SEA-SERPENTS 189 
sandstone, especially in the eminence called St. Peter’s Mount, 
which is a cape or headland between the Meuse and the Jaar. 
This elevated plateau extends for some distance towards Liége, 
and presents an almost perpendicular cliff towards the Meuse. 
From the extensive works that have so long been carried on, 
immense quantities of stone have been removed, and the centre 
of the mountain is traversed by galleries, and hollowed by vast 
excavations. Innumerable fossils, such as marine shells, corals, 
crustaceans, bones and teeth of fishes, have been obtained from 
this rock, but St. Peter’s Mount is now chiefly celebrated for the 
discovery of the bones and teeth of a huge saurian, to which Mr. 
Conybeare has given the name Mosasaurus, on account of its 
connection with the River Meuse. M. Hoffmann had long been 
an assiduous collector of fossils from this neighbourhood, and he 
had the good fortune to obtain the famous specimen on which 
this genus is founded. 
It was at first considered by M. Faujas St. Fond to be a 
crocodile ; but Cuvier and Camper formed a different and better 
conclusion. Perhaps no fossil ever had such a remarkable history 
as this one, as the following account, from M. Faujas St. Fond’s 
work on the fossils of St. Peter’s Mount,! will show. 
“Some workmen, on blasting the rock in one of the caverns of 
the interior of the mountain, perceived, to their astonishment, the 
jaws of a large animal attached to the roof of the chasm. The 
discovery was immediately made known to M. Hoffmann, who 
repaired to the spot, and for weeks presided over the arduous 
task of separating the mass of stone containing these remains 
from the surrounding rock. His labours were rewarded by the 
successful extrication of the specimen, which he conveyed in 
1 Histoire Naturelle de la Montagne de St. Pierre. This account is given 
by Dr. Mantell, in his Petrifactions and their Teaching, 1851. 
