SEA-SERPENTS. 
145 
every fossil-hunter will appreciate. We, in England, 
who visit clay pits, stone quarries, railway cuttings, etc., 
during a morning or an afternoon walk, and return 
home at our leisure with a few small specimens in our 
pockets, or in a bag at our back, can hardly realise how 
arduous must be the work of finding, digging out, and 
transporting for such long distances the remains of 
the monsters of Kansas and other parts of North 
America. 
The following extracts have been selected from 
Professor Cope’s report, with a view to illustrating 
the nature of the explorations undertaken. ‘‘The 
circumstances attending the discovery of one of these 
will always be a pleasant recollection to the writer. A 
part of the face, with teeth, was observed projecting 
from the side of a bluff by a companion in exploration. 
Lieutenant James H. Whitten, United States Army, and 
we at once proceeded to follow up the indication with 
knives and picks. Soon the lower jaws were uncovered, 
with their glistening teeth, and then the vertebrae and 
ribs. Our delight was at its height when the bones of 
the pelvis and part of the hind limb were laid bare, 
for they had never been seen before in the species, 
and scarcely in the order. While lying on the bottom 
of the Cretaceous sea, the carcase had been dragged 
hither and thither by the sharks and other rapacious 
animals, and the parts of the skeleton were displaced 
and gathered into a small area. The massive tail 
stretched away into the bluff, and, after much laborious 
excavation, we left a portion of it to more persevering 
explorers.” 
“ The discovery of a related species, Platecarpus 
coryphaeus (Cope), was made by the writer under 
circumstances of difficulty peculiar to the plains. 
L 
Fig. 41. — Skeleton of Clidastes cineriarum ; length 40 feet. (After Cope.) 
