Y:
streets, the tabernacles of onr mortal race, and I sorrowed because of tho breaking of tliat I'isioii—I seek
my couch weary and sad,
III. “ Dear me what liast here friend ?” said Jolm Clark—one of the few really gifted and ctcvcr
men that it lias been ray lot to know—who called upon me at Glastonbury tho next day.
'' An Ichthyosaurus.'’
“ So ’tis—dear me—how long hast had this?’’ “ Two hoiii-s."
“ And hast thou developed this tail and that snout in so short a time?”
I cannot pass friend John a better compliment tlian to inform my readers that I laid aside my
eliisels and dressing-gown to talk ivith him over our tea of the extraordinary machine which he was
constructing:—one that makes latin verses—no two alike—for ever, all of them quite grammatical and of
pure sense.
As to tlic Chiroparamekostinus, to that I apply raysolf on the moiTow: a month's hard work relieves
it of its matrix and leaves it the admirable original of the really excellent plate which the reader will find
at No. 17. We hasten to describe it.
THE HEAD.
The head of the Chiroparamekostinus is a mean between the Chirostrongulostinus and the
Cliiropolyostinus. Even the teeth—of such inconstant configuration generally—assume a character so
ixisitivc that they alone would justify the instant recognition of the species itself; they amount to a
liundred and ton in the uppcr-jaw, one hundred in the lower. The two jaws are of the same length.
The number of the sclerotic plates we are unable to ascertain, as a pyritaceous mass adheres so firmly to
them that we have found their extrication impossible.
Plate eighteen, a drawing from a specimen found near Street, is descriptive of the top and bottom of
tlic licad. Discovered in a soft argillaceous seam, we cfTccted its entire deliverance from the lias that
enveloped it. Wc were in doulit of the pretension of the osseous disc and the two styloid processes
accompanying it until we found tlicm at llie posterior third of the inferior jaws—tlicir situation identifies
lliem as tlic hyoides.
Tliosc tivo pieces of heads figured in tlic nineteenth plate, belong to an adult Chiropai-amckostinus
and to a young one. The former, with those fine symmetrical teeth, was discovered at Long Sutton;
the latter, which shows the inferior occipital and sphenoid in sitii, at Street.
THE TRUNK.
Tlic trunk of the Chiroparamekostinus is composed of one hundred and eleven vertebitc, forty of whicli
arc dorsal- Tlie twenty anterior dorsal articulate with tlie ribs by a single socket but they have traces of
a tubercle for tlio inferior part of the liead of tho rib. The other vertebræ have a longitudinal groove for
the insertion of ribs. Tlio first twenty-cigbt caudals have llio clievron or lateral apophyses, and all the
bones of the (ail but five claim tlic spinous apophysis for the medullary chord.
The same number of ribs—thirty-nine—that distinguishes the Chiropolyostinus beiongs to this
species; the intcr-costals—hid beneath the true ribs—wc cannot count.
The pelvic rcgion is neither so strong as that of the Chirostrongulostinus nor so weak as that of the
Chiropolyostinus, wliich latter it resembles in the union of ischium and pubes.
THE EXTREMITIES.
The anterior paddle contains ninety-five bones:—a iiiimcnis, radius and ulna, a carpus of seven
bones and seven phalanges numbering eighty-five.
Tlic posterior paddle claims the femur, tibia and fibula, three bones to tho tarsus and five digital
series containing thirty-three bones.
The twentieth plate, represents a mass of bones jumbled together, with one of the hind paddles
nearly perfect—it was found at Marsh's Elm.
That slab of limestone with a tail and paddle drawn in plate twenty-one came from Walton.
The lioautiful paddle figured in plate twenty-two—found at Street in Mr. Sims' quarry—is singular
as having a foramen in llic centre of each bone of the pat.
CHAPTER IV.
THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY AND HABITAT OF
ICHTHYOSAURI.
“ Ichthyosauri have the snout of a dolphin, llie teeth of a crocodile, head an<l sternum of a lizard
the paddles of cetacca and the vertebræ of fish.” A skeleton constructed of such heterogeneous
charactcra needed no other pretension to uniquity, yet another remains to be added—the bones arc solid,
I quote the words of the illustrious Cuvier as a tc.xt to tliose illustrations whicli a bettei' acquaintance
with Ichthyosauri puts me in possession of. Tlio detail of that wonderful fossil organic remain which
has evaded the research of the most learned men in Europe for a quarter of a century I hasten lo recoi-d.
II. The long dolphin-iikc snout then is composed of the intermaxillary bones with wliicli as to
length tliosc of crocodiles will bear no comparison: this is occasioned by the situation of the nostrils
wliich arc immediately under the orbit in Ichtliyosauri, in crocodiles at the very anterior margin—
muzzle—of the bill. Now this UiiTerence of situation of tlie nose in animals so nearly akin implies a
dilTercQce also of circumstance if not of organization : let us enquire after it.
Crocodiles lie for hours under water witli their snout raised just above it, by which they ensure both
respiration and security. Change the place of their nasal organ—put it where that of Ichthyosauri is
found—and crocodiles, deprived of tlic power of self-concealmont so necessary to carnivorous animals in
our day, «’ould die out in two or three generations. Man—enemy to every cieatnie hut especially lioslile
to the universal reptilian family—lived not to wage warfare witli the pre-Adamite fish-lizard, nor was
tliere a single animal found upon the face of the planet of which it had aught to fear:—necessity for
concealment was not Ihcrcforc imposed upon Ichthyosauri as upon crocodiles; besides Lliii latter prey
much upon land animals—some of tliciii li.avc boon seen to seize even a tiger and there can he no doubt
that many less formidable beasts arc victim to their excessive cunning:—as to a (iilTcrence of structure,
there is no question but that Iclithyosami were lower in the scale of organization than crocodiles—
their fisli-likc body, so ill suited for land prove this—we have right tlion to say that tlieii- circulatory apparatus
was less complicated—that they had nearer approximation with tho risli-tribc—and consequently
that they had less frequent occasion tlian crocodiles for coming to the surface of the water to brcatlic.
III. The teeth of Ichthyosauri resemble those of crocodiles in shape and power of reproduction;
they differ from them in number, situation and mode of regeneration. Those of the former are
sliarp or obtuse superiorly and arc often refurnished; so those of the latter:—but Iclithyosami have but
the promise of alveoli—a slight indentation in the maxillaries for the root of the tooth, in this they agree
witli lizards,—nor do their teeth follow at such distances as those of crocodiles, neither is the old-tooth
done with until tho bodily apparition of its successor, cxtoriially, compels its exit.
IV. Tho sharpness of the snout, the immense length of the intci-maxillaries and the situation of
the nostril; tlic attenuated form and posterior determination of tlic jugal Iwncs—wliicli impart so
antipodal a character to tlic eye of Tclithyosauii when compared with that of tlic crocodile; the