THE BOOK OF THE GREAT SEA-DRAGONS. 
13 
in which the tail is always found more surely prove that 
it was naturally so prehensile, and possessed of a lateral 
motion peculiarly its own. Of what rudder-like use a 
settled force and a motive power like this were to the 
animal they were given, our navies tell. The more the 
momentum of a vessel agrees with its passivity, the 
better its sum-total weight of ballast and all harmonizes 
with her sailing powers, the more perfect she is esteemed, 
while a perfect command of the helm is indispensable to 
the safety of the ship. 
That Nature which errs only through Ethics, over 
which the Almighty has placed alone His Holy Name, 
doubtless fixed all her antagonistical Forces with the most 
exquisite acumen composing them to the New Law even 
of Evil itself. The far Otaheitan, to whom an abstract 
idea were Greek, has carved an oar, to be seen in the Bri¬ 
tish Museum, after the fashion of that of a Sea Saurus, and 
were our Naval Architects to discover the secret of that 
proportion which is observable throughout the Creatures 
of- the Deep, soon should we skim the waves as swiftly, 
as lightly as the primaeval Taninim ; vast paddles rota¬ 
tory by steam for fins, merchandize for body, the ship 
itself for the steering and ballasting tail, and the wit of 
man, as of God, ruling the whole. 
It has been observed before that the Polyostinus is 
distinguished generally by a bulk swelling at the expense 
of slenderness. The Oligostinus in all his size, might, a 
priori, have been expected to stretch out his limbs to an 
egregious length, wherewith to gather up the waters and 
rule them at his will ; But the Polyostinus retires within 
himself; his head, his back, his members are all sturdy, 
fitted to pounce upon his quarry, rather than to speed it 
from any great distance, and fairly to hunt it down. 
Amongst the Sauri he stands the strong; none had such 
stubborn teeth, none such lusty limbs; he was the bull-dog 
of his fury-kind, black, sullen, and ugly, fierce, gluttonous, 
and decisive, and a Gorgon terror to every hapless 
Creature that caught his glassy eye. 
Sir Everard Home, and Doctor Buckland spent them¬ 
selves over an imperfect Polyostinus, in 1819, which was 
the first Ichthyosaurus to disclose its four paddles; and 
described it in the Philosophical Transactions, with a 
splendid plate. 
I have to express my unfeigned thanks to Professor 
Owen and Mr. Clift, of the Royal College of Surgeons, 
in whose magnificent Gallery this Saurian is deposited, 
for the hospitable manner in which they met my request 
to examine it, as also John Hunter’s other fossil organic 
Remains. 
The invaluable anatomical and physiological Collection 
of that eminent Man, which has absorbed almost the whole 
life of Mr. Clift, to whom the preservation of more than 
half of it is due, is so vast, that it remained for Professor 
Owen to ascertain more particularly the geological speci¬ 
mens with which it was accompanied to the College. 
It cannot but be interesting to our Reader to learn that 
these Remains amount to quite a Collection, of no ordi¬ 
nary kind, enhanced as it is by the Polyostinus above 
mentioned. 
Thus have a triad of the most accomplished Naturalists 
of this or any other Age, stamped a value upon the Col¬ 
lection there of a novel kind. It seems that John Hunter 
was the first of a dynasty of Great men, born to enrich 
this College beyond every other in Europe. Sir Everard 
Home succeeded, to whom Professor Buckland, who now 
reigns, seems while living to have been a second-self. 
Professor Owen will follow up their high example, in¬ 
spired no less by the nobility of those Sciences, in the 
Halls of which he ever breathes, than the impulses of a 
Genius which both Hemispheres have already hailed. 
. Resum6. 
{ Polyostinus. PI. VII.Found by the Author. 
Fragment. PI. IX. 
Jaw. PI. X. 
rSir Everard Home’s. Phil.Trans. . By Miss Anning. 
II. \ Head. PI. VIII. By the Author. 
Uaw. PI. XI. 
CHAPTER IV. 
Genus Strongylostinus. o-TfoyyuKo;, et oa-reov. Rotundis ossibus in palmipedibus. 
Species I. Rostro crassiore. Tab. XII. 
Species II. Rostro prselongo, et tenuissimo. Tab. XIII. 
P LATE XII, furnishes as yet the most perfect illustra¬ 
tion of the Genus heading our present Article. The 
Strongylostinus which it represents was found in a thick 
stratum of marl, about eleven feet from the ground, and 
carelessly torn up by the idle fellow into whose hand it 
fell. Although terribly shattered, fortunately not one 
piece of the matrix actually lost its articulation, so that 
we find it here exactly as Death and Time left it. 
The Specimen is the more interesting inasmuch as a 
part of the dorsum, and nearly the whole of the anterior 
paddles have been swept away by a force which had not 
strength to carry with them the rest of the skeleton. The 
slightest agitation of the incumbent waters might suffice 
for this, as the putrefaction of the lungs and the stomach, 
necessarily preceding that of the less vascular and fluid 
muscles, decomposed the adjacent cartilages, loosened the 
bones, and abandoned them to the mercy of the Sea. The 
more stubborn texture of the head, and caudal extremities, 
and their comparatively contracted size, their distance too 
from the gaseous volcano, which blew up and helped to 
scatter the anterior abdominal framework, successfully 
resisted that catastrophe. 
E 
