1821.] Lacerta Gigantea of the Ancient World. 189 



this fragment does not exactly correspond with the rest of the 

 bones, I dare not pronounce this to be decidedly the case. 



As far as can be ascertained, these vertebrae are concave both 

 before and behind, and not, as Cuvier observes those of the 

 sauria and ophidia to be, viz. concave in front, and convex behind. 

 In dimensions, all these vertebrae appear to be proportioned to 

 the head, and the complete resemblance which they bear to each 

 other in form, size, junction, processes, substance, &c. seem to 

 prove that the five discovered in a separate stone belong to the 

 same individual as the other fourteen. 



Ribs. 



More than 30 of the ribs are discernible. The larger ones are 

 for the most part displaced, and lying along the spine, and at 

 the same time partly bruised and broken off. The hinder and 

 lesser ones lie scattered at some distance from the spine. 



Pelvis. 



Among the bones of the pelvis, which are likewise removed from 

 their situation, the two share bones, as likewise the os ischii, on 

 the right side, are perfectly entire ; but of the right hip bone there 

 is only a part remaining. 



Thigh Bones. 



Of the right and also of the left thigh bone, there is only the 

 upper half. Whether some fragments found close to those 

 belonged to the cross bone, is now exceedingly difficult to deter- 

 mine on account of their imperfect state. 



Besides these remains of bones, there are to be perceived not 

 only in the single stones, but every where throughout the entire 

 mass, small, delicate, and, for the most part, roundish scales, yet 

 not resembling those that have formed themselves so abundantly 

 around the fossil gavial in my possession. 



On comparing the present considerable fragment of the head 

 of our animal, fig. 1 and 2, with those belonging to the cele- 

 brated one discovered at Maestricht, and now deposited in the 

 Museum at Paris, the most remarkable of any, and on that 

 very account already engraved ten* different times, we not only 



* The first engraving is a coarsely executed print in Les Dons de la Nature par 

 Buchoz. 



The second, liardly at all superior to the preceding, is in the MagazinEncyclopedique, 

 torn. vi. p. .it. 



The third, which, as well as all the others, with the exception of the seventh, I have 

 before me, is in Faujas St. Fond. Hist, de la Montagne de St. Pierre, PI. 4. 



The fourth, in the same work, PI. 4. Cuvier says of this, that it is " tres belle, 

 mais inal terminer dans le haut." 



The fifth is only the preceding on a reduced scale in Faujas St. Fond's Essais de Geo. 

 logie, torn. 1, PI. S, on an octavo leaf, where the teeth are represented disproportionably 

 thick. 



The sixtli is the elegant little vignette serving as a head-piece in St. Fond's IlLst. de 

 la Mont. St. Pierre. 



