22 TALPA. 



the exact limits of the intermaxillary bone : until this be 

 done the true character of the double-fanged canine-shaped 

 upper tooth cannot be decided. The importance of an 

 exact acquaintance with the dentition of our small Insec- 

 tivora was forced upon my attention some time since by 

 the fossil, figured at 5, cut 8, a drawing of which was 

 transmitted to me by Professor Sedgwick, with the follow- 

 ing note : " At the same spot (in the brown diluvial clay 

 on the coast of Norfolk, near a village called Bacton,) was 

 found a pretty perfect skeleton of a reptile, of which I 

 send you a drawing ; but its legs, pelvis, and sternal bones, 

 have been put together in a monstrous fashion. The little 

 jaw in the corner of the plate was drawn on the sup- 

 position of its belonging to the reptile; but I have seen 

 it, and it seems to be the jaw of no reptile, but of a small 

 Insectivorous Mammal." Extract of letter, dated Norwich, 

 Feb. 12, 1842. 



The accuracy of the Professor's opinion was soon establish- 

 ed, by the comparison of the drawing with the dentition of 

 the Mole ; the fossil in question presented the double-fanged 

 canine-shaped tooth, followed by three small premolars and 

 three true molars ; corresponding precisely in number and 

 proportions with those teeth in the lower jaw of the Mole. 

 The teeth in Reptilia are not usually implanted in sockets, 

 and when they are, it is always by a single fang. The 

 value of this character will be more strikingly manifested 

 when we come to the consideration of more problematical 

 fossils than that of the supposed Bacton reptile. 



Having communicated the result of the comparison, with 

 a request to have the supposed sternal and pelvic bones of 

 the reptile transmitted to me, these proved to be, as I had 

 suspected, characteristic parts of the skeleton of a Mole : 

 the anomalously developed humeri having been mistaken 



