CHARLES KINGSLEY 255 



Nothing new of importance, except that I have got 

 through William nearly an entire skeleton of the most 

 lovely Bos primigenius, which I intend shall be the 

 envy of the world. I am going to have a further 

 search made for the missing bones, but as it is it is 

 wonderfully perfect. Such a monster ! He was quite 

 at the bottom of the peat resting on the clay and must 

 therefore have come to his end in very early days. 

 Also there could have been no wolves or foxes about or 

 they would have run off with some of the small bones 

 — whereas we have 7 out of the 9 tail vertebrae and 

 the bones of the tongue (hyoid). I got it, too, very 

 cheap, which is an additional advantage. A neigh- 

 bouring curate hearing that the men were digging up a 

 bull came after it for the Bury Museum while William 

 was there and had the head in a cart covered with a 

 sack. His reverence tried to make the men discon- 

 tented, but William held his peace.* 



One of the friends who was always ready to help 

 him in acquiring specimens for the Museum was another 

 Magdalene man, Charles Kingsley, who wrote after a 

 voyage to the West Indies in the winter of 1869-70 : — 



March 10, 1870. 



My dear Newton, 



Your letter explains. I wrote a long letter 

 to Clark the day after I came back, bidding him send 

 it on to you and sending you messages, and had no 

 answer. 



I have brought all I could get. Snakes (some very 

 rare) and bats. The niggers have shot all the birds. 



I asked Clark, or you, to come hither, or both if you 

 could, see us, and see what you wanted to carry off. 

 They are few, but more are coming. If you will let 

 me know whether you can come or not, I will write 



* Letter to Mrs. Strickland, April 25, 1874. 



