CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF THE
I C H T H Y O S A U R I .
Dispei aed amongst the writings of many an author of ancient time, wc liave handed down to us
singular notices of bones and skeletons, found in “ the bowels of the earth,’’ which were referred to that
hypottietic era, when giants of huge dimension, “ wlio warred against high heaven,” liad existence.
Many a passage could we cite, in which is recorded the fact that, a t sucli a time and place, bones of
super-human size were dug out of the ground.
Moderns, to whom tlie sciences, of mineralogy and zoology at least, are infinitely better known,
can hardly picture to their imagination the serio-comic effects which a discovery of ttiis kind must have
produced amongst the natural philosophers who lived in past years. Then the gorgeous fictions of
the fabled Titans, or the sublime, though sadly adulterated, traditions of the thunder-stricken seraphim
and tlieir angel-host, floating across the excited bi-ain of tlie astounded pagan and the too credulous
Christian, bewildered the former and terrified the mind of the other, to a degree which transcends all our
experience and calculation.
There can be no doubt that some of these remains were of tlie pachydcrmata races,—of tlie
megatlieriura and elephant; but others, there is reason to believe, belonged to tlie extinct saurian. That
singular creature with a unicorn horn, impenetrable mail and defensive dermal fringe, which Mr.
Gideon Mantell, has, by the most Hereulcan labours, brouglit to light; or rather, to use his own animated
language,—“ the gigantic megalosaiirus and yet more gigantic iguanodon, to wliom tlie groves of palms
and arborescent ferns would be mere beds of reeds,”* and the prodigious Iclithyosaurus, must have
conveyed to tlie minds of the commonalty of tliose days, wlicn geology and its wonders were undreamt
of, a panic sufficient to create all the monstrous and vulgar fables, whicti tell us of liydras, griffins and
liorrid dragons.
But we proceed to speak of the more recent history of the Ichthyosauri, and lo describe tho slow
degrees by which it has been brought to its present authentic page.
About twenty years ago, a few bones of tliis genus, found on that part of the Dorsetshii'c coast which
Vide '■ Tl.e Geology of tlie Soutli-Eo
Excellent Mnjasty William tlic Fourth."
•f England by Gideon Mantell, F G.S. &o. &c. Dedicated t
lies between Cliarmouth and Lyme, wore addal to llic u’cll-knowii museum of Bullock ; they were fallen
from the middle division of the lias, which had been undermined and cast down by the ciicroacliing sea.
Tl.c attention of Sir Everard Horae being attracted to them, ho soon after published some notices of them,
and of a head, in the Philosophical Ti-insaclioiis. The analogy which existed between certain of these
bones and tliosc of the crocodile, induced Mr. König, tlie curator of mineralogy at tho British Museum,
to believe it saurian ; but the vertebrae and the position of the nasal foramina, indicating an allianc^
with tlie tisli tribe, were characters so contradictory to such supposition, that Llie choice of a name for
this astonisliing novelty was ini'olvcd in much difficulty. At Icngtli, the term Iclithyosaurus, from the
Greek ix9uc. a fish, and Savpoc. lizard, was selected by liim.
Mr. Johnson, of Bristol, who had many years collected in that ncighbourliooci. succeeded in
ascertaining some very valuable particulars regarding tliis remain; but to the Rev. Doctor Buckland
tlie announcement of the sternum, “ coracoids.” scapulas and the clavicles, is duo. These discoveries
he communicated to Sir Everai-d, who, in consequence of them and the suggestions afforded him liy liie
doctor, abandoned many of tlie conclusions to which lie had licforc arrived.
Mr. de la Beche and Colonel Birch, furnished in 181'J, sonic most important specimens fram the
same locality to the persevering Sir Everard, who ascertained to his great surprise, tliat tlie Iclilliyosaurus
luid four extremities.
Sir Everard Home, by the great attention which he paid to this most interesting sulijcct and tlic
demonstrations that ho made, secured to himself the merit, if we may use the term, of having first
acquainted the world with the being of this entombed fossil and long since amiihilated class of reptiles.
Messrs. Conybeare. Buckland, and Dc la Beche, haix done mucli towards the elucidation of this
branch of natural history, to which all tlic cfibrts of Sir Everard Homo were inadequate, by reason of the
insignificant fragments that were submitted to him. These gentlemen, by their assiduous care were soon
able to detail will,, tolerable correctness, a great part of tlio cranium and jaw, the articulation of some of
tlie ribs and the nature of the dentition.
Bi,l allhough manj obligalions are owing to tlie aoalous olTorts of those ju sti, oinineut poisonagcs,
, e t it, must novel- be fo,gotten how much tho oxortions of Mias Anning, of Lyme, cootribnto” to
aaatstthem. This lady, ilcvoting hetsolf to soienco, explored the frewning and precipitous oliirs there,
when the fmioes spring-tide oonspieod with tho howling tempest to overthrew them, nod rescued fren
tho gaping, ocoan, sometimes at tho peril of her life, the few apooimcn. which originated all tho fact and
ingonious theorie. of thoao pcrao„a, whose n.ames must ho ever remembered with sentiments of the
liveliest gratitude..
The eontinental sooons, Imving no mote,vei, could only look on, admiring whilo onr countrymen wore
engaged in these nU-ah.orbi„g investigations, lin t at length. Cuvier, tlr.at cosmopohtan of the intellectual
world, ondoavoorcd, m lii. profonod work enlillcd "Osscmons Fossiles," todednoo, from the evidence which
his loarned contomporarics had brooght logethor and his own (almost infallible) observations, a perfcet
anatomical description of both tho lehthjo.nurus and the Plesies.anrns : he also ventured some
spocelatrons eoncerntng their physiological characters. Bet tho ability even of Cnvior was ¡nsolHciont
to the positive resolution of all the features relating to this paradoxical li.h.liaavd, heeanso of tho imperfect
ekoletohs and writing-s from whenoo he absttaeted his data. Nevertheless, he assisted onr nnatomical
and phystologieal aequaintaneo with this, so long a sphynx-liko riddle, and, until more complete
speeimens could he brought under rovosligation, placed it beyond the reach of any person to say mire
As before stated, tho nemoroes skelolons and fragments that we have collected, grant us conlldonce
to wr.to upon a .object .which tho m.astet-mind of the celohratod geologist jo .t meetioned, and the others,
his coadjutors, have considered o
again. Let us then solicit the attention of our readers
to the description wliich wo hasten to give of tho [chtliyosauri.