Transcribe Notice of the Ward cabinets...the University of Rochester (1863)

                                          OPINIONS OF SCIENTIFIC MEN.                                         33

Sheppey, "Pharaoh's beans" by the box, oysters and crabs in unending variety, and 100 foramenifera - the animalcules who created the building stone of Paris. Everything indicates an advance toward the higher types of animal existence - the dawning of the sixth day of creation. Quadrupeds took the place of reptiles, the latter having been degraded to a petty snake for the residence of the fallen spirit. And now the curtain rises upon the last millennium of God's handiwork. Monster mammals and ruminant animals began to haunt the forests and prairies of terra firma. Just as submarine volcanoes were casting up the picturesque basaltic columns of Oregon and Ireland, the dinotherium - the bulkiest of "four-footed beasts" - commenced reigning over the northern hemisphere. It was a hippopotamus-shaped animal, having tusks curving down from the lower jaw like a pickaxe, and legs ten feet high. It is represented in this cabinet by a skull 4 feet through. Alongside is a skull of the primeval sloth- the colossal megatherium, whose thigh bone measures 4 feet in circumference; teeth, tusk, and jaw of the mammoth; skull and teeth of the mastodon; jaws and teeth of the hippopotamus, rhinoceros and boar; head and jaws of the cavern bear; jaws of the hyena, horse and deer; claws of the megalonxy; whale's ear bone; osseous breccia from the cavern dens of Carnivora; and eggs of extinct epyornis from Madagascar, capable of holding 50,000 hummingbirds' eggs. Such as some of the prominent objects and thoughts which arrest the visitor in a rapid trip through this wonderful museum.

Leaving this city of the dead, we cast our eyes over the beautiful collection in the mineralogical department. It is idle to attempt to give here even a synopsis of its contents; and a catalogue would usurp your paper. The best idea of it is gained by remembering that it is one of the most complete in the United States. I cannot, however, forbear mentioning a few of the most remarkable specimens which attracted my attention. The cabinet begins with an introductory part (numbering 1,200 specimens), containing, 1st, a full suite of crystals, revolving, dissecting, etc.; and 2d, many series of minerals illustrating structure, aggregation, fracture, color, diaphaneity, electricity, imitative forms, natural associations, and the like. Next follows a systematic collection of three-fourths of all the species recognized in all the latest works on the science, American and transatlantic. Here are splendid ores fully representing the mines of Hungary, Saxony and Cornwall; crystals of gold from