His Researches on Fossils 



39 



spinal processes, bifid ribs and medullary cavities 

 in the limbs. This singular animal is from a bed 

 of shale at the base of the Drakensberg." 



The contents of the second box were acknow- 

 ledged tardily, and for years could not be traced. 

 The third and fourth boxes were never sent, to 

 the great loss of British science. Murchison was 

 not nursing his protege with suitable tact, far less 

 encouragement. Brown was prepared to continue 

 to send fossils, but he expected at the least to 

 get help and guidance in his own studies in return. 

 He would indeed have been grateful for some 

 financial assistance to enable him to carry out his 

 excavations on a more suitable scale, and to make 

 it easier for him to pack and forward his giant 

 parcels to London. He was, however, too proud 

 to ask for money, although he got his chief, the 

 Magistrate of Aliwal North, to write to Murchison 

 explaining how he was only a poorly paid clerk 

 in his office, but the hint was never taken. 



There was thus at this early stage in Brown's 

 career some concatenation of circumstances that 

 went against him. There is good evidence even 

 that he was the victim of a cruel piece of deception, 

 for it would appear that some wicked impostor 

 posed in London in scientific circles as being the 

 discoverer of the Stormberg fossils. If such a 

 rascal did get the ear of either Murchison or 



