When the curator next entered the apartment, he glanced at the place where the bone had been, and seeing that it had been removed, he said nothing further about it. Shortly after, Edward was himself appointed curator, and having the control of the collection in his own hands, he restored the bone to its former place. He was still most anxious to know of what animal the bone had constituted a part. He never failed to direct the attention of visitors to the bone, and to inquire of them whether they could give him any information about it. Thus time rolled on, and despite of all his endeavours, the bone still remained unknown and unnamed.
SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.
At last Sir Roderick Murchison and Professor Ramsay honoured the museum with a visit, in September 1859. Edward was sure that Sir Roderick would be able to tell him all that he wanted to know respecting the bone. It was the first thing that he put into Sir Roderick’s hands. “Can you tell me what that is, sir?” He took it up, turned it round and round, and over and over, and remarked, “That is a most extraordinary bone;” and then he asked when and where it had been found. Edward told him all the facts he knew respecting it, and added: “But can you tell me to what animal it belonged?” “No, I cannot tell,” replied Sir Roderick. Neither did Professor Ramsay know anything about the bone. “You see,” said Sir Roderick, “this does not lie in my way. This is not exactly a geological specimen. I am more a stone man than a bone man. Besides, it is often a difficult matter to distinguish small fragments or single bones of a skeleton, especially such a remarkable one as this, and to determine with certainty to what creature it belonged. But,” he added, “if you have any stones in your collection unnamed, or any particular rock in your neighbourhood that you can show us, and which you and the stone men of the district are in any doubt about, my colleague and I will be most happy to sort them out for you. As regards the bone, I’ll tell you what to do. Send the bone to London, to Professor Owen. He’s your man. He’s made up of bones. He’ll soon tell you all about it. And more, you can give him my compliments, say you saw me, and that I told you to send it.”
Edward did not, however, send the bone to London. He knew from experience, that such things, when sent so far away, rarely came back. That had been the case with many of his Crustacea. He therefore kept the bone at home, and continued his inquiries of the savans who from time to time visited the museum; but he never succeeded in obtaining any favourable answer to his questionings.
PLESIOSAURUS DOLICHODEIRAS.
Years sped on, and still the bone remained unknown. At last, when Edward was rummaging over some old books, he came upon the second volume of the Penny Magazine. Whilst turning over the pages by chance, he saw a picture of old bones which had much puzzled his brains some thirty years before. And now he remembered that it was the picture of the bones here drawn, that had first given him the idea that this bone in the museum was the remnant of some extinct animal. And here was the creature itself from which the bone had been taken. It was the Plesiosaurus dolichodeiras; the bone in the museum being one of the femurs of the fore-paddle of that long extinct monster.
THE BANFF MUSEUM.
To make assurance doubly sure, Edward took a photograph of the bone, and sent it to a scientific correspondent in London; when he had the pleasure of being informed there was no doubt whatever that the bone was one of the femurs of the fore-paddle of the Plesiosaurus. Here, then, was a discovery well worth all the care, the trouble, and the anxiety which the bone had occasioned. It may also be mentioned that, so far as is known, no other fragment of the Plesiosaurus has yet been found in Scotland. They have been met with in England in the secondary strata, and on the Continent, principally in the Oolite and Lias. The bone in question is now one of the most cherished relics of the Banff Museum.
BANFF MUSEUM.