1831-1841.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT BRISTOL. 
135 
a geological puzzle. It was filled with lead, and his 
explanation of the problem, which was abandoned by the 
learned company as insoluble, was that it belonged to one 
of the “ unfortunate beings who perished at the Custom 
House at the riots in this city. The animal matter has 
been roasted out of it by intense heat, and the cavities 
have been filled with lead.” 1 
During his stay at Bristol, Buckland was the guest of 
the father of Miss Caroline Fox. The young lady writes, 
August 31st, 1836 :— 
“We were returning from the British Association Meet¬ 
ing, and Dr. Buckland was an outside compagnon de 
voyage , but often came at stopping places for a little chat. 
He was much struck by the dearth of trees in Cornwall, 
and told of a friend of his who had made the off-hand 
remark that there was not a tree in the parish, when a 
parishioner remonstrated with him on belying the parish, 
and truly asserted that there were seven.” 
This meeting of the Association at Bristol also finds 
mention in the Life of Mary Carpenter. 
“ She entered,” it is said, “ with alacrity into all the 
preparations made to receive the savants at this meeting. 
The acquaintance then begun with many distinguished 
men who gathered at her father's table, was occasionally 
renewed afterwards. ‘ In the afternoon,' she wrote in 
October, ‘ Professor Buckland called on his way back to 
Oxford. He stayed half an hour, conversing in a most 
agreeable and sensible manner about his book, 2 and the 
contested point of the Creation ; he very wisely determines 
not to attempt to reason with those who shut their eyes 
and say that the geologists invent facts. With regard to 
1 Bristol Gazette, September 1st, 1836. 
2 The Bridgewater Treatise. 
