SEA-SERPENTS 189 



sandstone, especially in the eminence called St. Peter's Mount, 

 which is a cape or headland between the Meuse and the Jaar. 

 This elevated plateau extends for some distance towards Liege, 

 and presents an almost perpendicular cliff towards the Meuse. 

 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 fossils, such as marine shells, corals, 

 crustaceans, bones and teeth of fishes, have been obtained from 

 this rock, but St. Peter's Mount is now chiefly celebrated for the 

 discovery of the bones and teeth of a huge saurian, to which Mr. 

 Conybeare has given the name Mosasaurus, on account of its 

 connection with the Eiver Meuse. M. Hoffmann had long been 

 an assiduous collector of fossils from this neighbourhood, and he 

 had the good fortune to obtain the famous specimen on which 

 this genus is founded. 



It was at first considered by M. Faujas St. Fond to be a 

 crocodile ; but Cuvier and Camper formed a different and better 

 conclusion. Perhaps no fossil ever had such a remarkable history 

 as this one, as the following account, from M. Faujas St. Fond's 

 work on the fossils of St. Peter's Mount, 1 will show. 



" Some workmen, on blasting the rock in one of the caverns of 

 the interior of the mountain, perceived, to their astonishment, the 

 jaws of a large animal attached to the roof of the chasm. The 

 discovery was immediately made known to M. Hoffmann, who 

 repaired to the spot, and for weeks presided over the arduous 

 task of separating the mass of stone containing these remains 

 from the surrounding rock. His labours were rewarded by the 

 successful extrication of the specimen, which he conveyed in 



1 Histoire Naturelle de la, Montague de St. Pierre. This account is given 

 by Dr. Mantell, in his Petrifactions and their Teaching, 1851. 



