326 BUFFALO LAND. 



short our speculations, and called our attention to the 

 Professor. He stood waving his slouched hat for an 

 instant, and then bent close over the ground, in 

 earnest scrutiny. 



A few moments later, and we all stood beside the 

 huge fossil. It lay exposed, upo^a bed of slate, look- 

 ing very much like a seventy-foot serpent, carved in 

 stone. Part of the remains had been taken up to the 

 town, and spread over the bench, in the shop of 

 Louis. From what was left, the jaws appeared to 

 have been originally over six feet long, the sharp 

 hooked and cone-shaped teeth being still very per- 

 fect. A few broad fragments of ribs showed that, in 

 circumference, the animal's body had been about the 

 size of a puncheon. We felt confident that the speci- 

 men was a very rare one, as Muggs had never seen 

 any thing like it, even in England. It now rests in 

 the museum at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



"This fossil, gentlemen," said the Professor, "is 

 that of a Mosasaurus, a huge reptile which existed in 

 the cretaceous sea. This appears to be one of the 

 largest members of the family yet discovered, its 

 length, as you will perceive, being over fifty feet. 

 The species to which it belonged swarmed in im- 

 mense numbers, but were surrounded by monsters 

 even more remarkable than they. The deep which 

 they inhabited must have been constantly lashed and 

 torn with their fierce conflicts; for it was an age of 

 war, and the powers of offense and defense, which the 

 monsters of that period possessed, were terrible. 

 Winged reptiles filled the air, in appearance more 

 hideous than any creation of the imagination. Follow- 



