295 



crocodilean.* The remains described by Stukeley, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, and which were supposed by 

 Cuvier, from the incorrectness of the plate, to belong to 

 crocodile, are decidedly remsiins of pies iosaurus ; nor have 

 any crocodilean remains been found in the lias of the south- 

 western countries. The crocodile said to have been found 

 in the Derbyshire mountain lime, is asserted to have been 

 a distorted ortlioceratite. 



Genus II. — Monitor. 



Some species of this genus are found in Thuringia. f 



Of the uncertain fragments, one bears somewhat of the curved 



outline of the humerus, but, of the other, no opinion can be proposed. 



• It does not appear, from what is at present known respecting 



this fossil animal, that it specifically ditfers from the recent crocodile. 



* " The bones (Mr. Conybeare says) which 1 have seen from 

 Whitby, are of the ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus ; I have seen no 

 other." 



f In the cuprous and bituminous schists of several parts of 

 Thuringia are found numerous impressions of fishes, and of other 

 animals which had been supposed to be the remains of crocodiles 

 and of some species of apes. This schist, which at Mansfeldt, 

 Eisleben, and Ilmenau, is so celebrated for the beautifully pyritical 

 impressions, rests upon a red sandstone, which, in many parts, 

 contains coal, and has over it beds of limestone containing belem- 

 nites, terebratulae, entrochi, and the remains of other animals of 

 very early creation, and of marine origin. 



The remains of fishes, thus found, have been considered as 

 belonging to fresh-water fish ; and Cuvier observes, that the ob- 

 servations made by him respecting the supposed crocodilian remains 

 of this schist, must serve to confirm this opinion, he having ascer- 

 tained them to belong to some of the numerous species of animals, 

 comprised by Linnseus under the term of lucerta monitor ; and of 

 lupinambis, by Daudin : animals which frequent marshes and the 

 shallow beds of rivers. Thus, as our justly celebrated teacher 

 instructs us, we have here fresh proofs of fresh-water animals being 

 covered by immense masses of the most ancient marine productions, 

 and showing that the sea has repeatedly covered our continents. 



