104 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Captain of Engineers, Coclietaux. All the bones are admirably pre- 
served ; and, if the teeth are detached from the maxillaries, we at least 
have the exact indication of their number, place, and size, by the disposi- 
tion of the alveoles. These two heads belonsj to animals ^^ hich ought evi- 
dently to form a nevr genus, characterized by thirty-two teeth regularly 
spaced in the middle part of the jaws. 
" Finally, among the mammifers which inhabited that sea are also found 
littoral species ; of the seals, some of which attained to grand propor- 
tions, we possess divers fragments of skeletons and of teeth, which leave 
no doubt of the presence of these singular amphibians in the ancient seas 
of these latitudes.* 
'* The Government, seconded by the intelligent zeal of several oificers of 
engineers, has specially charged the Viscomte B. duBas, to see to the con- 
servation of these precious relics ; and we shall have the occasion, we be- 
lieve, to present a tolerably complete history of one of the most singular and 
most interesting of the antediluvian animals which have been discovered. 
We speak next of the Squalodon, and we shall enter into some details of 
the history of this curious group of fossil carniv^ora. 
" Some years ago (1844) the Doctor Albert Koch returned from North 
America, with a rich cargo of fossil bones belonging to strange animals. 
They had been exhibited already in public before their departure for Eu- 
rope. They were successively shown in the principal towns of Germany, 
at Dresden, Berlin, and Leipsic.f 
" This exhibition made a great noise, and one can comprehend why it 
could not be otherwise. An animal more than a hundred feet long, having 
head of an extraordinary form, jaws furnished with teeth such as were not 
known, and which in spite of its immoderate length, bore two small pairs 
of limbs : — it was a gigantic serpent suspended before and behind by a 
pair of fins. 
" Curiosity was raised to the highest point. The friends of the marvel- 
lous found in it ample food for suppositions of every kind, and the savants 
themselves did not know whether they ought to believe their eyes or their 
principles. 
" Numerous papers were produced on the occasion. The American na- 
turalists, in the first place, took this animal for a reptile and gave it the 
name of JBasilosaurus. 
Three or four years after the discovery of these remains, the French 
and English zoologists (Dumeril, Buckland, and Owen) made of them on 
the contrary amammifer ; and Owen did not hesitate, after the examina- 
tion of a fragment, to assign it to the walruses, proposing the name of 
Zeuglodon, which it still retains. 
" In Germany, after the public exhibition of these numerous pieces, 
opinions were divided. 
" In reality the vertebrae of several individuals had been grouped toge- 
* Bulletins de TAcademie, t. xx., No. 6. 
t For the title of the principal publications on these singular animals, see the 
'Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,' 1834; 'Transactions of the Geo- 
logical Society of Pennsylvaaia,' vol. i., Philadelphia, 1835 ; Transact. Geol. Soc. of Lon- 
don, vol. vi. ; ' Comptos Eendus des seances de I'Academie des Sciences,' Oct. 1838 ; Pro- 
ceed. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, 1845 ; Carus, Kesultate Geol. Anat. nnd Zool. 
Unters. iiber das unter dem Namen Hydkarchos von Dr. Koch zuerst nach Europa 
gehrachte grosse fossile Skelett. Dresden, 1847 ; De Blainville, ' Osteographie,' 1840, 
livr. vii. p. 44; Karsten's und Dechen's Archive, 1812; Ann. Sc. Nat. iii. serie, vol. v. 
1846; J. Miiller, 'Ueber die fossile Reste der Zeuglodonten von NordrAmerica,' in-fol. 
Berhn, 1849. 
