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belief in a dragon is actually the survival of the memory of some stray 
plesiosaurus which had remained to a comparatively recent age. There 
is one thing that I would ask, and it is this : if we had no evidence of the 
recent existence of the Dodo, should we not be tempted to say that it is a very 
long time since it existed 1 (Hear, hear.) The fact that an animal may 
become so absolutely extinct that even a small portion of it is very difficult 
to find within not thousands of years, but barely hundreds, is one of the 
most curious pieces of natural history that I am acquainted with. I do not 
know that we shall ever see a mammoth walking about this earth in the 
present day ; but still more surprising things might happen. (Applause.) 
Rev. J. James. — I think the canons of caution laid down by Mr. Mello 
are quite as valuable in regard to our method of ascertaining facts, as in regard 
to our method of forming theories. This I would illustrate by a circumstance 
which I lately found recorded in print ; and as the record is not very long, I 
should like to be allowed to read it. It is a statement made before a public 
society concerning a case in which Professor Owen was saved from imagining 
that he had made a great discovery in the North of England some twenty 
years ago, when the great dock in the Tyne was made. It says, — “ Many 
trees and horns of ancient animals were found embedded in the silt of Jarrow 
Slake. One of these was standing upright, but without its head. Its top 
had evidently been cut off ; there could not be any mistake about the fact. 
Sir William Armstrong, the late Robert Stephenson, and Mr. Harrison, the 
North-Eastern Company’s engineer, were greatly interested. It was con- 
cluded that some woodman of very ancient times had cut the tree, and that 
it was a most striking evidence of the extreme antiquity of the human race. 
In haste, Professor Owen, the renowned palaeontologist of the British 
Museum, was sent for from London. One Sunday morning was spent by all 
these gentlemen wading in the slush and mud inspecting this wondrous relic. 
Their conclusion was unanimous. The next morning a friend of mine to 
whom Professor Owen had sent his card, with the expression of a wish to 
see some horns he had from the same site, was present also. He asked Pro- 
fessor Owen to what conclusion they had come 1 The Professor replied that 
they were all unanimous, and that the evidence was most satisfactory. My 
friend said,—' You have not been inspecting an old cut, at any rate, for I had 
some pieces cut oft’ from that tree a few days ago, and have them now at 
home.’ The assembled company declared it was impossible. My friend 
assured them of the fact, and said ‘ Have you seen the man who first un- 
covered this tree 1 ’ They said they had not, and Professor Owen was at 
once struck with the importance of having that man’s evidence. The man 
was sent for. My friend told him what the man would tell him, for my 
friend knew all about it, and besides that, would never have been so deceived, 
fot reasons I could give even if he had not known the true history. But I 
will let Professor Owen tell the rest in his own words. He told the story 
himself at Leeds some few years afterwards, and this is what he said After * 
giving his account of the portion of the story I have already related, and 
saying he had been told that the navvy who first uncovered the tree had 
