CHAP. xvn. PLESIOSAURUS DOLICHODEIRAS. 371 



all about it. And more, you can give him my com- 

 pliments, say you saw me, and that I told you to 

 send it." 



Edward did not, however, send the bone to Lon 

 don. He knew from experience, that such things, 

 when sent so far away, rarely came back. That had 

 been the case with many of his Crustacea. He there- 

 fore kept the bone at home, and continued his in- 

 quiries of the savans who from time to time visited 

 the museum ; but he never succeeded in obtaining 

 any favourable answer to his questionings. 



Years sped on, and still the bone remained un- 

 known. At last, when Edward was rummaging over 

 some old books, he came upon the second volume of 

 the Penny Magazine. Whilst turning over the pages 

 by chance, he saw a picture of old bones which had 

 much puzzled his brains some thirty years before. 

 And now he remembered that it was the picture of 

 the bones here drawn, that had first given him the 

 idea that this bone in the museum was the remnant 

 of some extinct animal. And here was the creature 

 itself from which the bone had been taken. It was 

 the Plesiosaurus dolichodeiras ; the bone in the 

 museum being one of the femurs of the fore-paddle 

 of that long extinct monster. 



To make assurance doubly sure, Edward took a 

 photograph of the bone, and sent it to a scientific 

 correspondent in London ; when he had the pleasure 

 of being informed there was no doubt whatever that 



