154 Transactions of the American Institute. 



of the crocodile, give its in the tail alone of this animal a good repre- 

 sentation of the backbone of the fish, where the bones subserve all the 

 pm-poses of the protection of the vital organs. We are not to sup- 

 pose that the creature is always in this attitude ; but having front 

 limbs it frequently nses them, I am speaking as though I had seen 

 them and known them ; and sometimes I believe I have lived some- 

 how before the present period of time, for when I look at these 

 animals I feel quite sure I have seen them before somewhere. Those 

 front limbs brought down to the ground cause such a change of atti- 

 tude, that it is my intention, in the group that I am about to produce 

 for the Central park, to present the creatures in each attitude of 

 which they are capable, that I may so thoroughly represent their 

 appearance in their ancient life. You will see that the teeth are very 

 small. The front limbs are but half the dimensions of the others. 

 From the shoulder to the elbow it is but twenty and one-half inches, 

 while the thigh bone, fron the hip to the knee, measures forty-one 

 inches. The lower leg measures thirty-six inches, while the lower 

 bone of the arm measures net fifteen inches. Allow me to confess 

 my own personality and invention with regard to the head. I had 

 but a small fragment of the upper jaw, and a very small portion of 

 the lower jaw and eight teeth in their place from which I had to con- 

 Btruct this w^hole head. All the rest I admit to be out of my own head. 

 [Laughter.] But I found I had some recollections of former times, 

 when I had seen some very near relations of this creature at Syden- 

 ham. There we had an entire lower jaw, showing that they had no 

 cutting teeth in front, and it only became necessary that the upper 

 jaw .should fit the lower jaw in such a manner that the creature 

 should be capable of shutting his mouth as well as opening it. I had 

 a number of vertebrae, three or four, but I thought I could " guess" 

 as you use the word here, what the others were. Of the ribs I had 

 small fragments, but enough to show what the rest were. The spines 

 were broken away, but there was nevertheless suflicient evidence 

 what the original parts were and to enable me to know their exact 

 relations. The blade-bone again was an invention, but all the 

 important portion which joins the head to the shoulder-bone, and 

 that I discovered in a lot of debris which were supposed to be of no 

 value, but which, to me, were invaluable to give the hollow piece 

 which joins on the top of the shoulder, the glenoid cavity, and the 

 piece in front of it, which explains its position and size. The hands 

 I had to invent ; but of the foot I was so fortunate as to have two of 



