251 



DELPHINUS YOUNGII (Fossile). 



As after most of the other genera we have introduced 

 some slight notice of nearly alHed fossiles, so we 

 shall here mention that a specimen of a dolphin in 

 a fossile state was discovered in 1819, by Mr. Young 

 of Whitby, in the vast aluminous schistus of the 

 Yorkshire coast. It was embedded in the alum rock, 

 where it is washed by the tide, and is covered at high 

 water, half a mile east of Whitby harbour, and ten 

 yards from the face of the steep cliff which there 

 fronts the German Ocean. The cliff at that place 

 is about a hundred and eighty feet in height, which 

 of course was the depth of this skeleton from the 

 surface, before that part of the cliff which formerly 

 covered it was washed away. Though the skeleton 

 was wonderfully entire, yet we are not surprised 

 that Mr. Young found difficulty in identifying it 

 with any living species : in all probabiHty it belongs 

 to a new one. As there is nothing conclusive con- 

 cerning this specimen, nor concerning several others 

 which are alluded to, we refer for more ample details 

 to the Wernerian Trans, vol. iii. and to the Geology 

 of the Yorkshire Coast by Messrs. Young and Bird. 



