Forster disposes of the subject of Buss's association with "Pickwick" in a very few words, merely observing that "there was at first a little difficulty in replacing Seymour, and for a single number Mr. Buss was interposed," thus intimating that the engagement was a temporary one. In commenting upon this, the artist's son, the Rev. Alfred J. Buss, expresses a belief that his father could not certainly have regarded it in this light. "Is it reasonable to suppose," he asks, in _Notes and Queries_, April 24, 1875, "that he would have consented to devote three weeks of his time, at the most valuable season to an artist, to the practice of an entirely new department of art, if it had been clearly stated that his engagement was of the transitory nature Mr. Forster would imply, and the more especially when we bear in mind that the price to be paid for the etchings was only fifteen shillings each?" It was Forster's scanty and misleading reference to Buss's engagement as illustrator of "Pickwick" which induced the artist to draw up for his children a concise and clear account of everything that transpired. It is not recorded whether Buss and Dickens became personally acquainted, nor, indeed, that they ever met. We may therefore surmise that all business transactions were carried on through the publishers, who probably forwarded to the artist proofs of the letterpress in order that he might select therefrom the subjects for illustration. The third number of "Pickwick" contains the only two published etchings by Buss for that work, viz., "The Cricket-Match" and "The Fat Boy Awake on this Occasion only." These plates, the effect of which was poor and thin, contrasted unfavourably with the Seymour etchings immediately preceding them, and were therefore suppressed as speedily as possible, others by "Phiz" (Hablôt K. Browne) being substituted before many copies had been issued.[15] In one of the latter an entirely different design is given,--that is to say, instead of "The Cricket-Match," we have "Mr. Wardle and his Friends under the Influence of 'the Salmon,'" depicting an incident described in the succeeding chapter. Footnote 15: The two cancelled etchings by Buss have been copied on steel, but, being printed on India paper, are not likely to be mistaken for the original plates. Impressions of the Buss etchings are exceedingly scarce, only about seven hundred copies of the number containing them having been circulated.