Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/378

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364
A RARE COLLECTION OF MINERALS.

States; and many of the specimens are of rare beauty and of great interest to scientific men. I have seen collections made in California and Nevada, by private citizens, which contained more silver and gold, and had therefore more intrinsic value, but never any which approached this in variety and general excellence.

There is also a large but heterogeneous collection in Natural History, embracing some very rare and beautiful specimens; it is not, however, equal to that which was burned at the Smithsonian Institute at Washington a few years since, and the collection of stuffed birds is not equal in artistic merit to that of the Audubon Club at Chicago.