CHAP. XVII. ] An Old Bone. 315 
its size, thickness, and peculiar shape. The idea flashed 
across his mind that he had seen something like it in a pict- 
ure, but he could not remember where. Seeing his intent 
glance, the curator asked him if he knew any thing about 
it? “Nothing,” said he, “except that it appears to me to 
‘be a semi-fossilized bone of some of the pre-Adamite mon- 
sters that are dug up now and then; but what it is I can 
not tell.” “It looks to me,” said the curator, ‘to. be noth- 
ing more than the root of a tree: in fact, I am sure it is. 
If it were a bone, as you say, surely some of the gentlemen 
composing the Scientific Society would know.” “Give it 
time,” replied Edward, “and some one will yet be able to 
tell us all about it.” “Time, indeed!” said the curator; 
“we have had it lying here far too long. I have often 
thought of throwing it into the fire, and I will do so when 
I have next the opportunity. It would never have been 
here but for that old fool [naming a previous curator], 
whose only aim seems to have been to get the place filled 
up with useless trash.” 
In the mean time the previous history of the bone may 
be given. Some sixty years before, when a mill-dam was 
being enlarged at Inverichny, in-the parish of Alvah, near 
Banff, one of the workmen came upon a dark-looking ob- 
ject imbedded in the bank among clay and shingle, about 
six feet from the surface. After being disengaged, it was 
found that the object was very like a large hour-glass, 
though not tapering so much toward the middle. There 
were differences of opinion among 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 ascer- 
tain if any body could make any thing of it. At last it got 
into the hands of Captain Reid, of Inverichny. He showed 
it to the three most important persons in his neighborhood 
—the minister, the doctor, and the dominie. 
