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attachment of muscles and the passage of nutritive vessels. The Iwo processes wliich distinguish its
inferior extremity present concave surfaces for the bases of tho tibia and fibula.
THE LEG.
The leg is composed of tiie fibula (I) and tibia {m). Tlic fibula is a round flat bone, articulatcil
above with the femur, within lo the second or middle bono of the lirst row of the tarsus, and below to tlic
calcis. Us outer iwii-arlicular edge is grooved like tliat of the radius.
The tiljia presents articular edges to the femur above, below to the scaphoid bone, and witliout to
tlic cnljoid. Anteriorly its edge is semi-iunated.
THE POSTERIOR PADDLE.
The posterior paddle is divided into the tarsal, meta-tarsal, and plialangal bones.
T he T arsus.
Sis bones, placed in two vows, compose the tarsus; they are the calcis, cuboid, scaphoid; an
external, a middle, and an internal cuneiform bone.
The calcis (a) articulates witli the fibula above, within to llie cuboid and middle cuneiform bone,
and beneatb to tlic external cuneiform bone.
Tlic cuboid has a wedge-like pj'oeess. which presents articular edges to the fibula and tibia above,
within it articulates to the scaphoid, beneath to the middle cuneiform bone, and without to the calcis.
The scaphoid lias, like tiie pisiform bone. vtternal concave edge; it articulates above and
without to the tibia, the cuboid, and tlie middle cuneiform bones, and below to the internal cuneiform.
The rounded external cuneifonn bone articulates above with the calcis, witiiin to the middle
cuneiform and tliird meta-tarsal.
The middle cuneiform divides by two articular surfaces tlie calcis and external cuneiform Ixmcs
posteriorly, above it joins the culioid, within the scaplioid and internal cuneiform bones, and beneath the
thiixl meta-tarsal.
The interna! cuneiform bone articulates above with the scaplioid, without lo the middle cuneiform
and third meta-tareal bone, and beneath to tlie fourtli meta-tarsal.
T he Meta-tarsus.
The mcta-tarsus contains four bones.
The outermost is by far the smallest; it is round, and at a considerable distance from the others ;
its edges are articular.
Tho second raota-tareal bone is oblong; it articulates above to the external cuneiform, within to the
third meta-tarsal and the first bone of tho third phalangal row, and below to the second phalangal row.
Tlie third is a larger bone than tlic othci-s, articulating above to the external cuneiform, within to the
liase of the third piialangal row, within to the fourth meta-tarsal and fourth phalangal row, and without
to the first tarsal of the second row or external cuneiform bone, and the second (ihalangal row.
The inner meta-tarsal articulates above to the internal cuneiform bone, bolow to the fourth plalangal
row, and without to the tliird meta-tarsal and tliird phalangal row.
T he P halanges.
There are four rows.of phalanges belonging to the foot as also to the hand of the Ichthyosaurus
Cliiroligosliiias. The outer and posterior is removed from the other rows, and the bones which compose
it are much smaller, and liavc high raised rims. Wc enumerate thom.
Thc first and fibular row................................ 7.
The second ....................................................... 8.
The third ......................................................... 8.
The fourtli or tibial.......................................... <3-
As these phalanges apfiroach their end tliey grow small and remove farther one from the other.
ICHTHYOSAURUS CHIROPOLYOSTINUS.
J
The Chiropolyostinus in the seventh pla te -lh e vulgaris of the old nomenclature, nevertheless the
most uncommon of the Ichthyosaurian family—was discovered at Lyme. Five long years did I strive to
obtain if It were even but the smallest portion of the many-bone fish-lizard—for five years my elTorts
avail nothing.
“ Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit,” the exclamation of the pious Trojan, recurred lo me
I knew there was such a species — from the venerable Mr. Johnson wlio possessed himself of the
primary Iclithyosaurian pat I learned tliis—but the hard experience of five years substantiated its
extreme rarity and I could but feel chagrin.
II. Eveiybody remembers the wet wearisome summer of last year:—tleluges of rain—deluge upon
deluge—floods by land, tempest at sea,—to both strange to tell is due the acquisition of tlie all perfect
saurus I treat of and thus it came about.
“ Have ye sid my animal sir,” said the fossilist Jonas Wishcombe of Charmoutli as I called at his
house in August to enquire if he had anything worth buying “ I should like, vor yer honor sir to see
’uii,” My heart leaped to my lips—“ animal! animal! whore!”
“ Can’t be sid to day sir—the tide’s in.”
“ Wliat—nonsense! I must instantly—come, come along.”
“ Can’t see ’un now yer lionor—the tide’s rolling atop o’ ’un fifty feet high.”
“ In marl or stone?”
“ Wiiy in beautiful ma-arl—and—
“ Washed to deatii”—and I threw myself in despair upon a cliaii'.
How often have I rellected upon the veiy-Bedlamdnipctuosity of my passions at that moment;—the
chafTed sea rolling over an Ichthyosauims and remoraelcssly tearing it to a tliousand atoms—a superb
skeleton of untold value triturated to sand by a million pebbles, sucli was the Prometlician idea—torture
of my rebel imagination,
Wishcombe could not pci-siiade me that it was at all possible for a fragile delicate saurian rbmain
to continue unharmed beneath the tremendous breakers which I but too well know were at that moment
wildly careering over the spot where he said it was situated. My vexation liad no limits until I half
persuaded myself that the fellow was making jest of me, but he assured me that all lie said was identical
fact and insisted so much upon tlie visionary palure of my approhensions tJiat I was beguiled to iiope.
Wc determine therefore to be on the beach next day at the liour of low-water, if by hap we might
then snatch a glance at tlie buried saurus. All wo could expect was but a glance as it lay upon tlie
very verge of tho lowest low-water mark and was left dry only when a stiff oif-land breeze assisted tlie
equinoctial tide.
111. The weathcr-cock looked tlie right way as we descended the execrable path by which the good
people of Lyme are content to wade to the sca-shorc between their delightful town and tlic pleasant
village of Charraouth. Far awayto the sunny plains of Normandy and Bretagne sped the thunder
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