1869-71 DISCOVERIES IN PURBECK ROCKS 209 



broad bandaging it is; when done, "Bambino" 

 was propped upright in a corner and seemed to 

 like it, crowing loudly, and its two fore-paws like 

 a little Punch, sticking out of the top of its 

 mummy case. After the process of wrapping, 

 the little mummy smiled and shook its little hands 

 in a very pretty way to my advances to intimacy. 

 . . . Reached Naples at 9.30 and found the other 

 men of our party had been packed like herrings 

 and got no sleep ! ' 



Early in February 1871 Owen returned to 

 England and to his work at the British Museum. 

 In this year he contributed to the Palaeontographi- 

 cal Society a ' Monograph of the Fossil Mammalia 

 of the Mesozoic Formations.' This publication 

 was chiefly devoted to a detailed account of the 

 remarkable discoveries made since 1854 by Mr. 

 Beckles in the Purbeck Rocks near Swanage. 

 It established the existence of a large fauna of 

 small marsupial mammals, ' insignificant in size 

 and power, adapted for insect food, for preying 

 upon small lizards, or on the smaller and weaker 

 members of their own low Mammalian grade.' 



In August 1 87 1 Owen visited Mr. Fowler 

 at Braemore, Ross-shire, whence, on August 13, 

 1 87 1, he writes to his wife : ' I am now the only 

 guest. Lady Ashburton and T. Carlyle drove 

 over and took tea with us on Friday (nth), and 

 strolled along the easier walks. He is much 

 emaciated, can digest but little, and hardly gets 



vol. 11. p 



