1821.] Lacerta Gigantea of the Ancient World. 185 



necessary to leave them remaining in some parts where it would 

 have been impossible to detach them without inevitable injury to 

 the bone. Wherever such a lump of iron ore had adhered, 

 there afterwards remained a dark, rusty-coloured mark. I found 

 no appearance of there having been any similar lumps lft the 

 block containing the skeleton of the crocodile. 



This soft chalky marl, in consequence of a mixture of lighter 

 or darker iron ochre, of a yellowish white hue, is besides foliated 

 in the manner of slate, and exceedingly easy to break. Here 

 and there may be discerned, in addition to the lumps of iron ore, 

 pieces of greyish quartz. Everywhere too might be discerned 

 tine scales of not more than one line in their greater diameter, 

 that must have belonged either to fish, or, perhaps, to the animal 

 itself. Similar scales are to be found in great abundance in the 

 chalky marly slate of the Meulenhard— a circumstance, which I 

 have ascertained by examination on the very spot. Besides 

 these, there is in one place the entire impression of a flat, radiated 

 ammonite, between three and four inches large, and the greyish 

 blue remains of a shell. 



The bones themselves, which are, correctly speaking, rather 

 calcined than petrified, have a general resemblance in colour and 

 consistence to those of the crocodilus priscus ; and are plainly 

 enouo-h distinguishable as well by their darker hue (either a red- 

 dish-grey, or reddish-brown), and by their closer, firmer, and 

 harder texture (notwithstanding their friability), from the marly 

 mass, which is of a lighter colour, and more soft. Not only the 

 bones of the head, but still more those of the pelvis and the 

 thighs, are dyed of a dark brown by the iron ore, which 

 had adhered to them. The enamel of the teeth, which is brown, 

 smooth, and shining, appears to be more compact than any other 

 part, and in these respects bears a striking resemblance to that 

 on the fossil teeth of the shark, or of the glossopetre. 



Head. 

 "Notwithstanding that the fragment of the head appears to 

 have been forcibly compressed so as to be flattened, and to have 

 its parts thrust from their natural position, it is nevertheless not 

 only evidently in better preservation, but more entire than any 

 portion which I have yet seen of the head of the Maestncht 

 animal. In none of those fragments, at least none that have as 

 yet been engraved, do we see both the right and left sides of the 

 face or facial parts of the skull ; in none are there any remains of 

 the upper jaw ; in none do the upper and under javy correspond 

 so completely with each other ; in none is there discernible so 

 large a portion of the snout and of the forehead above the 



eyes. 



This more perfect preservation of the parts of the face in this 

 subject enables us to ascertain with greater precision the class 

 of animals to which this head bears the most resemblance. For 

 00 considering the heads of the different species of the lizard 



