How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
The eleventh table is given up to Spiders in all their varieties,
including the tarantula, a formidable insect with a power of severe
biting; and the curious spider that bores a nest in the ground, lines
it sumptuously with its own silk, and then constructs a lid that
closes inevitably, as the insect leaves its house. Here too are the
scorpions. The last table of the series (12) is covered also with
varieties of the spider, including the land and shepherd spiders; the
African scarlet tick, and the centipedes. The visitor has now
completed his survey of the contents of this room, and should at once
pass forward in an easterly direction, traverse the British zoological
room, which he has already examined throughout, and pass into the
fourth room of the gallery.
The table-cases in this room present nothing that can greatly interest
the unscientific visitor. They are covered with varieties of
STARFISH; SEA-EGGS, ETC.
The sea-eggs are scattered over the first nine tables (1-9) in the
room. They live on small animals and sea-weed. The varieties include a
flat kind, vulgarly called sea-pancakes. The remaining cases of the
room are loaded with varieties of the star-fish. The mouth of the
star-fish is on its lower side, through which it takes its food. It
has innumerable feet, which it displays when in the water, and by
means of which it can climb rocks. Some of the varieties fall to
pieces on being taken from their native element, as the lizard, or
brittle star-fish. The gorgon's head, which has innumerable branches
from its central part, should be observed by the visitor; and the
sea-wigs, which are a kind of star-fish, somewhat resembling the
gorgon's head, with innumerable radii. They are placed upon table 24,
near a cast of a stem and flower, that has the appearance of a fossil
plant, but is in reality a cast of a crinoid star-fish that once
existed in great abundance. In the most eastern room of this gallery
are a few tables upon which are deposited the shells and tubes of
molluscous animals, to illustrate their changes, and the way in which
the animal adapts them to his position. The third and fourth tables
will, perhaps, interest the general visitor. Here he will find
specimens exhibiting the growth of Shells, and also how the animal
repairs any damage to its shell. Here, too, are the shells upon which
the modern cameo-cutters of Rome, work. As the visitor will perceive,
the design is engraved in relief upon the light outer layers of the
shell, leaving the darker under part exposed, as a back-ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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