FISHES AND MARINE ANIMALS. 263 



shew the oddness of its shape, which approaches that of the human 

 frame. It was brought us as the remains of a petrified child ! 



The most remarkable of our large petrifactions are the fossil 

 remains of the animal now called the proteosaurus ; formerly sup- 

 posed to be the crocodile, or the alligator. A good specimen was 

 found on the scar between Whitby and Saltwick, in 1758, when it 

 was drawn and described by Capt. William Chapman and Mi\ John 

 Wooller. The description and drawing may be seen in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, Vol. L; in the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 30; and in the 

 Scarborough Catalogue. It measured twelve feet in length ; but lay in 

 a curved form, like a crescent. Another skeleton, fifteen feet long, 

 was discovered on the scar, a little to the east of Staiths, in 1791 ; 

 between which period and the publication of the History of Whitby, 

 only a few very imperfect specimens were found, some of which are 

 noticed in that work. Vol. II, p. 780. Since that time, the researches of 

 the learned into the nature of these organic remains, and the eagerness 

 of the public to obtain them, having much increased, a great number 

 of specimens have been found. Within these three years, more than 

 twenty skeletons, in various states, have been discovered and taken 

 out of the alum shale, chiefly by the indefatigable industry of Brown 

 Marshall, a carpenter belonging to Whitby ; to whose labours we are 

 also indebted for a variety of other interesting fossils. These large 

 skeletons were almost all found near Saltwick, or between Saltwick 

 and Whitby, in the main bed of alum shale ; only a very few being 

 discovered in the compact shale beyond Sandsend, and the lowest 

 shale beyond Staiths. 



For an acquaintance with the structure and habits of this fossil 

 animal, the learned world is under great obligations to Sir Everard 

 Home, Bart. His persevering researches have ascertained, that this 

 animal, though resembling a crocodile, is more nearly allied to fishes 

 — that it has lived in water, and moved by swimming, but has breathed 



