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

34 OPINIONS OF SCIENTIFIC MEN.

Australia; and a fac-simile of the "Welcome Nugget" which weighed 2, 160 oz.; carbonates of copper from Siberia and France; ores of mercury from Austria and South America; manganese from the Hartz; precious stones handsomely represented by agates, jaspers, beryls, onyx, emeralds, tournalines, topaz, and by perfect imitations, in Bohemian glass, of all the noted diamonds in the world; opals and semi-opals from Hungary; Labrador feldspar; a splendid mirror of obsidian - a foot in diameter; fine carbonates of lime from Andreas Berg; zeolites from Ireland, Scotland, Bohemia and Nova Scotia; beautiful fibrous gypsum; meerschaum from Turkey; splendid arragonite from Vienna; quartz from Madagascar penetrated by long crystals of rutile; geodes; meteorites; fulgarites; every variety of coal from peat to anthracite; polished septaria- the mosaics of nature; 24 varieties of infusorial earths from different localities, &c. When we consider that these departments contain 25,000 picked specimens, we readily and rightly infer that all the forms of each individual mineral and fossil are illustrated as we seldom find them in the best of collegiate and imperial museums. Besides these natural products, there are casts from the Garden of Plants of Cuvier's great types of the animal kingdom; and a multitude of mounted charts, diagrams and reliefs.

I present your readers, and the lovers of true science generally, with this meager sketch of the richest cabinet in America. I do it to apprize them of its value, and with the hope that they will take the earliest opportunity to pay it a visit. A treasure house of nature, so fully developed and finely arranged, is certainly an honor to any city of State; and I earnestly hope that it will not be suffered to go out of the country.