CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MANTELL. 213 



it will decline here when the geological surveys are over. 

 There seems, however, to be a great deal of curiosity in 

 this country relating to geological subjects. A few months 

 since, an announcement was made of the discovery of an 

 enormously large human skeleton in Tennessee ; the young 

 men came to me and inquired what they were to believe, 

 and I told them I had no doubt it would prove to be a 

 Mastodon. In the mean time, the proprietor raised the crea- 

 ture upon its hind legs, as the bull used to be represented 

 in our Cock Robin picture-books, ringing the bell at poor 

 robin's funeral. By a pretty liberal use of intercalated wooden 

 bones, they contrived to make this geological Goliath sixteen 

 feet high ; but their hopes were all dashed by Dr. Carpen- 

 ter of New Orleans, who pronounced it to be a Mastodon 

 Rampant; and the mystified proprietor has taken down 

 the bones and boxed them in a wooden sarcophagus away 

 from human view. 



FROM DR. MANTELL. 



February 24, 1846. 



MR. MURCHISON is now Sir Roderick, the 



Queen having knighted him that he may wear the red- 

 sash, cross, and star of the orders the Emperor of Russia 

 bestowed on him. I mentioned before that Dr. Buckland 

 is now Dean of Westminster. The first soiree of the 

 Marquis of Northampton, as President of the Royal So- 

 ciety, took place last Saturday. I went with Reginald 

 (Lord N. having kindly invited him). The spacious room 

 was crowded with men of science and literature, and many 

 of the nobility. Prince Albert was there, and I had a long 

 gossip with his Royal Highness on the geology of the Isle of 

 Wight. I had taken a beautiful geological model to ex- 

 hibit, which served as a text. As the Queen resides many 

 weeks every year in the island, and has purchased a large 

 estate there, the Prince feels interested in the spot ; and I 

 hope, when my little volume comes out, his attention may 

 be directed to some of the interesting phenomena to be 



