300 



that, from its accompanying fossils, we find reason to believe it to have 

 been an inhabitant of the sea, whilst none of the existing lizard tribe are 

 known to live in salt water. These circumstances, however wonderful 

 as they are, are more than equalled by many of the numerous discoveries 

 which we have yet to contemplate in the natural history of the former 

 world. We have here seen a monitor possessing the magnitude of a 

 crocodile ; but we have yet to examine a tapir of the size of an elephant, 

 and a sloth (the megalonix) as large as a rhinoceros. 



We have seen, in the preceding letter, that the remains found in the 

 pyritous schist of Thuringia were referable to Lacerta monitor, Linn, or 

 rather to some species of the genus Monitor, of Cuvier; and this we shall 

 find to be the case with other supposed remains of crocodiles. 



Spener, in 1710, published, Miscel berolin. I. Fig. 24 and 25, a plate, 

 representing a supposed fossil crocodile. This fossil was found at the depth 

 of three hundred feet, in the mines of Kupfer-Suhl, near to Eisenach, in 

 Prussia. In 1718, Linck, of Leipsic, published the letter already men- 

 tioned, to Dr. Woodward, describing and figuring a supposed fossil croco- 

 dile, of which he says: " Non terrebit musas tuas hie crocodilus, acutis- 

 sime Woodwardi. Neque enim e Nilo canibus hominibusque formidandus, 

 sed ex mediis Germanise montibus venit." Another fossil was particula- 

 rized by Swedenborg, Tractat. de Cupro, PL n. found in the mines of Glucks- 

 bronn, near to Altenstein, and was placed by Swedenborg among the 

 apes, he supposing it to have been a species of Guenon or Sapajou. An- 

 other fossil of this kind is one which was found in the mines of Rothen- 

 bourg, at the depth of two hundred and sixty-four feet, but is at present 

 in the Royal cabinet of Berlin. 



These fossils, all of the same character and size, and found in a simi- 

 lar matrix, appear to belong to one species of animals. The form of the 

 head ; the teeth, all sharp ; and the size of the vertebrae of the tail ; de- 

 termine it to be an oviparous quadruped, without the proof of the pos- 

 terior members, which afford full confirmation. 



