Gum mastic, one ounce;
Rectified spirit of wine, sufficient to dissolve it.
Isinglass, one ounce, soaked in water until soft; then dissolve it in pure rum or brandy until it is in the state of stiff glue: add to this a quarter of an ounce of gum ammoniacum, well rubbed and mixed.
Put the two solutions together in an earthen vessel, over a gentle heat; when thoroughly melted and united, put the mixture into smooth, well-corked bottles.
Use.—Immerse the bottle in hot water until the cement is sufficiently liquid for use.
The search for fossils of this class is attended with much less certainty of success than for other animal remains. In the following list, page 818, the localities most likely to be productive are enumerated; but we have no caverns, as in Germany, so rich in remains of this kind as to ensure the discovery of specimens by the casual visitor; for the treasures of the most productive cave, that of Banwell, are prohibited; the proprietor carefully preserving every fragment. A short residence near some of the best localities and daily research are required for obtaining interesting specimens. For example, a residence at Ryde, for a search in the fresh-water tertiary limestone at Binstead; at Torquay, for Kent’s cavern; or some other town or village near the other caves in Devonshire; Herne Bay, for the London Clay at Studd’s Hill, that produced the Hyracotherium; Woodbridge or Kyson, for the Suffolk mammalia; Walton and Clacton, in Essex, for remains of Elephants in the pleistocene deposits of that coast.
In searching for bones and teeth in an unexplored cave, the following suggestions by Dr. Buckland will be found of great value. Select the lowest parts in the cavern or fissure into which any mud or clay can have been drifted or accumulated; and then break through the stalagmitic crust of the floor, and dig down into the silt and pebbles, &c. below, in which bones and teeth will be found, if the spot contains any relics of this kind. As a test for distinguishing the ancient bones found in these caves from those which may have been recently introduced, the tongue should be applied to them when dry, and they will adhere in consequence of the loss of their animal gluten, without the substitution of any mineral substance, such as we commonly find in the fossil bones of the regular strata. Human bones found in caves always possess too much animal gluten to adhere to the tongue when dry.[779]
[779] Dr. Buckland on Fossil Bones of Bears in the Grotto of Osselles, near Besançon, in France. Geol. Proc. vol. i. p. 22.
Along the eastern coast of England, and often off the mouth of the Thames, the fishermen dredge up teeth, tusks, and bones of Elephants; and good specimens may sometimes be thus procured. The Ramsgate fishermen employed in trawling in the North Sea and English channel, frequently bring up in their gear fragments of fossil bones of Mammoths, and other mammalia. From the bank of the Goodwin-sands, large tusks have been procured. On the shore near Herne Bay, very fine mammalian remains are occasionally obtained. In the Museum at Canterbury, there was (and I believe is) a good collection of fossil bones of large Pachydermata procured from the neighbouring coast. It is a remarkable fact, that immense quantities of the bones of Mammoths, or fossil Elephants, are strewn over the bed of the German Ocean and English Channel.[780] The late Mr. Woodward informed me, that the teeth and tusks of Elephants collected along the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts, within his own cognizance, must have belonged to upwards of five hundred individuals.
[780] Geol. Trans. 2d ser. vol. vi. p. 161.