398 FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND. 



He is always asking questions, and never forgets 

 the answers he receives, if they are such as he 

 can comprehend. If there is anything he cannot 

 understand, or any word, he won't go on till it 

 has been explained to him. He is always wanting 

 to see everything made, or to know how it is done ; 

 there is no end to his questions, and he is never 

 happy unless he sees the relations between cause 

 and effect." 



At four he began collecting specimens. of natural 

 history. At this time a clergyman brought some 

 fossils to Dr. Buckland. Calling his son, who was 

 playing in the room, the Dean said, " Frankie, what 

 are these ? " 



"They are the vertebrae of an ichthyosaurus," 

 lisped the child, unable to speak plainly. 



Mrs. Buckland gave her boy a small cabinet, 

 which now bears this inscription : " This is the 

 first cabinet I ever had ; my mother gave it to me 

 when about four years old, December, 1830. It is 

 the nucleus of all my natural-history work. Please 

 take care of the poor old thing." 



"In his early home at Christ Church," says 

 Frank Bucklaiid's brother-in-law, George C. Bom- 

 pas, in his interesting life of the naturalist, " be- 

 sides the stuffed creatures, which shared the hall 

 with the rocking-horse, there were cages full of 

 snakes, and of green frogs, in the dining-room, 

 where the sideboard groaned under successive 

 layers of fossils, and the candles stood on ichthyo- 

 sauri's vertebrae. Guinea-pigs were often running 



