THE BOOK OF THE GREAT SEA-DRAGONS. 
11 
of its own. By such inductions we revive the habits of 
Creatures long vanished away, and recolor the ardent 
Monster fleeting through the expanse of Seas like light¬ 
ning to his distant prey, with a lust quenchable alone in 
gore. 
The teeth of Plate III, and Y, go far to prove them of 
the same species, while those of Plate II, as clearly signify 
another. The Striae are much more numerous, sharp, and 
defined in the last; and the teeth are as elegant as the 
others are thick, hooked, and clumsy. A number, common 
to all the specimens, satisfactorily refers them to one Genus. 
Vide Plate VI. Figs. 1, 2, 3. 
We have now to record a most curious fact relative to 
the Cervix of Ichthyosauri. It was previously known 
that the Atlas and Dentatus were joined together by 
synarthrosis, and that minor differences of shape distin¬ 
guished them from the other vertebrae. But in 1835 Sir 
Phillip Grey Egerton, Bart, procured some specimens 
from Miss Anning, with another remarkable feature. In 
a “ Paper” read soon after, before the Geological Society, 
it is described as a “ sub-vertebral wedge, placed trans¬ 
versely to the smaller diameter,” underneath the occiput, 
Atlas, Axis, and even one or more succeeding bones. 
From a skeleton seen by, but alas! impossible for us 
to save, in the soft pulverulent lias Clay, we subsequently 
gathered the occipital, the anchylosed Atlas and Axis with 
their wedges, and the other bones, Plate VI. Fig. 4. The 
Paddles were also secured, and the black and jetty Jaws 
which lay there in the sacrificial clay, declared a Strongy- 
lostinus: We have also obtained a Strongylostinus from 
the village of Keinton, in which there are three sub-ver¬ 
tebrae. On the other hand, Fig. 5 represents an Atlas 
and Axis, belonging to another Genus, the former of 
which alone has a face for the wedge. Fig. 6 represents 
an Atlas and Axis, and Fig. 7 the cervical apparatus of a 
skeleton in my collection copied by Sir Phillip Egerton. 
Sir Phillip Egerton therefore conjectured rightly that 
“ modifications in the forms and proportions of the cervical 
apparatus, would probably be found in animals of dif¬ 
ferent species.” In how many varieties they were 
possessed, it may require several years to ascertain, the 
region in which they exist being almost always obscured 
by the overlying Skull, the paddles, and the ribs. It 
happens thus in the two species, Plate II, and III; but 
an enormous vertebral column of the Oligostinus, found 
by Miss Anning in 1835, and deposited in the British 
Museum, enables us to add that this Genus claims at 
least one if not more of these sub-vertebral wedges. 
The comparative disproportion of the head, and the 
fragile spine of Ichthyosauri, demanded a number of con¬ 
trivances by way of balance, of which these sub-vertebrae 
are one. The conjunction of the Atlas and Axis is followed 
up in the next three, and in some instances four, five, six, 
and seven vertebrae by flattened sides to prevent laxation ; 
and the fossae for the ribs are planted at the anterior 
margin of the bone itself; so that the rib, projecting 
with its muscular braces is thrown in all its gravity upon 
the next anterior vertebra. The spinous apophyses, too, 
contribute by articular facets locking into one another; 
and the Sternal apparatus, placed to receive and enlarged 
to bear the shock of any emergency, still further guard 
and protect the spine from the chances alluded to. 
These sub-vertebral wedges, then, are but one of the 
many forethoughts by which Nature compensated her¬ 
self, although in their degree indispensable for the well¬ 
working of the machine, amongst the ruins of which they 
are found. 
Sir Phillip Egerton has the undoubted right of dis¬ 
covery, although the wedges presented themselves to my 
notice first. In page 31 of the Memoirs before mentioned, 
the body of the hyoides is described as “ a solid disk,” 
which was none but a wedge. The mistake arose from 
my finding a like bone exactly between the hyoidal ap¬ 
pendices in the subject of Plate XVIII; in describing 
which, page 34, it is remarked that “ we were in doubt 
of the osseous disc, and the two Styloid processes ac¬ 
companying it, until we found them at the posterior third 
of the inferior jaws, which situation identifies them as the 
hyoides.” The Tympana too, of the same exact size and 
shape, only that they are hollow, contributed to the error, 
which I am happy to correct through the better fortune 
of Sir Phillip, who has taken so much interest in, and 
pursued Geology with deserved reputation and success. 
Forty-four dorsal vertebrae belong to both skeletons, 
although they have thicker bodies in that of Plate II. 
The vertebrae are sunk in pyritaceous matter, impossible 
to detach ; indeed the whole Skeleton was so enveloped 
in this inconvenient substance, that Miss Anning declared 
I should be able to do nothing with it. However, six of 
the long days of June from daybreak until dark were 
spent by myself and a stone-cutter over the head alone, 
during which we expended a Magazine of chisels, wore 
out their steel, broke and flung them away. But the 
mallet resounded, nor did the fiery sparks follow in vain; 
not in vain did we both toil with all our skill, and a Zeal 
which nothing but success could slake. The teeth, the 
hyoides, the sclerotica, the magnificent skull appeared; 
the dorsum, the tail, the ribs, the pelvis, the paddles, the, 
at last grand whole, distinguished by relations signifi¬ 
cantly its own. The teeth, the vertebrae in shape, and 
no less the humeri, the femora, and the pelvis; the scle¬ 
rotic in number, and the tout ensemble all together, while 
the persistence of style in both specimens, consigns them 
to a common Genus, and even enables us to carry induc¬ 
tions through Sir E. Home’s, and the head of our Plate 
V, of the most interesting kind. 
The fragment of Plate IV, is the only example of 
Scapulae belonging to this Race of Giants, save a detached 
joint with the Vertebral Column just quoted, in the British 
Museum. For this reason the plate is valuable, and I 
shall carry it on in the Chronicles of the Great Sea-ser¬ 
pents, until I am enabled to present my indulgent reader 
a better sternal illustration, and posterity the anticipated 
individual which shall afford it. 
Some seven or eight years ago Mr. Bowerbank, of 
London, of whom I could say many handsome things, but 
that I fear to offend his remarkable goodness and modesty 
of disposition, intimated to me the discovery of an im¬ 
mense Ichthyosaurus at Whitby, in Yorkshire, parts of 
which he had only cursorily seen, but which he imagined 
might be an acquisition worthy my Collection. Accor¬ 
dingly I started by the mail, for York one winter day, and 
posted thence to Whitby in an agony of fear lest I should be 
too late to secure the fancied prize. I found there a load of 
worthless stone, certes with two or three long, staring, 
impudent bones of a jaw, a few teeth and vertebrae, and 
that was all: Had it lain at my feet, in any place what¬ 
ever, it would have been a nuisance. By what extraor¬ 
dinary legerdemain I know not, nor can I guess any of 
the parties by whom it was effected, or I should immedi- 
