APPENDIX. 33 



regular, but why he went directly counter to the directions 

 given him by the Trustees. 



If words are to be used in their every-day acceptation, the 

 premises will not admit of any other conclusion, than that the 

 Trustees were to understand the substituted Plesiosaurus 

 equivalent to the one which had been previously disposed of. 

 Dr. Buckland, on the part of Mr. Hawkins, makes no at- 

 tempt to explain this matter of " substitution," and this being 

 the case, I cannot admit the apology which has been offered 

 for the speech at the evening conversazione at the Geological 

 Society. The doctor must have been perfectly conscious, that 

 any one who took the pains to scrutinize the published evi- 

 dence, could not do otherwise than form an unfavourable im- 

 pression of the nature of the transaction ; and consequently, 

 his threat to back Mr. Hawkins in the prosecution, could not 

 be intended merely to convey an expression of his indigna- 

 tion at the opinion I had formed. I am disposed to think Dr. 

 Buckland knew that in all probability this warlike declaration 

 would be conveyed to me, and following in the steps of his 

 friend at Sharpham Park, he tried the experiment of making 

 a parade of his intentions, little suspecting his protege would 

 be so destitute of worldly wisdom as to betray the singularly 

 original method adopted by his patron in carrying those in- 

 tentions into effect. 



Before I proceed to the letter of Dr. Buckland, in which 

 he assures the Secretary of the British Museum that he knew 

 the full extent of the fabricated parts, at the time of the 

 valuation being made, I shall quote from the Report one or 

 two passages which refer to the deceptive effect produced 

 by means of the plaster of Paris, and to the unreasonableness 

 of the sum which the public have paid for the collection. 



Mr. James de Carle Sowerby, who, from the relation in 

 which he stands to English Geologists, certainly may be 

 supposed willing to say as much as he honestly could, in 

 favour of Dr. Buckland's valuation, gives the following evi- 

 dence. ' 



No. 21. 



" Are you acquainted at all with those fossils in the Museum, which are 

 called Hawkins's fossils? — Yes, I have seen them several times; I did 

 know some little of them before they came to the Museum. 



^ " I have been induced to give up my time towards forwarding the im- 

 mediate objects of the leading geologists of England, by yielding them the 

 best assistance my humble talent would permit." (Mr. Sowerby, ' Mag. 

 Nat. Hist.,' vol. 3, new series, p. 419.) 



