186 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



whether it constitutes a distinct species in mineralogy, I will 

 not at present venture to assert. When an additional supply 

 of this substance shall be furnished us for examination, and 

 the means of comparing it with some genuine specimens of 

 the above mentioned species shall occur, it will be very easy 

 to decide upon this point. Charles U. Shepard. 



Yale College, March 4th, 1828. 



3. Note, from R. Harlan, M. D. on the Examination of 

 the large bones disinterred at the mouth of the Mississippi 

 River, and exhibited in the city of Baltimore, January 22rf, 

 1 828. — These bones have excited much curiosity in this coun- 

 try, and have even been noticed in some European publica- 

 tions : they have been referred, by different individuals, to the 

 fossil remains of some extinct animals, and it has been pro- 

 posed to construct upon them a new fossil genus to be desig- 

 nated "Megistosaurus." (Greatest of all lizards.) 



In a verbal communication, which I had occasion to make 

 to the Academy of Natural Sciences, some months since, 

 before I had an opportunity of examining these remnants, 

 I offered it as my opinion, (judging from the descriptions 

 which I had received concerning this subject, from persons 

 unacquainted with natural history,) that they were the re- 

 mains of some large Cetaceous animal. 



On a late visit to Baltimore, I enjoyed the opportunity of 

 a particular examination of these specimens, and was grati- 

 fied to learn, that the opinions which I had previously formed 

 were correct. 



On the first view, it was very easy to perceive that the 

 bones were not fossil, but that they were portions of the 

 skeleton of the recent spermaceti whale, " Physeter macro- 

 cephalus.' 1 '' Indeed the situation, or geological relations of 

 these bones would preclude the possibility of their being 

 fossil. 



The remains of three different individuals were distin- 

 guishable, and the following parts were noticed.— The 

 largest portion consists of the superior maxillary bone of the 

 left side — the total length of which, measured in the direc- 

 tion of its curvature exteriorly, is seventeen feet three inches, 

 the greatest breadth thirteen inches ; there are belonging to 

 the same animal seven dorsal vertebrae, six lumbar, and five 

 caudal, with two ribs, all in a perfect state of preservation, 



The os humeri, radius and ulna, have belonged to another 



