In the adjoining division assigned to the Postoffice, we could trace the
subject of transportation which plays so prominent a part in the history
of civilization--by means of models, drawings, and pictures from the most
incipient stages to the modern uses of steam and electricity.

The northwestern portion of this interesting building was given up to the
Department of the Interior; embracing the Patent Office, the Bureau of
Education, the Census Office, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

In the rotunda we viewed the "_Big Tree_," a section thirty feet in
length, cut from Sequoia Gigantea, a tree 300 feet high whose diameter at
the base covered a space of twenty-six feet. It grew in the Sequoia
National Park in the charming clime of California. Under the central dome
were also shown 138 colonial exhibits--relics of historic value from days
long gone by.

The War Department was well represented in all its branches; regarding
uniforms and equipage, means of transportation, military engineering,
shooting apparatuses, ammunition, etc.

Having visited the State and Justice Departments, we repaired to the
division in which the government displayed (in the Department of
Agriculture) a very complete and comprehensively arranged collection of
grains obtained in this and other countries.

Very interesting were the adjacent exhibits, presenting to view the topics
of food adulteration, entomology, pomology, botany, ornithology, and
mammalogy; together with experiments in fibre investigation.