FOSSIL CROCODILE. 263 



the village of Melsbroeck, in the environs of Brussels. 

 Fossil remains of unknown species of tortoises are also 

 met with in the coarse chalk or limestone of the hill of 

 Saint Peter, near Maestricht. They are irregularly dis- 

 tributed throughout the masses of the rock, along with 

 different marine productions, and bones of the gigantic 

 monitor. All of them are remains of jsea-tortoises, 

 named chelonii by French zoologists; but of species 

 different from any of those at present known. 



Remains of a marine, but unknown species of tortoise 

 were found in the limestone slate of Glaris ; and remains 

 of unknown species kave also been dug out of the rocks- 

 of a formation analogous to that around Paris, situated 

 in the vicinity of Aix. And fossil fresh-water species 

 have been found in the gypsum quarries near Paris. 



Crocodilus. Crocodile. 



Two extinct species of fossil crocodiles, nearly allied 

 to the gavial (Lac. gangeticus) or gangetic crocodile, 

 sccur in a pyritical bluish-gray compact limestone, at 

 fche bottom of the cliffs of Honfleur and Havre ; and one 

 of these species at least is found in other parts of France, 

 as at Aler.^on and elsewhere.^ It would also appear 

 that the skeleton of a crocodile, discovered at the bottom 

 of a cliff of pyritical slate, about half a mile from Whitby, 

 by Captain William Chapman, probably belongs to one 

 of these species. And it may further be remarked, that 

 the fragments of heads of crocodiles found in the Vicen- 

 tine, may be referred to the same species. 2. That the 

 fossil heads, found at Altorf, are different from those of 



* Cuvier describes bones of a crocodile found in the slaty limestone 

 of Altorf, which had been considered as remains of the human species. 



