CHAPTEK V. 



FISH-LIZARDS, OR SHORT-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS. 



So long ago as the year 1814, when a fine example of 

 a large skull (now in the British Museum) was figured 

 by Sir Everard Home in the "Philosophical Trans- 

 actions" of the Eoyal Society, the occurrence in the 

 so-called Lias of the Dorsetshire coast of skeletons of 

 huge and uncouth reptiles, strangely unlike any of 

 their modern cousins, was well known. Five years 

 later the same writer described other specimens, and 

 proposed that these extinct Saurians should be known 

 as the Proteosaurus, or Primeval Lizard ; but about the 

 same time the late Mr. Konig, some time keeper of 

 the Geological Department of the British Museum, 

 affixed to the specimens of these Saurians under his 

 charge the name of Ichthyosaurus, or Fish-Lizard ; and 

 this name was adopted in the year 1821 by the late 

 Rev. Mr. Conybeare, who, with the late Dean Buckland, 

 did so much towards our knowledge of the structure 

 of these and other fossil Saurians. 



We have said that the Fish-Lizards have left their 

 remains in those beds of rock which are called by the 

 quarrymen Lias, or Layers (the name being derived 

 from their banded and ribbon-like appearance); and 



