GEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 261 



covered. Drawings of most of these bones from 

 Maestricht are given in the work of M. Faujas on 

 the mountain of Saint Peter. 



Next to those reptiles which may be called in 

 the present existing genera, or which are at least 

 very little removed from them, are : 1st. The re- 

 mains of those singular animals called in England 

 proteo-saurus, or ichtyo-saurus, which appear 

 to have filled the same place amongst the reptiles, 

 which the cetaceae occupy amongst the mam- 

 malia ; that is to say, they were essentially swim- 

 ming reptiles, and formed only to inhabit the 

 waters, as their extremities are flattened like the 

 hands or fins of the dolphins. The greater num- 

 ber of these fragments were procured at M. Bul- 

 lock's sale in London, and some were given to 

 the Museum by professor Buckland. Lastly, in 

 two small glazed boxes are plaster models of the 

 flying reptile called by M. Cuvier pterodactylus , 

 which has as yet only been found in the quarries 

 of Aichstaedt, and which holds amongst reptiles 

 the same rank as bats amongst mammalia. They 

 were sent from Munich by M. Soemmering. 



Such is the rapid view of the collection of 

 fossil remains of vertebrated animals. It is easy 

 to imagine, that a collection of this kind may 

 receive unlimited augmentations, and that the 

 space it now occupies will be soon insufficient ; 



