106 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



*' The Squalodan and the Zeuglodon evidently resemble each other in 

 the singular conformation of their dental system. But what is the degree 

 of their affinity? To what family do they belong ?^ Or do they form a 

 type completely lost ? and, in the case of an affirmative, what place ought 

 to be assigned to them ? 



" These questions, and many others, wait for solution ; and it will be 

 readily conceived \A hat high value is attached to the discovery of some 

 bones of the Squalodon in the Crag of Antwerp. 



" We are fortunately now in possession of many important portions of 

 the head, the extremity of the upper maxillary, the intermaxillary with 

 its teeth, the posterior part of the palate, many fragments of the inferior 

 maxillary, and other parts of the skeleton. 



"Lastly, to rnake out every possible part of these precious relics, the 

 Government has, at the request of the Academy, commissioned me to 

 visit the principal Museums of Germany and Austria ; and we hope shortly 

 to produce a work containing a reply to these different questions. The 

 museum which most interested us in our last journey is the Vaterlandisches 

 Museum of Lintz, which contains the most precious remains of the Squalo- 

 don that are known. They were deposited there by M. Ehrlich. Thanks 

 to the intelligent and active care of that able naturahst, this Museum con- 

 tains, moreover, other fossils of high interest from the basin of Lintz. 



" We have found tliere two much-broken portions of the cranium of the 

 Squalodon : knowing before the base of the palate, and possessing frag- 

 ments of the jaws with the teeth, and moreover the upper maxillary, it was 

 not difficult for us to reconstruct the head of this aquatic carnivore. The 

 dental system of these animals is equally well known to us now, even to 

 the principal differences the species present between each other, — at most 

 only a doubt remains on the subject of one of the molars. 



" We will say a word on its characters. 



" The cranium is greatly depressed ; the parietals form a part the ce- 

 phalic box, and the frontal bones extend regularly forward and over the 

 side, without being folded back {refoules) by the nasal cavities, as in the 

 true cetacea. The zyomatic arches are large, but incomplete. The teeth 

 are of three kinds, but put on only two different forms ; the incisors and 

 the premolars are like the canines ; six incisors are implanted in the bone of 

 that name, and of these six incisors the two middle ones are directed for- 

 wards in the direction of the axis of the body, not like the sword of the 

 narwhal, but more like the great incisors of the shrewrmouse. The canines 

 are succeeded by five simple premolars, regularly spaced ; then seven true 

 molars with two fangs and a compressed and crenulated crown (chiefi}^ on 

 tlic hinder edge) complete this singular dental system. 



"Vv e have been able to convince ourselves, also, from the tolerably 

 perfect head of the Squalodon at Lintz, that, contrary to our anticipations, 

 the nasal holes are directed from back to front, and differed in this respect 

 from the existing blowing-whales. In the latter we know the cavity of 

 the nostrils rises straight up, or even slightly backwards, and that it is this 

 direction which permits their spouting perpendicularly their columns of 

 water, or rather of vapour, from their nostrils. If we wished to figure the 

 Squalodon as the dolphins are commonly represented, it should be drawn 

 ejecting columns of vapour obliquely forwards, and not upwards. We 

 endeavoured to profit, also, by our sojourn in Germanv, in learning what 

 were the other inhabitants of the sea which nurtured the Squalodon, in 

 order to compare it with our Crag Sea. There is in the same Museum at 

 Lintz a cranium of the highest interest in this comparative study. All the 

 posterior portion is tolerably complete. It approaches closely by its size 



