Bute later entered into negotiations for the purchase of the site above referred to, with a view to its preservation; but this was not carried out. He also wrote at considerable length to his correspondents in Orkney, throwing great doubts (as he had done nineteen years previously) on the supposed bones (or "reliques," as he calls them) of St. Magnus preserved at Kirkwall--chiefly on account of the degenerate type of the skull. "It may be," he characteristically says, "that this only indicates a triumph of grace over nature. But it seems to me to be incompatible, I will not say with holiness, but with the intellectual, high-minded, and beautiful character and tastes of the Martyr." On these and other grounds he urges that the local photographer of the skull must be strictly enjoined not to circulate the photograph under false pretences. {151} [Sidenote: Relics of St. Magnus] A letter which Bute addressed (in Latin) to the Cardinal Archbishop of Prague as to reputed "reliques" of St. Magnus preserved in the cathedral there elicited no response. "The reliques of St. Magnus themselves," Bute wrote in some displeasure, "could not be more voiceless than the Cardinal of Prague in regard to my (I hope) courteously-worded request." Through Cardinal Manning, however, information finally reached him that the relics at Prague (venerated there for several centuries) included a shoulder-blade. This was missing from the bones in Kirkwall Cathedral--so far satisfactory; but they also included a shin-bone (_crus_), whereas the shin-bones (_crura_) at Kirkwall were complete and intact.[11] Bute's final conclusion (and the incident is recorded as showing the curious interest with which he pursued such minute investigations) was that the bones at Kirkwall were not St. Magnus's at all, but probably those of Earl St. Rognwald, nephew to St. Magnus, another Norse saint and hero venerated in the same locality. He thought it worth while to insert in the _Review_ a letter from Orkney informing him that there was a tradition in Egilsay that one would always find an open flower on the site of the martyrdom, and that the writer had found there on December 10, after heavy snow and gales, several daisies in full bloom.[12] {152}