54 
LIFE OF DEAN BUG ILL AND. 
[CH. II. 
“ ‘ Potent his jaw to crack his bony rapine, 
Potent his stomach as a “ pot of Pappin ”; 
O’er this last bone of many a murdered brother 
He growled, for he in vain had sought another. 
“‘Full oft, like Captain Franklin, did he prey 
On bones neglected on a former day ; 
But now th’ o’erwhelming surge had buried all, 
In caves below, of beasts both great and small. 
“ ‘ But ere it rose to mix him with the rest, 
Thus did he growl aloud his last bequest:— 
“ My skull to William Buckland I bequeath,” 
He moaned—and ocean’s wave he sank beneath. 
“ ‘ Southward the flood from Yorkshire chanced to travel 
And rolled the monster deep in Yorkshire gravel. 
Behold the head of that Hyena grim, 
Who through Diluvium deeps essayed to swim.’ 
£k After vast labour and much accurate observation, Dr. 
Buckland at length made the evidence of the former 
existence of hyenas in England quite complete ; so com¬ 
plete indeed, that on one occasion, when surrounded by 
the actual bones and specimens knocked out of the 
Kirkdale stalactite by his own hammer, and brought to 
Oxford by his own hand, and sitting in his Professors 
chair in his own museum, he appealed to one of the most 
learned judges of the land, who happened to be present 
at his lecture. After having, with his usual forcible and 
telling eloquence, put his case, to prove not only the former 
existence of hyenas in England, but even that they were 
rapacious, ravenous, and murderous cannibals, he turned 
round to the learned lawyer and said, ‘ And now, what do 
you think of that, my lord ? ’ ‘ Such facts/ replied the 
judge, ‘ brought as evidence against a man , would be quite 
sufficient to convict and even hane him.’ ” 1 
o 
1 F. Buckland, “ Curiosities of Natural History,” 2nd series, pp. 52, 53. 
