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LETTER XX. 



LARGE FOSSIL ANIMAL OF MAESTRICHT ASCERTAINED TO BE 



NEITHER PHYSETER, FISH, NOR CROCODILE OPINIONS OF DR. 



PETER CAMPER, M. FAUJAS, M. ADRIAN CAMPER, &C REMAINS 



OF THE EXISTING MONITORS ENGLISH SPECIMENS. 



1 HE large animal, whose fossil remains are found in the quarries of 

 Maestricht, has been deservedly a frequent object of admiration ; and 

 the beautiful appearance which its remains possess, in consequence of 

 their excellent state of preservation, in a matrix which admits" of their 

 fair display, has occasioned every specimen of this fossil to be highly va- 

 lued. The lower jaw of this animal, with some other specimens which 

 were presented by Dr. Peter Camper to the Royal Society, and which 

 are now in the British Museum, are among the most splendid and in- 

 teresting fossils in existence. A particular account of these fossils, with 

 the opinions of the learned donor respecting the animal to which they 

 belonged, and some excellent engravings, are given in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1786. 



The remains of this animal are found chiefly in that part of St. Peter's 

 Mountain, on which is built the fort St. Peter. Whilst speaking, in a 

 former part of this work, of the alcyonic fossils from this mountain, I re- 

 marked that their matrix was " a very pure carbonate of lime." M. Cu- 

 vier has also ascertained this to be the case, and that the description of 

 it by M. Faujas, who says it is " Un gres quartzeiix a grain fin, foiblement 

 lie par un gluten calcaire peu dur*," is erroneous. The mass of calcareous 

 matter in which they are imbedded is at least 449 feet in thickness. 



The first collection of these fossils was made by an intelligent officer, 



