524 Petrifactions* MINER 
of ftone attached to the fpecimen, appeared to be lime- 
ilone. Another fpecimen of foffil turtle was found in 
this quarry ; but it was broken in taking it out. 
2. Amphibiolithus ranse; the toad or frog. The head 
of a frog found in a bed of fchift in Swifierland; and an 
entire petrified toad in a fiaty fvvineftone at Oeningen. 
3. Amphibiolithus crocodili; the entire (keleton of a 
crocodile. A fpecimen of this was found near Eifton in 
Gloucelterfhire, in indurated clay ; and others near Drax 
in Aquitain, at the depth of nearly fifty yards under the 
lurface of the earth ; near Suhl in Henneburg, and near 
Boll in Wirtemberg, in a fiaty ftone. 
The large animal, whole foffil remains are found in the 
quarries of Maeftricht, has been defervedly a frequent ob- 
je£l of admiration; and the beautiful appearance which 
its remains poflefs, in confequence of their excellent ftate 
of prefervation, in a matrix which admits of their fair dis¬ 
play, has occafioned every fpecimen of this; foffil to be 
highly valued. The lower jaw of this animal, with fome 
other fpecimens which were prefented by Dr. Peter Cam¬ 
per to the Royal Society, and which are now' in the Rri- 
tifti Mufeum, are among the moil fplendid and interefting 
fofiils in exiftence. 
In 1770, the workmen, having difeovered part of an 
enormous head of an animal imbedded in the lolid ftone, 
in one of the fubterranean paflages of the mountain, gave 
information to M. Hoffman, who, with the molt zealous 
afiiduity, laboured until he had difengaged this aftonifiiing 
foflil from its matrix. But, when this w r as done, the fruits' 
of his labours were wrefted from him by an ecclefiaftic, 
who claimed it as being proprietor of the land over the 
fpot on which it was found. Hoffman defended his right 
in a court of juftice; but the influence of the chapter 
was employed againft him, and he was doomed not only 
to the Ids of this ineftimable foffil, but to the payment of 
heavy law-expences. But in time, juftice, M. Faujas fays, 
though tardy, at laft arrived—the troops of the French 
republic lecured this treafure, which was conveyed to 
the National Mufeum. The length of the cervical, dorfal, 
and lumbar, vertebrae, appears to have been about nine 
feet five inches, and*that of the vertebrae of the tail about 
ten feet: adding to which the length of the head, which 
may be reckoned, conlidering the lofs of the intermaxil¬ 
lary bones, at leaft at four feet, w r e may fafely conclude 
the whole length of the Ikeleton of the animal to have ap¬ 
proached very nearly to twenty-four feet. The head is a 
iixth of the whole length of the animal j a proportion ap¬ 
proaching very near to that of the crocodile. The tail 
muft have been very ftroiig, and its width at its extremity 
muft have rendered it a molt powerful oar, and have en¬ 
abled the animal to have oppoled the moft agitated wa¬ 
ters, as has been well remarked by M. Adrien Camper. 
From this circumftance, and from the other remains which 
accompany thofe of this animal, there can be no doubt of 
its having been an inhabitant of the ocean. Taking all 
thefe circumstances into conlideration, M. Cuvier con¬ 
cludes, and certainly on fair, if not indilputable, grounds, 
that this animal muft have formed an intermediate genus 
between thefe animals of the lizard tribe which have an 
extenfive and forked tongue, which include the monitors 
and the common lizards, and thofe which have a Ihort 
tongue and the palate armed with teeth, which comprile 
the iguanas, marbres, and anolis. This genus, he thinks, 
couid only have been allied to the crocodile by the gene¬ 
ral characters of the lizards. 
M. Guerfarft, profefior of natural liiftory at Rouen, 
tranlmitted to M. Cuvier, for the purpofie of examination, 
a quantity of bones found in the rocks in the environs of 
Hcnfieur, by the abbe Bachelet, and which belonged to 
the cabinet of the central fchool of Rouen. Cuvier has 
difeovered among thele bones thole of a kind of crocodile, 
hitherto unknown, and very different from the foffil ani¬ 
mal of Maeftricht, delcribed above, which iome coniider 
gs a crocodile alio. The jaw-bones of this crocodile of 
Honfleur refeinble in their prolongation thole of the ga- 
A L O G Y. Petrifactions. 
vial, (Lacerta gangetica,) only the teeth are not fo equal, 
and the futures of the bones are differently figured. The 
moft ftriking difference is in the vertebrae; thofe of all 
the known crocodiles have the anterior face of their body 
concave, and the pofterior convex ; in that of Honfteur it 
is precifely the contrary. The apophyfes of thefe verte¬ 
brae are alfo more complex than in the ordinary croco¬ 
diles. This animal appears to be about eighteen feet in 
length ; its bones are petrified, and ftrike fire with fteel. 
Their hollow parts are filled with pyrites. They were 
found in a marly kind of ftone, very hard, of a greyilh 
colour, and from which they could not be difengaged 
without difficulty. 
Remains of crocodiles have alfo been found in other 
parts of France ; as, at Angers and Mans. Some of thefe 
remains feem to Ihow, that at leaft one of the foffil fpecies 
above noticed is alfo found in other parts of France be- 
fides Honfleur and Havre. 
The remains of crocodiles have been alfo found in dif¬ 
ferent parts of England ; but particularly on the coaft of 
Dorietfhire, and of Yorkfhire, near Whitby ; in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Bath ; and near Newark in Nottingham- 
Ihire. Somerletlhire, particularly in the-neighbourhood 
of Bath, the cliffs on the Dorletfhire or fouthern coaft, 
and on the Yorkfhire or northern coaft, are the places in 
this ifland in which the remains of the animals of this 
tribe have been chiefly found. The matrix in which 
they are-found is in general fimilar to that which has been 
already mentioned as containing the foffils of Honfleur 
and Havre—a blue limeftone, becoming almoft black 
when wetted. This defeription exadtly agrees with the 
limeftone of Charmouth, Lime, See. in Dorletfhire, on the 
oppofite coaft to that of France, on which Havre and Hon¬ 
fleur are fituated. At Whitby and Scarborough, where 
thefe foffils are alfo found, the ftone is indeed fomewhat 
darker than in the former places; but no difference is 
obfervable which can be regarded a9 offering any forcible 
oppofition to the probability of the original identity of 
this ftratum, which is obferved on the northern coaft of 
France, on the oppofite fouthern Englifh coaft, and at the 
oppoffte northern extremity of the ifland. Some of thefe 
remains are alfo found in quarries of common coarfe grey 
and whitifh limeftone. Inftances of this kind of matrix, 
for thefe remains, are obfervable in the quarries between 
Bath and Briftol. The Rev. Mr. Hawker, of Woodchefter, 
in Gloucefterfhire, pofieffes, perhaps, one of the handfomefl 
fpecimens of the remains of the crocodile that has been 
found in this ifland. It was found by him in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Bath, and contains great part of the head 
and of the trunk of the animal. 
Of the crocodile or alligator difeovered at Whitby in 
Yorkfhire, we fhall give a more particular account, ac¬ 
companied with a figure, from the Phil. Tranf. vol. jo. 
“ On the 3d of January, 17 58, was difeovered on the 
fea-lhore, about half a mile from Whitby, part of the 
bones of a large animal. The ground they lay in was 
what they call alum-rock; a kind of black Hate, that 
might be taken up in flakes, and was continually wearing 
away by the furf of the fea, and the wafhing of ftones, fluid, 
&c. over it every tide. There were leveral regular ftrafa 
or layers of ftone, of fome yards thicknefs, that, ran along 
the cliff, nearly parallel to the horizon and to each other ; 
lo that this animal could not have been upon the lurface, 
and in a feries of years have funk down to where it was 
found. 
“ The place wdiere thefe bones lay was frequently co¬ 
vered with lea-fapd, to the depth of two feet, and feldonl 
quite bare ; which w'as the occafion of their being rarely 
feen. The iubftance of the bones, with their pcriofteuin, 
on the covered or under fide, in moft parts remain entire, 
and their native colour in fome places in a good meafure 
preferved, and the teeth with their frnooth polifli plainly 
to be dilcovered. Part of the mandible near the extre¬ 
mity was covered with a fhelf of the rock about three 
inches thick; which being cut away and repioved, both 
