CROCODILIA. 37 



the Ganges in the proportion of that part of the skull ; although, in its composition, 

 especially as regards the length and connexions of the nasal bones, it is a true Crocodile. 

 Amongst the existing species of Crocodile the Croc, acutus of the West Indies 

 offers the nearest approach to the Croc, toliapicus, and the Croc. Scldegelii of Borneo 

 most resembles the Croc, champso'ides. But there are well-marked characters in both 

 the skull and the vertebrae which specifically distinguish the two fossil Crocodiles of 

 Sheppy from their above-cited nearest existing congeners. 



Crocodilus Hastings!^;, Owen. Tab. VI, VII, VIII, IX, and T. XII, fig. 2 and 5. 



Reports of the British Association, 1847, p. 65. 



That Crocodiles with proportions of the jaws assigned to the Eocene species noticed 

 in Dr. Buckland's ' Bridgewater Treatise' and especially adapted for grappling with 

 strong mammiferous animals, actually existed at that ancient tertiary epoch, and have left 

 their remains in this island, is shown by the singularly perfect fossil skull figured in 

 the above-cited plates. This specimen was discovered by the Marchioness of Hastings, 

 in the Eocene fresh-water deposits of the Hordle Cliffs in Hampshire, which her 

 Ladyship has described in the volume of ' Reports of the British Association' above 

 cited, (p. 63). 



When the specimen was originally exposed, it was in the same extremely fragile 

 and crumbling state as the beautiful carapaces of Trionyx obtained by Lady Hastings from 

 the same locality, and described and figured in the First Part of this Monograph on the 

 Chelonia ; but thanks to the skill and care with which the noble and accomplished 

 discoverer readjusted and cemented the numerous detached fragments of those 

 specimens, the present unique fossil has been in like manner restored as nearly to its 

 original state as is represented in the plates ; and all the requisite characters for deter- 

 mining the nature and affinities of the species, can now be studied with the same facility 

 as in the skulls of existing Crocodiles. 



If the reader will compare the plates above cited with the section of Cuvier's 

 ' Ossemens Fossiles,' in which the distinctions between the Alligators and Crocodiles 

 are specified,* he will see, (in fig. 1, T. VII) for example, that the fourlh tooth or 

 canine of the lower jaw is not received into a circumscribed cavity of the upper jaw, 



* " Les tetes des caimans, outre le nombre des dents, et surtout la maniere dont la quatrieme d'en bas 

 est recue, outre les differences qui dependent de la circonscription totale, se distinguent de celles des 

 Crocodiles proprement dits, 1°, parce que le frontal anterieur et le lacrymal descendent beaucoup moins sur 

 le museau ; 2°, en ce que les trous perces a la face su per ieure du crane, entrele frontal posterieur, le parietal 

 et le masto'idien, y sont beaucoup plus petits, souvent mSme y disparaissent tout-a-fait, comme dans le 

 caiman a paupieres osseuses ; 3°, en ce que Ton apercoit une partie du vomer dans le palais, entre les 

 intermaxillaires et les maxillaires ; 4°, en ce que les palatins avancent plus dans ce m&me palais, et s'y 

 elargissent en avant ; 5°, en ce que les narines posterieures y sont plus larges que longues, etc." (torn, v, 

 pt. ii, p. 105.) 



