the black slate, or alum rock ; and about ten or twelve feet deep, in this 

 rock, this skeleton laid horizontally. The probability of this cliff formerly 

 covering this animal, and extending much more into the sea, is not in 

 the least doubted of by those that know the cliff. The various strata 

 which compose it are daily mouldering and falling down ; several thou- 

 sand tons often tumbling down together. Many ancient persons now 

 living remember this very cliff extending, in some places, twenty yards 

 further out than it does at present, so much has the sea gained of the 

 land." 



From the figure of this fossil, as given in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, Plate XXII. and Plate XXX. of the same volume; and, from the 

 description, it appears that the remains and traces were observable of 

 a vertebral column, probably, however, not complete at either end, 

 nine feet in length. Twelve vertebrae of the tail, and a series of ten 

 other vertebrae, which seemed to have formed the loins, sacrum, and the 

 commencement of the tail, still remained, and were about three inches 

 in length. Those of the neck, of the back, and the middle of the tail, 

 had only left their impressions. The head is seen on its lower side, 

 showing the occipital condyle on the back part ; the zygomatic arches, 

 on each side, terminating, as in the crocodile, in two large condyles for 

 the lower jaw, and placed in the same transverse direction with the occi- 

 pital condyle. The skull fills but a narrow space. Forwards, the head 

 contracts not suddenly, as in the Gavial, but gradually; and, in M. Cu- 

 vier's opinion, like the fossil head of Altorf ; and probably, like that of 

 Honfleur, in a pointed muzzle. Large pointed teeth are placed alter- 

 nately in both jaws, about three quarters of an inch distant from each 

 other ; and towards the end of the jaws are fangs which are larger than 

 the others. 



It is extraordinary, that the celebrated Camper should have concluded 

 this fossil to have been the remains of an animal of the species Balcena, 

 when teeth were observable in both jaws, whilst the balaenae are not 

 iisrnished with any teeth. Nor is it less surprising that M. Faujas should 



