SEA-SERPENTS. 1 3 5 



Li^ge, 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 cele- 

 brated 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. Hoffman 

 had long been an assiduous collector of fossils from this neigh- 

 bourhood, 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. Hoffman, 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 

 triumph to his house. This extraordinary discovery, however, 

 soon became the subject of general conversation, and excited so 

 much interest, that the canon of the cathedral which stands on 

 the mountain resolved to claim the fossil, in right of being lord 

 of the manor ; and succeeded, after a long and harassing lawsuit, 

 in obtaining this precious relic. It remained for years in his 



^ Histoire Naturelle de la Montague de St. Fierre. This account is given 

 by Dr. Mantell, in his Petrifactions and their Teaching, 1851. 



