113 



An Account of the Fossil Skeleton of the Proteo-Saurus. By Sir 

 Everard Home, Bart. V.P.R.S. Read March 4, 1819. [Phil. 

 Trans. 1819, p. 209.] 



After reverting to the contents of his former papers on this sub- 

 ject, Sir Everard describes in the present communication a specimen 

 of the animal nearly in an entire state, and of which most of the 

 parts are in such good preservation, as to enable him to correct and 

 complete his former accounts, the only parts wanting being the bones 

 of the pelvis and the lower part of the sternum. A drawing of the 

 natural size accompanies this paper, i n which, says the author, the 

 parts are so clear and distinct, as to render any verbal description 

 superfluous. 



Reasons for giving the name Proteo-Saurus to the Fossil Skeleton which 

 has been described. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. V.P.R.S. Read 

 April 1, 1819. [Phil. Trans. 1819,^. 212.] 



The specimen of the fossil skeleton, described in the author's last 

 paper, having proved that the animal had four legs, and that its pro- 

 gressive motion through water is similar to that of fishes, he was led 

 to look for its place in the scale of gradation between amphibia and 

 fishes. With this view he examined the vertebrae of the Proteus, 

 which he found cupped at both extremes, in which respect it resem- 

 bles the fossil animal : it is also nearly allied to it in having feet ; 

 and were it not that the bones of the chest show that the lungs were 

 more capacious, and that in the largest specimens there is not suffi- 

 cient space between the occiput and first rib for gills, Sir Everard 

 would have ventured to have called it Proteus ; but as it is highly 

 probable that this animal breathed by lungs only, and appears to 

 have been capable of the two kinds of progressive motion, it may be 

 called Proteo-saurus. 



Some Observations on the Peculiarity of the Tides between Fairleigh 

 and the North Foreland; with an Explanation of the supposed 

 Meeting of the Tides near Dungeness. By James Anderson, Cap- 

 tain in the Royal Navy. Communicated by the Right Hon. Sir Jo- 

 seph Banks, Bart. G.C.B. P.R.S. Read March 25, 1819. [Phil. 

 Trans. 1819, p. 217.] 



After adverting to the circumstances upon which the generally 

 adopted opinion is founded, that the tides meet between Dungeness 

 Point and Rye Harbour, Captain Anderson describes the peculiarity 

 of the Channel at that point, and its very sudden contraction between 

 Dungeness and Cape D'Alpree, and between the South Foreland 

 and Calais Point ; so that the western tide meets with a resistance 

 to its course at Dungeness and Cape D'Alpree ; where, from the 

 passage being insufficient to discharge the water brought from the 

 westward, it must accumulate until it deepens and widens the Chan- 



VOL. II. I 



