In the first case (48) are some specimens of brown spar from Hungary, fibrous and crystallised carbonates of iron, and manganese spar; in the second case (49) are the varieties of zinc spar, or carbonates of zinc, lead spar, or carbonates of lead, and carbonates of bismuth and cerium; in the third and fourth cases (50, 51) are the carbonates of copper, the 51st case containing those splendid green carbonates of copper from the mines in the Uralian Mountains, known commonly as Malachite, and when in a polished state vulgarly mistaken for a green and beautifully veined marble.  Most visitors on examining these lumps of malachite will think of the beautiful colossal furniture manufactured of it by the Russians, and exhibited by them in their department of the Great Exhibition.  The next three cases (52-54) are filled with series of sulphates, and some nitrates, including native nitre, or saltpetre.  The Sulphates in the cases include glauber salt, or sulphate of soda; heavy spar or sulphates of baryta, among which are some splendid crystallisations from Piedmont, Hungary, Spain, and other countries; sulphate of strontia, known also as celestine, among which are some delicate blue crystals from Sicily; sulphates of lime, as gypsum, including some fine specimens of alabaster, and the fibrous sulphate known vulgarly as tripe-stone.  The visitor has now examined the contents of the second room; the fossil tortoises and great wingless birds; the mineral combinations—­nearly all of which are useful to man; and the way westward may be resumed to the third department of the northern mineralogical gallery.  In the wall cases of this room are deposited some of the most interesting

Fossil animals.

Of these the celebrated fossil Salamander (which a German enthusiast mistook for a fossil human skeleton), deposited in the first case, will probably be most attractive to the general visitor.  The first three wall cases are devoted to the batrachian or Frog fossils; some of the chelonian or Tortoise fossils; and the fossil crocodiles.  Fossil lizards are the most numerous of all fossil remains.  Of these, including the fossil crocodiles, the visitor will notice specimens in the wall cases of this room, indicating the enormous size to which these extinct reptiles must have grown.  One, the Iguanodon (case 3) was an animal that measured seventy feet in length.  It existed in this country; various bones of it are in this case.  The remains of the fossil Alligator, known as the mosasaurus, are also here, together with the wealden lizard of Kent, which was about twenty-five feet in length, and part of Cuvier’s wonderful fossil Flying Lizard, or sterodactylus, which is described as a reptile having mammalian characteristics, a bat’s wings, enormous eyes, and a bird’s neck.  In the westerly cases of the room the visitor should notice the fossil sea lizards divided into two families—­the Plesiosaurus, and the Ichthyosaurus.  The plesiosaurus