CALIFOENIAI^ ENALIOSAUK. SG3 



acquainted with those remarkable fossil animals, Ichthyo- 

 sauri and Plesiosaiiri, the supposed forms of which so 

 nearly correspond with what he describes as having seen 

 alive, and I cannot find that he had heard of them, — 

 the alligator being the only animal he mentioned as 

 bearing a partial similarity to the creature in question."* 



Now, unless this officer was egregiously deceived, he 

 saw an animal which could have been no other than an 

 Enaliosaur, — a marine reptile of large size, of sauroid 

 figure, with turtle-like paddles.-f* It is a pity that no 

 estimate, even approximate, of the dimensions is given ; 

 but as the alligator aS'ords the comparison as to form, it 

 is most probable that there was a general agreement with 

 it in size. This might make it some twelve or fifteen 

 feet in length. ' 



I cannot, then, admit that either the general substitu- 

 tion of Cetacea for Enaliosauria in our era, or the ab- 



* Zoologist, p. 2356. 



+ Dr J. E. Gray long ago expressed his opinion, that some undescribed 

 form exists, which is intermediate between the tortoises and the ser- 

 pents. " There is every reason to believe, from general structure, that 

 there exists an affinity between the tortoises and the snakes ; but the 

 genus that exactly unites them is at present unknown to European 

 naturalists ; which is not astonishing when we consider the immense 

 number of undescribed animals which are daily occurring. Mr Macleay 

 thought that those two orders might be united by means of Emys Ion- 

 gicoUis (the long-necked tortoise) of Shaw; but the family to which 

 this animal belongs appears to be the one which unites this class to the 

 crocodile. If I may be allowed to speculate from the peculiarities of 

 structure which I have observed, I am inclined to think that the union 

 will most probably take place by some newly discovered genera allied to 

 the marine or fluviatile soft-skinned turtles, and the marine serpent." * 

 * Synopsis of Gen of Reptiles, \a Ann. of Philos., 1825. 



