have no tradition even. The
ancient inhabitants of New Zealand and
Australia, the prehistoric age of Japan,
are all represented by their implements
here. The stone objects found all over
the earth, and strangely alike, are to-day
used by the inhabitants of Terre del Fuego
and the Pal Utes. Archaologists divide
the Stone Ace into Palaeolithic fold stoneN