FOSSILS OF THE PURBECK STRATA. 355 



sions of the Wealden, described in the pre- 

 vious chapters. They consist of river shells, 

 drifted land plants, bones of saurian and chelo- 

 nian reptiles, with the remains of fishes, and 

 crustaceans ; the absence of ammonites, echinites, 

 zoophytes, &c. being as complete as in the Sussex 

 wealden. 



Many bones of reptiles have been procured from 

 Swanage cliffs,* and from the quarries in the 

 neighbourhood; but the most remarkable fossil 

 of this kind hitherto discovered, I had the 

 good fortune to obtain, through the intelligence 

 and liberality of Robert Trotter, Esq. F. G. S., of 

 Sussex. 



The Swanage fossil Crocodile. — In the summer 

 of 1837, the workmen employed in one of the 

 quarries near Swanage, had occasion to split 

 asunder a large slab of the fawn-coloured lime- 

 stone, when, to their great astonishment, they 

 perceived many bones and teeth imbedded on 

 each of the exposed surfaces. As this was no 

 ordinary occurrence, — for though scales of fishes, 

 shells, and fragments of bones, were frequently 

 met with, an assemblage of bones had never been 



* A description of some bones of the Iguanodon, found on the shore, half 

 a mile north of Swanage, is given by Dr. Buckland in Geol. Trans, vol. iii. 

 p. 429, new series. 



