SEA-SERPENTS. 
135 
Liege, and presents an almost perpendicular cliff towards the 
Meuse. From the extensive works that have so long been carried 
on, immense quantities of stone have been removed, and the 
centre of the mountain is traversed by galleries, and hollowed by 
vast excavations. Innumerable fossils, such as marine shells, 
corals, crustaceans, bones and teeth of fishes, have been obtained 
from this rock. But St. Peter’s Mount is now chiefly cele- 
brated for the discovery of the bones and teeth of a huge saurian, 
to which Mr. Conybeare has given the name Mosasaurus, on 
account of its connection with the river Meuse. M. Hoffman 
had long been an assiduous collector of fossils from this neigh- 
bourhood, and he had the good fortune to obtain the famous 
specimen on which this genus is founded. 
It was at first considered, by M. Faujas St. Fond, to be a 
crocodile ; but Cuvier and Camper formed a different and better 
conclusion. Perhaps no fossil ever had such a remarkable history 
as this one, as the following account, from M. Faujas St. Fond’s 
work on the fossils of St. Peter’s Mount, ^ will show. 
“ Some workmen, on blasting the rock in one of the caverns of 
the interior of the mountain, perceived, to their astonishment, the 
jaws of a large animal attached to the roof of the chasm. The 
discovery was immediately made known to M. Hoffman, who 
repaired to the spot, and for weeks presided over the arduous 
task of separating the mass of stone containing these remains 
from the surrounding rock. His labours were rewarded by the 
successful extrication of the specimen, which he conveyed in 
triumph to his house. This extraordinary discovery, however, 
soon became the subject of general conversation, and excited so 
much interest, that the canon of the cathedral which stands on 
the mountain resolved to claim the fossil, in right of being lord 
of the manor ; and succeeded, after a long and harassing lawsuit, 
in obtaining this precious relic. It remained for years in his 
^ Histoire Naturelle de la Montagne de St. Fierre. This account is given 
by Dr. Mantell, in his Petrifactions and their Teaching., 1851. 
