Reply to some observations in Dr. Fleming's 'Remarks on the distribution of British animals' / [William Buckland].

  • Buckland, William, 1784-1856
Date:
[1825?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reply to some observations in Dr. Fleming's 'Remarks on the distribution of British animals' / [William Buckland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on the jJistrwtmonq/nrmsfrAmTnacsT^^^^^t^ known to me, or any of my family.” The story of the other two horns of the rhinoceros, said to have been found in the moss of Blair-Drummond, and of which Dr Fleming is anxious, as he well may be, to discover the skulls from whence they were derived, I found to originate in another mistake of a similar kind. Professor Jameson had been informed of the supposed discovery of these horns by a gentleman of Stirling, who is fac¬ tor to the estate of Blair-Drummond. I proceeded to Stirling, and found this gentleman to be a man of accurate observation as to the geological structure of this district, and particularly of the peat and alluvial deposits in which these horns were said to have been discovered. But he informed me that he had no per¬ sonal knowledge of the finding of them ; that the discovery was made many years ago by some of his father’s workmen, who, together with his father, are now dead ; but that he believed the horns were still existing in the House of Blair-Drummond. I applied forthwith to Mr Drummond for further information, and learnt from him that there were some years ago two horns of a rhinoceros somewhere about his house, and that they have since been removed to that of his mother in Edinburgh *. He further adds, “ I know nothing of their history but what my factor tells me, and he seems uncertain whether his father had seen them dug up, or had only been told by some person that they were found at some former time. As to the question about their having been found at Blair-Drummond, I can only answer with safety, in the terms of a verdict peculiar to our criminal courts, “Not Proven.” The evidence then before us amounts to nothing more than this,—that there exist two horns of a rhinoceros, which at some unknown former time were found in some unknown place, by some unknown person, and preserved in some unknown room in the mansion of Blair-Drummond, from which they have since * Professor Jameson has lately examined these horns, and informs me, “ that they differ not in shape from those of the living two-horned rhinoceros; that the fibres at their base exhibit the usual transparency of recent horns, and that the base of one of them is perforated with round sinuous holes, like those made in tim¬ ber by the Teredo, but smaller.” Holes of this kind are not uncommon in recent horns of this animal; they occur in a specimen in the Oxford Museum, and still retain within them the husk or sheath of some parasitic worms resembling mag¬ gots, by which they were produced.