books and manuscripts are deposited;
but these are only accessible to the public under special regulations.
This remark is applicable also to the print-room.

The visitor, however, cannot leave the British Museum, having wandered
over it and examined its various curiosities, without getting
something from his journey. It is full of suggestive matter, which,
with a little direction, may be turned to useful account by large
classes of the people. It affords glimpses into the mysteries of the
Animal Kingdom, with all its varieties, its wonders, its traceable
progresses, its past and extinct forms, its promises of future
developments. Then the mineralogical galleries afford the general
visitor a peep at the formations of the earth; the various
developments of minerals; the natural state of ores and stones which
most men see only in their manufactured state. From the mineralogical
tables the visitor stepped aside to examine the wondrous revelations
of extinct animal life recovered from the bowels of the earth; he saw
the colossal megatherium, the towering mastodon, and the great Irish
elk. He understood something of the progress of animal life, from the
fishes and the saurians. Then he passed into the Egyptian room, and
found himself surrounded with the preserved bodies of the ancient
Egyptians; he examined their household gods; he pried into their
coffins; he saw their food; he was familiarised with their apparel.
Still proceeding onward, he came to the beautiful bronzes; and then he
saw the wonders that the ancient tombs of Etruria disgorged. He still
advanced in the galleries, till he came to a room that was a little
museum in itself--an exhibition of the curious industries of many
different countries. Here were Buddhist temples; Chinese chopsticks;
marvels from savage islands; a tortoise-shell bonnet; a Chinese
bell;--in short, a room packed from the ceiling to the floor with a
compact mass of curiosities. And then he left the upper floor of the
building, after having spent two days there, through two towering
cameleopards. He came a third time, and at once passing many things
that tempted him by the way, he passed on into the great and wonderful
Egyptian Saloon. Here he lingered for hours over ancient Egyptian
tombstones; before colossal sarcophagi; thinking of the tough work
Belzoni must have had of it with the young Memnon; endeavouring to
realise the approach to the ancient Egyptian temples through rows of
colossal