CHAP. xvii. CONJECTURES ABOUT THE BONE. 361 



so much towards the middle. There were differences 

 of opinion amongst the workmen about the nature of 

 the thing. One said it was a " been," another said 

 it was "an auld fir knot." One man tried to break 

 it into pieces with a spade, but he failed. The hard 

 bone turned up the edge of the spade. It was 

 handed about, to ascertain if anybody could make 

 anything of it. At last it got into the hands of 

 Captain Keid of Inverichny. He showed it to the 

 three most important persons in his neighbourhood 

 the minister, the doctor, and the dominie. 



The minister, though he could say nothing about 

 the bone, knew that there were great leviathans in the 

 waters, for he had read about them in the Scriptures ; 

 but he had never seen any notice of such things 

 being found in clay banks. The doctor, after look- 

 ing at it, and turning it round and round, said that 

 if it was a bone, at least it did not belong to the 

 human structure. The dominie, like his other learned 

 friends, could throw no greater light upon the subject. 

 He did not think it was a bone at all, but only a 

 monstrous piece of petrified bamboo ! Then the 

 rnen of science of the Banff Institution were applied 

 to, but they could make no more of the object than 

 the minister, the doctor, and the dominie. Finally 

 Captain Eeid presented it to the museum of the 

 Banff Scientific Society ; and there it remained until 

 Edward first saw it. 



It would appear, however, that the curator had 



