Prof. Owen — New Zealand Plesiosaurs. 51 



Mr. Hood returned in safety to England about two months after 

 ray reception of his last letter. He informed rao that a vessel which 

 left Christchurch, with a quantity of the Phormium tenax on board, 

 had perished through spontaneous combustion of the cargo, and that 

 the crew liad been picked up after much suffering in the boats. The 

 "Matoaka" had left with a similar ladhig, before tidings of the 

 catastrophe had reached Cliristchurch, and as nothing has been 

 heard of that vessel, now some months overdue, it is feared that she 

 has also perished. 



Some fossils from the locality at Waipara, explored by Mr. Hood, 

 and from another locality, of the Nelson Province, have fortunate- 

 ly been preserved in the Colonial Museum at Wellington, New 

 Zealand ; and I have been favoured by receiving from Dr. Hector, 

 F.E.S., the experienced Government Geologist of that Province, 

 outline drawings of some of these fossils, of the natural size. From 

 these drawings I have selected subjects which most unequivocally 

 represent a species of Sauropterygian Eej)tile. They ai'e repre- 

 sented, reduced, in Plate III. 



Figs. 1-3 are of a cervical vertebra. It is broad and flat on the 

 under surface of the centrum ; the sides, also, of which, between 

 the terminal articular surface, are more flattened than usual, and 

 converge toward the neural surface, giving somewhat of a triangular 

 figure to the vertical transverse section of that part. The pleura- 

 pophyses (pi.) come off from the lower part of the sides, and are 

 confluent therewith, like transverse processes. The characteristic 

 pair of venous foramina open upon the middle of the under surface, 

 fig. 3. This vertebra most resembles one from, the bone-bed 

 of Aust-Cliff, near Bristol, described in my "Report on British 

 Fossil Reptiles," 1839, p. 78. and referred, with a note of interroga- 

 tion, to th© Plesiosaurus trigonus of Cuvier. The articular surface of 

 the centrum, fig. 1, is moderately concave, with a transversely 

 oblong depression in the centre, and the margin rounded off. The 

 neural arch is anchylosed to the centrum. The neural canal, fig. 1, 

 is contracted, as usual, in cold-blooded air-breathers, and shows the 

 ordinary proportion of that in Plesiosaurus. The pleurapophyses 

 (pi.) are short and thick; the fore and aft diameter of their base 

 equals two-fifths of that of the entire centrum : they are somewhat 

 inclined downward. A distance of twice their vertical basal 

 diameter intervenes between them and the anchylosed base of the 

 neurapophysis, (n) figs. 1, 2. 



This vertebra gives the following dimensions :. — 



In.^ Lines. 



Length of centrum 2 1 



Breadth of articular end of ditto , 2 2 



Height of do. do., at the middle 1 t 



The New Zealand specimen shows an exceptional form among the 

 extensive series of modified plesiosaurian cervical vertebras already 

 defined or recognized. Moreover, it is that form which, hitherto, 

 from British deposits, has not been met with associated with other 

 parts of the frame, yielding the characters of proportionate length of 



