Vaughan Road Academy - Acta Studentium Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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Page 36 ACTA STUDIGNTIUM ments of butchery. The swords include everything, from slim, fencing foils to giant twofhand brutes. QYou will also see a onefandfafhalf hand swordj. The mace of office that the Americans tool: from York in 1813, and just returned last year, has a case to itself, so you can hardly help seeing it. If you will continue down past the world's best stamp collection, you will come across two of the most complete, trim, trueftoflife models of sailing ships, that you can ever hope to see. From now on I cannot give you the location of anything, except in relation to something else, because I am lost after I lose sight of the front doors. There is a model of the town of Niagara Falls, and the countryside, inf cluding the falls. Examine it intently, and you will even find an k'Exhibition Flyer in miniature. You can better appreciate, what Tarzan had to put up with after your visit to the :oology wings, Always come for you are straight up to the animals, liable to startle something into moving if you come up behind it. I have seen some fairly saucy ground- hogs, but that fat brown imp in the Canadian animals division, will return your closest scrutiny. I guess he knows the g'ass is protecting him. Did you ever see the Zebra yet, that would stand still while you counted his stripes? Well I didg there are fiftyftwo from front to back, and the average of horizontal stripes to each leg, is twenty seven If you refuse to believe this, go and take your own recount. Have you ever stumbled on two shaggy, snarling timber wolves about to fight over a piece of some torn, bleeding animal? You will, somewhere among these animals. Take a good look, but in your own interests stand back. I suppose you do not need to be told how scarce carrier pigeons areg there are still a few left around the forks of the Credit Riverg you'll see them. Then turn to your right, and see the reasons these birds are no more. Now step across the width of the room, and '2ldI'l'1-ll.146 those black bears, foraging around in northern Ontario, on a mid-summer's afternoon. Notice the leaves of the foliage, in particular, they are not genuine of course, or they would be all brown by this time. If you want to know just how much care and work it took to produce each one of those leaves, take a half turn to the left, and study the seventeen steps, in the mould' ing of plants in wax. Do you think that you could get a thrill, from putting your hand in a shark's mouth, or from fondling a deadly snake, without getting hurt? I am sure the curator of the museum would arrange it-if you tell him who you are. Have you ever seen the saw of a saxvfish, or a sword fish's sword, they are awaiting your comments along with, giant turtles, Canadian birds in natural setting, and six hundred and fifty differ- ent species, of foreign birds, with every combination of colour, and feather arrangement, you could' dream about. You really should take a look, at the group of Albino animals, that is, any creature which is white, or in othei' words lacks colour pigment. Among them is a white beaver, with a pink tail and pink eyesg in fact, they all have pink eyes. The card' in this display told ni: that the eyes were not pink, but that because of lack of colour in the eyeball, the red of the blood could be seen though it. Perhaps you have heard a rumour to the effect that the Yankees are addict' ed to boasing. I used to think that they were following this habit, when they stamped such a big representation of their buffalo, on the reverse side of their big nickels. I know now, that after seeing the Canadian buffalo, they were stung to the quick and in order to hide their shame at the comparison, they ref sorted to exaggeration. You will agree with me after you see it, that we could not place the smallest effigy of the Canadian buffalo, even on the new silver dollar. Are you interested in entomo'ogy? How would you like to see a beetle, that could take your finger off, and think nothing of it: or a butterfly in blue and

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Page 38 ACTA STUDENTIUM gold, with swallow tail wings a foot long: or one of those mosquitoes, that made your life miserable last summer, securely spitted on a pin. If you are a studient of Latin, you might trace their family history back as far as you wish, for there it is, like an epitaph, beneath all sorts of microscopic insects, set out in long rows of glass jars-truly a mausof leum of the insect world. I'm not through telling about the small percentage of the animals my weak memory brings to me. There are lions and tigers, apes and eagles, bears and baboons, and any other animals that live, or used to live, all as large as life- and twice as natural. Then there are the prehistoric mon' stersg I don't believe there is one with a name und'er twenty letters long. Bef side them are pictures of the sort of country these nightmares used to ram' page around in. By all appearances the great grandaddy of all chickens was about a dozen times the size of an ostrich. A horse and a cow used to look so much alike, that until very recently they could not be told apart, and men would often hitch up a cow in mistake for a horse. This difficulty was surmounted by call' ing them both oxen, in way of a general name. There are thousands of specimens, of different kinds of rocks down there: set lenses are focused on them, to give you a good close up view. I dare say there is a ton of rock in that section, for every ten dollar bill you have ever seen. The next time you get an invitation to a fancy dress ball, your costume prof blem will be solved, if you have visited the museum. There are the dresses of kings, and princesses, of bishops, and queensg in short, there is every type of dress that was wo-rn in the middle ages. There are completely furnished rooms, arranged as special illustrations of the lives of our forefathers. Nothing is omitted to give them that, 'xHome Sweet Home atmosphere, even the warming pans, these ancients used to take the chill from their bed, and the grandfather clock, Speaking of such clocks leads me to say, that they are especially numerous in that vicinity, just note the time of the 'day when you see the first one, and then look around, you are sure to find one with its hands stopped at that time. Near these you will come to a showing of about a hundred watches, that could give the time in any style you ever heard about. Une watch is wound by snap' ping the case open and shut, another reads from right to left, and the hands automatically snap back to zero, when they reach twentyffour. Have you ever seen the first set of china dishes, made in Canada? It is down there in some corner. You will pass literally hundreds of vases, images, statuf ettes, axe heads, beads and other curios, no two alike. Watch for a seashell mounted on a skillfully engraved gold baseg try, yes just try to read the story painted on some of those plaques. Keep a weather eye open, for wood carving, and filigree work, you will see things no antique shop can afford to keep in stock. There is a totem pole, as high as the four stories of the niuseumg its base is on the ground' floor, and the top towers into a skylight, specially altered for it. I wish that I could read the history, on that stately wooden shaft. It has not been so long since the ladies first got their vote, and I am sure any fair minded man respects them, for what they have achieved. At one time in some far off country perhaps, their value in Sword Mo1iey , was represented by a piece of iron, about four feet long and three inches wide. You will find the Sword Money in the basement, near the Eskimo kayaks. No doubt you have heard, or read some gruesome tales of how different tribes of Indians mutilated people, now come and see a few examples of it. The worst of these is a human head shrunk to the size of your fist, or smaller. The grotesque effect is increased by the long black hair, which did not shrink, and the braided string hung from the lips. A card explains in gory detail, that the skull was broken into small pieces, which