APPENDIX. 41 



been raade under a rare combination of circumstances in one individual, 

 which can never occur again. 



The specimens are not only of high value in the estimation of 

 men of science, but are also to a great degree intelligible to the unlearned ; 

 among them are several, which are in their kind, beyond compare the finest 

 and most perfect the world has ever yet produced. I feel it would be an 

 honour to the country to have this collection placed in the British Museum, 

 and a national discredit if these unique productions of England should be 

 purchased for public museums in other countries. 



The specimens offered for sale are all beautifully and most accu- 

 rately engraved in a folio volume, just published, by Mr. Hawkins, on Ich- 

 thyosauri and Plesiosauri, which may be considered as a catalogue of the 

 collection. 



I have the honour to remain, &c. 



WILLIAM BUCKLAND. 



A graphic representation of a specimen, making that speci- 

 men appear more perfect than it really is, cannot be a " most 

 accurate" engraving of the original. Dr. Buckland on the 

 7th July 1834, tells the Trustees that the specimens are most 

 accurately engraved in Mr. Hawkins's book, yet twelve months 

 afterwards, when Mr. Konig discovers that the drawings are 

 inaccurate, Dr. Buckland informs the Secretary, the Rev. Mr. 

 Forshall, that Mr. Hawkins would certainly have done well had 

 he indicated the amount of his restorations in his pubhshed 

 plates, but that he (Dr. Buckland) was fully aware of their want 

 of fidelity when he arranged the purchase for the Museum, 

 and when he referred the Trustees to those plates as forming 

 an illustrated catalogue of the collection. This, I think is only 

 to be matched by the declaration at the Geological Society, 

 and the private letter of advice to Mr. Hawkins. In paragraph 

 8, Dr. Buckland tells the Trustees that they are in no way 

 aggrieved by the fact of the Saurians not being so perfect 

 as they were represented in the plates, because they (the 

 Trustees) having paid on behalf of the nation twelve hundred 

 guineas, have come into actual possession of the collection, 

 and they therefore have only to expose the defects and there- 

 by take care that no one is " deluded." 



The collection being safely deposited in the National 

 Museum, and the money safely lodged in the pocket of Mr. 

 Hawkins, the Trustees must have felt particularly grateful 

 to Dr. Buckland, for waiting until that period, and then hint- 

 ing to them how desirable it was that they should set their 

 faces against every thing in the shape of delusion. Their 

 confidence too, in the integrity and impartiahty of the Doctor, 

 must have been wonderfully strengthened by his disapproba- 

 tion of his protege's conduct in the sale of the book ; dis- 

 posing of the lithographic prints, upon an average, at a shil- 



