VOL. L.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 28P 



after some time they will grow again ; of which a specimen at the British Mu- 

 seum is an undoubted proof; for a little new arm is there seen sprouting forth 

 in the room of a large one that had been lost. 



It is evident from what has been said, that the sea-polypus must be terrible to 

 the inhabitants of the waters, in proportion to its size, and Pliny mentions one 

 whose arms were 30 feet in length ; for the close embraces of its arms, and the 

 adhesion of its suckers, must render the efforts of its prey ineffectual either for 

 resistance or escape, unless it be endued with an extraordinary degree of strength. 

 Sea polypi are frequent in the Mediterranean : but Mr. Haviland of Bath, to 

 whom we are obliged for this, which is of a different species, thinks it came from 

 the West Indies, where it is called a cat-fish. That like it in the British Mu- 

 seum also came from thence. 



CVIII. On the Fossil Skeleton of an Animal found in the Alum Rock near 

 Whitby. By Mr. Wooller. p. 786. 



It is in this rock that the ammonitae, or snake-stones, as they are commonly 

 called, are found, which have doubtless been formed in the exuviae of fishes of 

 that shape, and though none of that species are now to be met with in the seas 

 thereabouts, yet they in many particulars resemble the nautilus, which is well 

 known. The internal substance of those stones, on a section, appears to be a 

 stony concretion, or muddy spar. Stones of the same matter or substance, in 

 the shape of muscles, cockles, &c. of various sizes, are also found in it, and 

 now and then pieces of wood hardened and crusted over with a stony substance 

 are likewise found in it. Many naturalists have already observed, that among 

 the vast variety of extraneous substances found at several depths in the earth, 

 where it is impossible they should have been bred, there are not so many pro- 

 ductions of the earth as of the sea ; and it appears by the accounts of authors, 

 both ancient and modem, that bones, teeth, and sometimes entire skeletons of 

 men and animals, have been dug up or discovered in all ages, and the most re- 

 markable for size commonly the most taken notice of. In the first particular 

 this skeleton will probably appear to have belonged to an animal of the lizard 

 kind, quadruped and amphibious; and as to its size, much larger than any thing 

 of that kind ever met with or found in this part of the world ; though, from the 

 accounts of travellers, something similar is still to be met with in many of the 

 rivers, lakes, &c. of the other three. 



When the annexed drawing of it was taken, Jan. 5, 1758, (fig. 5, pi. Q) 

 there remained no more of the vertebras than is there expressed ; that is, 1 be- 

 tween D and F, and 1 2 between o and h : but when it was first discovered, about 

 10 years before, they were complete; and there was besides the appearance of 



vox. XI. P p 



