Professor B. Burckhardt — On Hijperodapedon Gordoni. 487 



I very much doubt whether it would have been possible to comply 

 with my request in a more generous manner than was done by the 

 respected Keeper of the Geological Department of the British 

 Museum, Dr. Henry Woodward, F.E.S., to whom, as to Drs. 

 A. Smith Woodward and C. W. Andrews, of the same Department, 

 and to Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.E.S., of the Zoological Department, 

 it gives me the utmost pleasure to tender my heartiest thanks for 

 their ever ready assistance and advice. 



As might be supposed, a re-preparation of such a valuable original 

 object was totally out of the question, though I have no doubt that, if 

 performed with the necessary care, many minute anatomical details 

 would be brought to light. 



In my drawings, therefore, I filled in with black all those parts 

 which were left untouched by the chisel like the rest of the matrix 

 of the stone. The artist employed on Huxley's sketch has failed to 

 convey any precise information as to which is stone and which is 

 bone, and has produced as structures shapes which only existed in 

 the imagination of the mason as having belonged to the skull itself. 



In my drawing of the skeleton in situ I have carefully confined 

 myself to a representation of the exposed portions of the actual 

 bones, thus avoiding the risk of reproducing anything foreign to it 

 on the face of the stone. This ought to remove all doubts that may 

 exist as regards serious mistakes, especially where parts are con- 

 cerned which are of importance. 



An ordinary photographic reproduction of the fossil would not 

 have been a great gain for the student, as the observer would have 

 been under the necessity of making out the details of the actual 

 fossil for himself, not to mention the disturbing effect of countless 

 ochre spots which are distributed all over the surface of the matrix. 



Plate XIX is a photographic reproduction of the entire skeleton, 

 reduced to i of its natural size, from the original in the British 

 Museum. With the exception of the distal part of the left limb, 

 which is better preserved on the counterpart, no other portions of 

 the skeleton are seen on that slab. I therefore have transferred it 

 from that side on to the plate also, as otherwise I should have had 

 to dispense with its reproduction altogether. This plan, moreover, 

 had the advantage of completing the representation of the skeleton 

 in one view. 



It should also be pointed out here that in consequence of having 

 had recourse to photographs, the lower part of the leg, and the foot, 

 are diminished in size by i on account of the focal distance from 

 the main portions of the skeleton, which further tends to increase 

 the disparity already existing between the two extremities. 



For a general description of the skeleton I would refer the reader 

 to Huxley's memoir (see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1887, vol. xliii, 

 pp. 675-693, pis. xxvi and xxvii, and 8 text-figures). To this 

 1 am obliged to add merely that I feel by no means sure of his 

 statement that the praesacral portion of the vertebral column 

 terminates with the 23rd vertebra, or even with the 22nd ; but 

 of this I feel confident, that there are not twenty-four vertebrje, as 



