The cases numbered from 14-21 are filled with articles illustrative of
the life and climate of the Esquimaux, and the extreme northern
regions of America, including the native fishing-hooks and lines;
models of canoes; skin dresses, men's boots from Kotzebue's Sound;
Lapland trousers; utensils made of the horn of the musk ox; Esquimaux
woman's hair ornaments; over the cases hereabouts the sledge which Sir
E. Parry brought from Baffin's Bay, and a canoe from Behring's
Straits; waterproof fishing jackets, made from the intestines of the
whale; harpoons of bone tipped with meteoric iron; specimens of rude
sculpture from these northern regions; clubs; hatchets; the magic dome
of an Iceland witch; baskets and mats; calumets of peace; scalps; a
model of a cradle, showing the method adopted by the Indians of the
Columbia River to flatten their children's heads. The cases 23, 24,
are filled with curiosities from more southernly parts of the North
American continent; and chiefly with various objects from the most
interesting of the old inhabitants of America--the Mexicans. The
collection from Mexico, including their divinities, specimens of their
arts, &c., are arranged in seven cases (24-30). The objects from
Guiana occupy the greater part of cases 31-34; and the remarkable
objects in the 35th case are the dried body of a female, from New
Granada; a mummy from New Granada wrapped in cotton cloths; a curious
Peruvian mummy of a child, the legs curiously bound up; and silver and
gold Peruvian sepulchral ornaments. The cases marked 36, 37, are
devoted to objects from South America, including black earthern
vessels from cemeteries in Peru; bows and poisoned arrows; and a
sacrificial bason, ornamented with serpents, supposed to be one from
the temple of the Sun at Cuzco. The rest of the cases contain
miscellaneous objects from groups of islands. The contributions from
the Marquesas and Sandwich Islands are in cases 53-56; the war
dresses, of feathers, &c., from Tahiti, in case 57; and the nets and
baskets, clubs and tatooing instruments from the Friendly Islands will
be found arranged in cases 65, 66. On the second shelf of cases 66,
67, is deposited a tortoise-shell bonnet, made in imitation of an
European bonnet from Navigator's Island. Cases 68, 69, are devoted to
objects from New Zealand; and those marked 70, 71, were collected
during an exploring expedition into Central Australia. The last cases
are devoted to miscellaneous objects from the Fiji Islands, Borneo,
and other localities; and with these the visitor should close his
second visit to the Museum; regaining the ante-room to the Southern
Zoological gallery, by passing out of the Ethnographical room through
its eastern opening. He has now completed the examination of the
galleries of the Museum with the exception of the print and medal
rooms, which are not open to the public generally, but are reserved
for the use of artists and antiquarians. He has dipped into many
sciences on his two journeys; made some acquaintance with the history
of the animals that frequent the different parts of the world; dwelt
amid the fossil fragments of long ages past; examined the elementary
substances of which the earth's crust is composed; been with the dust
of men that lived before Jerusalem was made for ever memorable;
surveyed the spoils of Etruscan tombs; and lingered amid the varieties
of household things from the barbarous nations of the present hour;
and not wholly profitless have the journeys been, even if the
scientific mysticism be not mastered, so that there remains in the
mind a general impression of the time that has gone by, the great laws
that govern the universe, and the humility that becomes man, when he
sees his individuality, in relation with the mighty past, and the
great progresses of Nature.