74 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Cetacea proper. 



Such remains are by no means of rare occurrence 

 in the Atlantic tertiary. 



In the estuary of the Mississippi river, numerous re- 

 mains of recent Whales are daily discovered, the bones 

 being observed projecting from the mud. The skull, 

 jaws and teeth, of a very large spermaceti whale was 

 thus obtained by the fishermen some few years since, 

 and carried to New Orleans, where they were palmed on 

 the public as the fossil remains of some enormous nonde- 

 script monster. Numerous theories and ingenious spe- 

 culations arose on the subject, and were gazetted from 

 one end of our country to the other. The bones were 

 purchased at considerable expense, and exhibited 

 through the United States. The late Dr. Godman pro- 

 duced a memoir on the occasion, and announced to the 

 American Philosophical Society "the discovery of the 

 remains of the largest 6 saurian fossiP ever heard of," 

 and proposed to designate it by the name " Megisto- 

 saurus," which stands at the present day registered on 

 the minutes of the society. The animal was represented 

 as possessing a long horn several feet in length, pro- 

 jecting from the side of its head. The fame of this 

 wonderful monster found its way even into the Eu- 

 ropean newspapers — when lo ! and behold ! on the first 

 examination of these remains by a naturalist, they were 

 immediately perceived to form a portion of the skeleton 

 of an immense recent spermaceti whale ; the pretended 

 horn being nothing more than one of the intermaxillary 



