34 APPENDIX. 



Are you prepared to give any opinion upon their value ? — It always 

 appeared to me that above £1000 was a very high price for them, because 

 a similar specimen or specimens, not very far inferior to the best of them, 

 have been sold for 100 or 120 guineas. 



Are you aware that some portions of those specimens have been disco- 

 vered to be artificial ? — I was aware of that before they came to the Mu- 

 seum, that a considerable portion was manufactured in plaster. It cer- 

 tainly required some skill to do that, but I do not think it enhances the 

 real value of the things. 



Were those parts that were manufactured so skilfully done as to deceive 

 the eye, and apparently with the intention to deceive ? — I cannot speak as 

 to the intention, the effect was to deceive the eye. I certainly was deceived 

 by them when I saw some of them in the Adelaide Gallery." 



The following extract will show the opinion of Mr. Konig, 

 the officer to whose care the Geological department of the 

 Museum is especially entrusted. 



No. 22. 



" After full examination of the remains, do you think that the collection 

 is worth £1 ,260 ? — It is a matter of opinion. My opinion was, that it was 

 rather too much, and that is the opinion of some other gentlemen of my 

 acquaintance ; but I never stated that publicly ; I had no reason to do it. 



Can you favour the Committee with a statement of your opinion as to 

 the sum which you believe the Trustees could now obtain for this collec- 

 tion if they were inclined or enabled to dispose of the same ? — I am per- 

 fectly unable to do that ; and I suppose nobody can do so. 



Did you believe that the sum of £500 had been asked and given [by the 

 Museum] for one of the specimens? — I certainly stated that. 



If you then believed that the sum of £500 had been asked and given 

 for one of the specimens, do you conceive that the sum of £1,250 was out 

 of proportion to the assumed value of the general collection in its entirety ? 

 — I should not acquiesce in the reasonableness of £500 for that specimen, 

 but I may be mistaken. 



When you were called upon to see the collection, had you any reason to 

 suspect that any part of it was artificially composed ? — When I saw it, it 

 was at a distance. The coach-house where it was kept was full of this 

 collection, and other things with it ; and it was impossible to go quite 

 near it. But even had I been so close to it as to be able to examine into 

 the genuineness of the specimen, it would never have occurred to me. I 

 did not go for that purpose. 



Have you seen the plates of the great specimens of the Ichthyosauri^ 

 which were published before the specimens themselves were purchased by 

 the Trustees of the British Museum ? — I have seen them ; but I did not 

 examine them or read the book at all. 



Will you examine the plate of the large specimen alluded to, and point 

 out to the Committee such parts of it as that plate indicates to be artificial 

 in the real specimen {the Plate being shown to the Witness) ? — In this plate 

 the right fore paddle is represented as a restoration. 



The right paddle not being shaded, but simply engraved in outline, indi- 

 cates that that part is not real in the specimen purchased ? — Yes. 



Now, in the specimen actually purchased, are there not some parts arti- 

 ficial, which in this drawing appear to be genuine ? — Yes ; there are some 

 such parts artificial. 



