PRE-HISTORIC SKULLS 
on the side of the head. The skull had an elongated shape: 
thirty-five centimetres was its total length, ten centimetres 
its maximum transverse breadth, and five centimetres at 
the central and widest part of palate. The skull itself, with 
an elongated nasal bone, had a flattened point almost like 
a beak, or more probably like the base of a proboscis. 
The front part of the nose had unfortunately become 
fractured and ended with a flattened segment. A 
marked arch or hump stood prominent upon the nasal 
bone. The temporal arcades were quite developed, with 
prominent supra-orbital bosses. The orbital hollows were 
five and a half centimetres in diameter, whereas the ex¬ 
ternal nares were nine and a half centimetres, the pro¬ 
trusion in front of the nostrils being ten centimetres long. 
The palate, of great length, had a peculiar complex shape, 
like a much-elongated U with another smaller U attached 
to it in the centre of its curve. 
The skull had been worn down by age and weathering. 
Moreover, one side of the upper part of the cranium had 
been entirely destroyed, seemingly by having rested on 
red-hot lava. Many of the vertebras were equally injured. 
Ry even a superficial examination it was easy to recon¬ 
struct the tragedy which had taken place on that hillock 
thousands upon thousands of years ago. 
Searching about, I came upon the skull of another 
huge reptile, and a number of smaller vertebras than those 
belonging to the animal above described. The second 
skull was much flattened, of an elongated shape, very 
broad, the orbital cavity being high up on the skull — 
in fact, not unlike the skull of a great serpent. It 
possessed a long, occipital spur, extraordinarily promi¬ 
nent, and fairly well-defined, zygomatic arches — but not 
quite so prominent as in the skull previously discovered. 
Seen from underneath, there seemed to be a circular cavity 
on the left front, as if it had contained a large fang. This 
skull, too, was also much damaged on one side, where it 
325 
