General Arrangement.

In consequence of the first gallery having windows on each side, but few upright cases can be put into it, and it is not therefore suitable either for Birds or for Mammals. This prevents a strictly scientific arrangement, leading them highest animals to the lowest, being carried out, but it was thought that a good light through the whole building was of more importance than the details of arrangement.

The Ground Floor contains the Mammalia in the upright wall cases, but some are placed in the centre of the hall at the North end. At the South end are arranged the skeletons of the Moa and other struthious birds, and and them the skeletons of the larger Mammalia. Above these cases hang the sharks and large fishes. The six table-cases contain the rocks and minerals; while against the South wall there are placed (temporarily), building stones, timbers, and rocks from the Deborah bay Tunnel. On either side of the clock are the [unclear: carved] stern-post of an old Maori war canoe.

The First Gallery contains, in the upright cases at either end, reptiles and fishes. In the desk cases, under the windows along the West wall are fossils; in the [unclear: desk] round the gallery rail are the Mollusca, and the cases by the East wall are temporarily used for a [unclear: miscellaneous collection] of Moa remains, Fossil plants, Maori implements, &c.

The wall cases of the Upper or Second Gallery [unclear: are] to Birds, while the desk cases round the gallery and contains eggs, insects crust acea, echinodermata, corals &c.