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beginning from the top of earth, clay, marie, and stones, of various 
thicknesses, till it comes to the black slate, or alum rock ; and about 
ten or twelve feet deep, in this rock, this skeleton laid horizontally. 
The probability of this cliff formerly covering this animal, and extend- 
ing much more into the sea, is not in the least doubted of by those 
that know the cliff. The various strata which compose it are daily 
mouldering and falling down ; several thousand tons often tumbling 
down together. Many ancient persons now living remember this very 
cliff extending, in some places, twenty yards further out than it does 
at present, so much has the sea gained of the land.” 
From the figure of this fossil, as given in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions, Plate XXII. and Plate XXX. of the same volume ; and, from 
the description, it appears that the remains and traces were observable 
of a vertebral column, probably, however, not complete at either end, 
nine feet in length. Twelve vertebrae of the tail, and a series of ten 
other vertebrae, which seemed to have formed the loins, sacrum, and 
the commencement of the tail, still remained, and were about three 
inches in length. Those of the neck, of the back, and the middle of 
the tail, had only left their impressions. The head is seen on its lower 
side, showing the occipital condyle on the back part ; the zygomatic 
arches, on each side, terminating, as in the crocodile, in two large 
condyles for the lower jaw, and placed in the same transverse direction 
with the occipital condyle. The skull fills but a narrow space. For- 
wards, the head contracts not suddenly, as in the Gavial, but gradually ; 
and, in M. Cuvier’s opinion, like the fossil head of Altorf; and pro- 
bably, like that of Honfleur, in a pointed muzzle. Large pointed 
teeth are placed alternately in both jaws, about three quarters of 
an inch distant from each other ; and towards the end of the jaws are 
fangs which are larger than the others. 
It is extraordinary, that the celebrated Camper should have con- 
cluded this fossil to have been the remains of an animal of the species 
Balcena, when teeth were observable in both jaws, whilst the baleena 1 
