M. Drouin, who commenced his researches about the year 1766. This 

 collection is at present in Teyler's Museum. M. Hoffman, the surgeon 

 of the fort, of whom I have already spoken, also made a collection of 

 these specimens, which at his death was purchased by Dr. Peter Cam- 

 per, who presented some of them, as has been already related, to the 

 British Museum. 



In 1770, the workmen having discovered part of an enormous head of 

 an animal imbedded in the solid stone, in one of the subterranean pas- 

 sages of the mountain, gave information to M. Hoffman, who, with the 

 most zealous assiduity, laboured until he had disengaged this astonishing 

 fossil from its matrix. But when this was done, the fruits of his labours 

 were wrested from him by an ecclesiastic, who claimed it as being pro- 

 prietor of the land over the spot on which it was found. Hoffman de- 

 fended his right in a court of justice; but the influence of the Chapter 

 was employed against him, and he was doomed not only to the loss of 

 this inestimable fossil, but to the payment of heavy law expenses. But 

 in time, justice, M. Fanjas says, though tardy, at last arrived the 

 troops of the French Republic, secured this treasure, which was conveyed 

 to the National Museum. 



This fossil is described by M. Faujas, in his work on the Mountain 

 of St. Peter. In this work M. Faujas endeavours to show that this 

 animal must have been a crocodile, in agreement with the opinion of 

 Messrs. Drouin and Hoffman, and in opposition to that of Dr. Peter Cam- 

 per, who believed it to have been a cetaceous animal. M. Adrian Cam- 

 per, after the most careful investigation, has thought it must have been a 

 reptile, allied, in some respects, to the family of Monitors, and in others 

 to the Iguanas. 



Furnished by M. Loisel, Prsefect of the Lower Meuse, with numerous 

 other specimens, not only from the quarries under Fort St. Peter, but 

 from several other hills, and particularly from the village of Seichem, in 

 addition to those which had been secured by M. Faujas, the indefatir- 



* Hist, Nat. de la Mont de S. Pierre, p. 14. 



