338 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



nation himself. Being at Harlem in 1811, he was permitted 

 by M. Van Marum, Director of the Teylerian Museum, to 

 dig into the stone which contains the pretended anthropolite of 

 Scheuchzer, in order to discover the bones which still might 

 lie concealed there. The operation was performed in his pre- 

 sence, and in that of M. Van den Ende, Inspector-general of 

 Studies. These gentlemen placed before them a drawing of 

 the skeleton of the salamander, and it was not without plea- 

 sure, that in proportion as the chisel removed portions of the 

 stone, they beheld bones appear which fully confirmed their 

 anticipations. 



First of all, around the rotund part, on right and left, they 

 found a double range of small teeth, which proved that the 

 rotund appearance was produced by the jaws, and not by the 

 cranium. They then discovered little ribs at the end of each 

 of the transverse apophyses, as in the specimen of Dr. Am- 

 mann, and as in the salamanders. They were assured that 

 these ribs were very short, and could by no means embrace 

 the trunk. They proved that the head was articulated on the 

 first vertebra by a double condyle, as in all batracian reptiles. 



Passing, then, to the anterior extremities, which had only 

 been indicated by a small face of the left shoulder, they dis- 

 covered them both. On each side was found an omoplate, 

 very much dilated at its spinal edge, the contour of which is 

 semicircular. It is altogether like that of the aquatic sala- 

 mander. But it appears that the clavicle and coracoid were 

 last. Near the omoplates are two humeri double the length of 

 the omoplates, a little widened in the top and bottom, with a 

 furrow for the separation of the condyles, absolutely again the 

 same as in the aquatic salamanders. 



At the end of the humerus are some bones of the fore-arm, 

 one half shorter^ and one a little thicker than the other. 

 Finally, come the bones of the toes, incomplete on the right 

 side, but complete, though a little in disorder, on the left. 

 They exhibit exactly the same number of parts as in the 



