The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-18
AT THE PEABODY MUSEUM.
WHAT ONE SEES IN THIS FAMOUS
.. COLLECTION.

10 the
ing in the Future.
The Peabody Museum is perhaps of
more direct interest to the general
public than any other department of
Yale university. AS the rooms which
contain its celebrated and very inter-
esting collection from the various fields
of natural science are open to visitors
nearly every day in the year, it is to be
wondered at that many more do not
improve this chance Of gaining instruc-
ton without money and without price.
The museum is by no means one Of
local celebrity, as it's work and the col
lections 1t contains have given it a
high reputation among scientific men
the world over.
OF the collections and specimens in
the museum, but comparatively few
can be shown in the space which can
be devoted to them in the present
building. The rest are stored away in
the large basement, where they occupy
most of the available room.
Many of these collections are the
most complete in the world, those be-
longing to the early geological ages of
America being especially large and
valuable
The department of mineralogy,
which has it's rooms and collections on
the first floor, is one of the oldest and
most interesting collections in the pos
session of Yale, 1t has over fourteen
thousand curious and beautiful speci-
mems, about one-half of which are to be
seen in the cases. The nucleus of this
collection, so the story goes, was given
by Professor Silliman, and consisted of
a candle box full of specimens which
that scientist had carried to Philadel-
phia to learn their names from scien-
fist in the winter of 1929
There have been several valuable adj
ditions to the collections during the
past year, and many specimens have
been arraigned and placed in the cases
for the first time. One fine specimen
obtained the past year is black tour
maline found in Bethel, CT, and sup
posed to be the largest to be found in
any museum. Some fine copper mine
rails from Arizona, also some fine mine.
raj specimens from Colorado and Mis-
souri,, have been added the past year.
The collection of meteorites has
grown very large. The museum pos
sesses nearly one thousand which fell
together in Iowa in 1892. This is the
largest single fall known.
Another large meteorite from Arizo-
ma is interesting as being the only one
in which diamonds have been found.
", 70 t1,n 1o-
fall.
The Leonard cabinet of over one
hundred and fifty fine specimens has
also been arranged and placed in cases.
Since the specimens were catalogued
ten years ago the collections have
grown very large, and new catalogue
will be ready soon.
The collection of fossil vertebrates
and invertebrates, specimens of which
are seen on the second floor, are the
largest and best in the world. The
great scientist, Thomas Huxley, looked
through these carefully when he visit
ted this country and said of them,
That so far as my knowledge extends
there is nothing in any way compare
bic for extent or for the care with
which the remains have been got to-
gether, or for their scientific impor
lance, to the series of fossils which
Professor Marsh has brought togeth-
err"
Here, one sees the remains of many
curious animals, reptiles and birds,
some of them ranging from the small
est size to huge creatures eighty feet in
length and twenty feet high, but all Of
which lived too early to belong to any
Geological garden or to travel in me-
nagerie. The fellon with the eighty by
twenty feet dimensions belongs to the
reptilian class and is called the ATTAIN
tasausus inimanis. This is the largest
land walking animal the remains Of
which have yet been found. That
common type of animal greatness, the
mastodon, is almost pigmy in COM
parison.
Here also are the fossil bones of the
ancestors of the horse, by which scien-
lists have traced the genealogy of the
horse back to four-t oed animal about
the size of fox, a sort of family BIZ
BILE record, as it were, for our hack
horses and trotters-
Another interesting fossil in Profess
sor Marsh's collection is that of an ami
NAL which had two brains, very curl
Gus fact and one which attracted the
interest of Herbert Spencer.
The museum has some of the finest
specimens of the so-called bird track"
impressions in Connecticut sandstone.
Tracks ofthese are also found in the
Rocky Mountains, and as no traces
were found in the intervening region it
birds lived in the east and used the
Rocky Mountains for "a roost. The
tracks are now known to be those of
dinosaurs, which walked on their hind
legs and not birds at all.
Another notable specimen is that of
a portion of what was once part OF
the ocean bed in Indiana. On a few
square feet of it's surface are found one
hundred and eighteen crinoids lying in
the exact position in which they fell
and were covered up by the later de-
posits.
Additions to this department are be-
ing constantly made and the persons
employed in preparing the fossils are
kept constantly busy. Many thou
sands of the fossils are stored away in
the basement.
The exhibition rooms of the third
floor are given up to recent vertebrates
and invertebrates. The collection of
New England birds is especially full
and very interesting. There are also
innumerable stuffed and alcoholic
specimens. The skeleton of man and
- of +ha I,ipbar order of poopIya,-c