SEA-SERPENTS. 



145 



every fossil-hunter will appreciate. We, in England, 

 who visit clay pits, stone quarries, railway cuttings, etc., 

 during a morning or an afternoon walk, and return 

 home at our leisure with a few small specimens in our 

 pockets, or in a bag at our back, can hardly realise how 

 arduous must be the work of finding, digging out, and 

 transporting for such long distances the remains of 

 the monsters of Kansas and other parts of North 

 America. 



The following extracts have been selected from 

 Professor Cope's report, with a view to illustrating 

 the nature of the explorations undertaken. "The 

 circumstances attending the discovery of one of these 

 will always be a pleasant recollection to the writer. A 

 part of the face, with teeth, was observed projecting 

 from the side of a bluff by a companion in exploration, 

 Lieutenant James H. Whitten, United States Army, and 

 we at once proceeded to follow up the indication with 

 knives and picks. Soon the lower jaws were uncovered, 

 with their glistening teeth, and then the vertebrae and 

 ribs. Our delight was at its height when the bones of 

 the pelvis and part of the hind limb were laid bare, 

 for they had never been seen before in the species, 

 and scarcely in the order. While lying on the bottom 

 of the Cretaceous sea, the carcase had been dragged 

 hither and thither by the sharks and other rapacious 

 animals, and the parts of the skeleton were displaced 

 and gathered into a small area. The massive tail 

 stretched away into the bluff, and, after much laborious 

 excavation, we left a portion of it to more persevering 

 explorers." 



" The discovery of a related species, Platecarpus 

 coryphseus (Cope), was made by the writer under 

 circumstances of difficulty peculiar to the plains. 



