194 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. III. 



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 marine shells, corals, and 

 crustaceans, bones and teeth of fishes, and remains of turtles, 

 are imbedded in this sandstone, and as the friable character of 

 the rock admits of the easy extrication of the fossils, they are 

 obtained in great perfection. 1 



But the organic remains for which the strata of St. Peter's 

 Mountain are most celebrated, are the bones and teeth of an 



LION. 43. REMAINS OF THE JAWS OF THE FOSSIL REPTILE OF MAESTRICHT. 



(Mosasaurus Hoffmanni.) 

 (The original is 4| feet by 2 feet.) 



enormous lizard, to which our eminent countryman, the Eev. 

 W. D. Conybeare, gave the name of Mosasaurus, or Lizard of 

 the Meuse. 



The discovery of some remains of this animal had in the 

 middle of the last century drawn the attention of naturalists to 

 these quarries, and in 1770 M. Hoffman, the military surgeon 

 attached to the Fort, who had long been an assiduous collector 



1 See " Wonders of Geology," p. 309. 



