14 
THE BOOK OF THE GREAT SEA : DRAGONS. 
The existence near the Condyle of the left jaw of a 
Coralline, which is the only one I have ever seen in the 
lias of Somerset, proves that this Dragon lay naked of 
flesh and of everything else a long time upon the Ocean 
Floor. So that had the sea been but ever so little dis¬ 
turbed after the eruption of the animal gases, the unpro¬ 
tected joints of the remaining carcase must have been 
removed out of the order in which they stand. 
As if also to satisfy us that the sea in which this dragon 
died was waveless, and windless, and tideless, through a 
period of Months; or that it was so deep, that the winds 
and tides, during all that time, failed to probe the bottom, 
the maxillae have been pierced and fed upon by some marine 
ossiphageous insects, whose ravages are palpable to this 
day. 
There are many other parasitic shells heaped upon the 
surrounding marl, also indicative of the denuded situation 
of the skeleton for a considerable time. And yet the 
curious and most rare position of the snout, which rises at 
an angle of 45°, would seem to deny the fact. But the 
combinations of vapor generated within side of the belly, 
and the oscillations of the Sea, are difficult to arrange and 
harmonize with the presentations of many Sauri ; so that 
we have ceased to speculate upon the forces by which and 
in what manner this, or that, or the other dragon was 
broken up, violated, and cast at length away. Review¬ 
ing our whole Collection, and the circumstances in which 
individual parts of it are found upon their stony bier, 
we are at a loss to say whether the Seas they Emperored 
were swept by Simoons and Tornado, or left to lull them¬ 
selves for ever. Perhaps, as the Brahmins tell, the earlier 
conditions of Matter, before they formed so many compli¬ 
cated alliances, indulged in alternate fits of rage, lashing 
the Waves into Mountains, and of repose, realizing the 
slumbers of the dead. 
The Paddles of the Strongylostinus mark him in the most 
decided manner. The first individual, which was ob¬ 
tained by Miss Anning, and deposited in the Bristol Phi¬ 
losophical Institution, although very imperfect, and a still 
less satisfactory fragment in the British Museum, deter¬ 
mined that fact. 
The Plate before us represents a far more complete 
remain than either; and substantiates new Generic pre¬ 
tensions, not only the Paddles, and the egregious snout, 
but the spine and ribs assuming a form entirely distinct 
from that of all the other Taninim. Nor is that all; the 
snout itself thickened comparatively with that of Plate 
XIII, indicates a different Species, while the pelvis and 
the posterior paddles, compared with those of Plates XV, 
and XVI, enhances the fact. As for the beautiful head 
and the snout of Plate XIV, their teeth seem too heavy to 
allow them to belong to the genus Strongylostinus, and 
yet we can refer them to none other with a better grace. 
Traversing the whole Physiological Circle of these 
great Sea-dragons, we cannot avoid speculating upon 
the Sexes, impossible though it now be that they should 
for certain be ascertained. We have measured their 
brain, recovered their eyes, their ears, their respiratory and 
digestive Systems, but this escapes us still. 
We prove the maximum length of the Oligostinus to have 
approached one hundred feet, by a precious relic in the 
British Museum, that it never exceeded twelve feet in the 
other known genera, and but seldom reached even ten ; 
and by the Crocodile and analogous Sauri make a safe 
guess at the age of these Taninim ; but the identification 
of sexes with the once sexual condition nearly elude 
us quite. 
We have been haunted by an idea, generated by so 
subtle a process, and vitalized by inductions so frail, 
that it is impossible to set them all forth, that the Strongy¬ 
lostinus of our theme is none other than the male Oligos¬ 
tinus. Their paddles are designed alike, and the narrow 
radius they subscribe in the former comparatively is 
made up in a great measure by adaptations for an almost 
inconceivable swiftness: the head is sharpened forth, the 
chest flattened, the oars lengthened and thinned out, the 
spine closely locked together, and the hind paddles 
widened to check, when need be, the arrow-flight of the 
monster to which they belong. 
If Ichthyosauri were oviparous, of which there seems 
scarcely a doubt, and if their instincts inclined them to 
the Piscal Races rather than to Reptiles, the impregnation 
of their ova may have been effected after the manner of 
Fishes. An amphibious Creature like this would natu¬ 
rally seek the Shallows in which to spawn, and the 
ovarian vent placed (as we have seen in the Last Chapter) 
so far posteriorly, aided the intention. The huge Oligos¬ 
tinus may, therefore, have dropped her eggs many feet 
above the level to which otherwise she could not come, 
over which the attenuated Strongylostinus easily passed 
in the act of vitalizing them. 
The other co-sized Dragons were fitted to purposes and 
a speed, sufficient for themselves ; and it comes up not 
one half to that bestowed upon their rival the Strongy¬ 
lostinus. Supposing the Oligostinus his she-mate, the 
gift at once explains itself, and clears up entirely the 
Theory upon which our Nomenclature stands. 
None other fact, or even suspicion of one, in the 
whole range of our Sauria-ology, having ever questioned 
this Theory in the least, and so many reasons being 
found in favour of the sexual distinctions argued for, I 
maybe permitted to add, that it gathers strength on every 
side, and approximates to a solution entirely satisfactory 
to our mind. 
SYNOPSIS OP STRONGYLOSTINUS. 
Species I. Strongylostinus. PI. XII. .. Found by the Author. 
II. Head. PL XIII. 
r Two Heads. PI. XIV. . 
Slab. PI. XV. * | ’ 
Fragment. PI. XVI. . 
Fragment. Bristol Institution. Found by Miss Anning. 
^Fragment. Brit. Mus. . . . 
Unknown 
Species 
