58 



Gogga Brown 



they should not trespass on each other's preserves. 

 This is succeeded by a complete reticence or at 

 the best a most cryptic indication as to where 

 the great find had been made. 



At one stage in Brown's correspondence the 

 question of poaching does actually arise, for the 

 British Museum thought that the head of a new 

 animal, that had been sent to that institution by 

 Kannemeyer, belonged to the same individual as 

 a tail-end which Brown had sent to the South 

 African Museum. Commenting on this Brown 

 wrote that he did not think that the two parts 

 could have belonged to the same animal, because 

 he had made it a rule to cover up, as far as 

 possible, all traces of his working at the spots 

 where he had found his fossils. A stranger 

 would therefore have to rediscover the site. 

 Besides, Kannemeyer had always been very 

 friendly, and would probably have told him of 

 any discoveries on his terrain. Kannemeyer for 

 his part was also able to satisfy the experts that 

 there was considerable discrepancy in the localiza- 

 tion of the two finds, so that it was happily decided 

 that the parts did not belong to one animal after all. 



This secretiveness on the part of Brown was a 

 regular obsession, and it is one of the few bad 

 traits in an otherwise very fine man. It has also 

 rendered his records much less valuable than they 



