Further, wc propose to restore tliesc Lost Tribes to
Kingdom of tbeir own. Belonging to ages so infinitely
removed from ours, squared confessedly, to a Creation for
ever past, and formed upon the most latent principles ii
Nature, with no surviving analogue, their numeral i
unknown. The vertebral sub-regna, mammalia, aves
I'eptilia, et pisces, severally reject them. They are tlie
Jews of Creation, alone in the actual World, and peculiar
to the One by-gone.
These unparalleled phenomena demand a Style and
Title of their own. Throughout the Greek, and Latin,
and all the derivative Languages living, float traditional
notices of a supposed Chimtera, under the term Dragon.
Backing this word through the more ancient Semitic
Tongues, we come at last to its root in the most ancient of
all, the blessed Hebrew. There, in the Inspired Annals
of Earth, we read of the Gedolim Taninim, the Great Sea-
Serpents, tlie frightful Dragons of Dead Times, the long-
lost Iclitliyosauri and Plesiosauri, of which we treat.
Rp.gnum,—Gedolim Taninim.—ojun o’Hnj.
Sub-Regnuh,—Ichthyosaurus.—Ixíí't, et
Genus.—Oligostinus.—oMxaj, et o ^ tn . Paucis ossibua
in palmipedibus.
Si-EciES I. Dcntibus formosis, membrana sclerotioa e
frustulis perpaucis, palmipedibus crassis.
T-«!!. I l .e tV I . Fig. 1.
II. Dcntibus aduncis et crassis, membrana
sclerotica multiplici, palmipedibus ievioribiis.
2W .II I.e tV .e tV I . Figs. 2. e t3.
The huge Oligostinus ofoiir former Memoirs, Plate III,
substantiated the genus of our present theme. Until the
discovery of that gigantic Skeleton, the paddles of Ichthyosauri
were remarkable for the number of their joints,
if, indeed, we except the imperfect Ramesof the Strongylostinus
deposited in the Bristol Institution by
Alining. Prophetic I sought his vast quadrupedal oars,
buried countless years under ten thousand tons of shale
and stone, passing the bony keel and ribs out of which
Time had so entirely shattered the Creature, its
ancient Mariner and Occupant. The carcass, there a
wreck, was stranded for ever; the oars which erst circumnavigated
the round World, lay for ever idle, but their
mission was not wholly at an end. Philosophy demanding
other attributes beside that of size, whereby to classify
things, the Paddies of this huge sea-beast instantly presented
themselves. The old misnomer Platyodon, framed
upon an erroneous measure of the dental bones, wliich
are much broader comparatively in-the Communis than
in the present Genus, gave place to features so entirely
new, and it was generally admitted that a better generic
Rule than the paddles offered could not be found.
The length of the Names published in the Memoirs
alluded to, and the heretical doctrine which maintained
them, alone I presume lost the support of that Great Geological
Chief, without whose Countenance no clansman
should liazard a step beyond his ranks.
In presuming to name Professor Buckland, I avail
myself of the opportunity to plead that the objection was
but the Purgatory which every New System in some or
another Sliape is doomed to pass. And it required no
little perseverance and good fortune to test and reduce
these names to the Classic Rule and Example which,
liere, now, I submit for my reader’s approval.
And in reference to Specific distinctions, these Remains,
wrapt in the Grave-clothes of many Ages, come before
us inscribed like the mummies of old Ægyptus, in a language
abandoned evermore. The pre-human, like the
latter Pharaohs, have perpetuated only the letter of their
once dread Persons, in guises of stone. In vain did
Belzoui conjecture after the personality of the gorgeous
Sarcophagus which bears his name; and we as vainly
strive after those physiological distinctions by which
Natural Philosophy lias separated and arranged each in
his place the Orders of living creatures ; so that, foi-saken
of the Common Aids, if ever a Scribe be justified in
treating a Foreign thing originally, tliese flinty Images
of extinct Tongues present the best occasion. The
several Relics which shall chance be found must therefore
necessarily fix the name of the party who sets them
forth : The golden Signet of Phraah, discovered by
’■ ssing to the hand of Mr. Sams, was shown me by
tliat worthy Traveller as “ Salt’s and the Spoils gathered
by Miss Anning, resolving themselves into our four Ge-
i, shall still rejoice in that Name to the last. We may
Map out the broad Outline of these defunct Races, but
the detail must chiefly consist in those accidents of
persons by wliom they are tom from Oblivion, and bequeathed
to the Generations tliat follow. It will be
eventually how absurd it were to Latinize the Names
of those concerned iu the rescue.
We proceed to the Oligostinus in Plate II. The minute
description in our Memoirs of Ichthyosauri and
Plesiosauri, of the sole Oligostinus then extant, Plato III,
renders another anatomical précis here unnecessary, the
build of both skeletons of tlie two plates being as one;
tliey are due also lo tbe same celebrated Lyme, and were
discovered by Miss Anning, to whom tliat celebrity is entirely
due.
But there are many characteristic deviations which
require Notice, beside the valuable fact that wliereas the
latter lies abdominally flat iu the Lias, the first is seen
thrown upon his side. We are thus favoured with a view
of the Sclerotica, and a much more striking Contour of the
head, in which still lurketh the ghost of a grim and
greedy thing. Tlie hyoidcs are also in their actual place,
which was before Conjectural, and the teeth are much
better shown.
Tlie position of the Skeleton in Plate III, conceals the
form of the Eye, which is so perfect in his Kindred Head
of Plate V. The present Oligostinus boasts a no less
complete optical shield; but it is composed of fewer
pieces tlian the former, an indubitable evidence of a different
Species, and one of the numberless reasons for our
republication of some of the plates used in our former work.
This unlooked-for means serves to identify the head in the
British Museum, publislied by Sir Everard Home, in the
Phil. Trans. 1814, which has an eye framed like that
of Plate V, Dr. Buckland remarks in his celebrated
“ Bridgewater Treatise,” that “ in living animais these bony
plates are fixed in the exterior or sclerotic coat of the eye,
and vary its scope of action, by altering the convexity of
the Cornea ; by tlieir retraction tliey press forward the
front of the eye, and convert it into a microscope; in resuming
their position, when the eye is at rest, they convert
it into a telescope.” Perhaps also, as in tbe Chameleon,
the bodily skin of the Taninim was glazed over
part of the sclerotic, leaving an aperture in the centre, directed
with the pupil at pleasure to any point, without
moving the head, which was so carefully braced to tlie
dorsum and chest, that it could liave had but little motion
of its own. By sucb inductions we revive the habits of
Creatures long vanished away, and recolor the ardent
Monster fleeting through the expanse of Seas like lightning
to his distant prey, with a lust queuchable alone in
gore.
The teeth of Plate 111, and V, go far to prove them of
the same species, while tliose of Plate II, as clearly signify
another. The Stri® are much more numerous, sharp, and
defined in the last; and the teeth are as elegant as the
others are tliick, hooked, and clumsy. A number, common
to all the specimens, satisfactorily refers them to one Genus.
Vide Plate VI. Figs. 1, 2, 3.
We have now to record a most curious fact relative to
the Cervix of Ichthyosauri. It was previously known
that the Atlas and Dentatus were joined together by
synarthrosis, and that minor differences of shape distinguished
them from the other vertebr®. But ia 1835 Sir
Phillip Grey Egerton, Bart, procured some specimens
from Miss Anning, with another remarkable feature. In
a “ Paper” read soon after, before the Geological Society,
it is described as a “ sub-vertebral wedge, placed transversely
to the smaller diameter,” underneath the occiput.
Atlas, Axis, and even one or more succeeding bones.
From a skeleton seen by, but alas! impossible for us
to save, in the soft pulverulent lias Clay, wo subsequently
gathered the occipital, the anchylosed Atlas and A.xis with
their wedges, and the other bones, Plate VI. Fig. 4. The
Paddles were also secured, and the black and jetty Jaws
which lay there in the sacrificial clay, declared a Strongylostinus:
We have also obtained a Strongylostinus from
the village of Keinton, in whicli there are three sub-ver-
tebr®. On the other hand. Fig. 5 represents an Atlas
and Axis, belonging to another Genus, the former of
which alone has a face for the wedge. Fig. 6 represents
an Atlas and Axis, and Fig. 7 the cervical apparatus of a
skeleton in my collection copied by Sir Phillip Egerton.
Sir Phillip Egerton therefore conjectured rightly that
“ modifications in the forms and proportions of the cervical
apparatus, would probably be found in animals of different
species.” In how many varieties they were
possessed, it may require.several years to ascertain, the
region in which they exist being almost always obscured
by the overlying Skull, the paddles, and the ribs. It
happens thus in the two species, Plate II, and I I I ; but
an enormous vertebral column of the Oligostinus, found
by Miss Anning in 1835, and deposited in the British
Museum, enables us to add that tliis Genus claims at
least one if not more of these sub-vcrtebral wedges.
The comparative disproportion of the head, and the
fragile spine of Ichthyosauri, demanded a number of contrivances
by way of balance, of which these sub-vertebr®
are one. The conjunction of the Atlas and Axis is followed
up in the next three, and in some instances four, five, six,
and seven vertebr® by flattened sides to prevent laxation;
and the foss® for the ribs are planted at the anterior
margin of the bone itself; so lliat the rib, projecting
witli its muscular braces is thrown in all its gravity upon
the next anterior vertebra. The spinous apophyses, too,
contribute by articular facets locking into one another;
and the Sternal apparatus, placed to receive and enlarged
to boar the shock of any emergency, still further guard
and protect the spine from the chances alluded to.
These sub-vertebral wedges, then, are but one of the
many forethoughts by wliich Nature compensated herself,
although in their degree indispensable for the wellworking
of the machine, amongst the ruios of which they
are found.
Sir Phillip Egerton has the undoubted right of discovery,
although the wedges presented themselves to my
notice first. In page 31 of the Memoirs before mentioned,
the body of the hyoides is described as “ a solid disk,”
which was none but a wedge. The mistake arose from
my finding a like bone exactly between the hyoidal appendices
in the subject of Plate XVIII; in describing
wliich, page 34, it is remarked that “ we were in doubt
of the osseous disc, and the two Styloid processes accompanying
it, until we found them at the posterior third
of the inferior jaws, which situation identifies them as the
hyoides.” The Tympana too, of the same exact size and
shape, only that they are hollow, contributed to the error,
which I am happy to correct through the better fortune
of Sir Phillip, who has taken so much interest in, and
pursued Geology with deserved reputation and success.
Forty-four dorsal vertebr® belong to both skeletons,
altliough they have thicker bodies in that of Plate II.
The vertebr® are sunk in pyritaceous matter, impossible
to detach; indeed the whole Skeleton was so enveloped
in this inconvenient substance, that Miss Anning declared
I should be able to do nothing with it. However, six of
the long days of June from daybreak until dark were
spent by myself and a stone-cutter over the head alone,
during which we expended a Magazine of chisels, wore
out their steel, broke and flung them away. But the
mallet resounded, nor did the fiery sparks follow in vain;
not in vain did we both toil with all our skill, and a Zeal
whicli nothing but success could slake. The teeth, tbe
hyoides, the sclerotica, the magnificent skull appeared;
tho dorsum, the tail, the ribs, the pelvis, tlie paddles, the,
at last grand whole, distinguished by relations significantly
its own. The teeth, the vertebr® in shape, and
no less the humeri, the femora, and the pelvis; the sclerotic
in number, and the ¿out ensemble ali togetlier, while
tlie persistence of style in both specimens, consigns them
to a common Genus, and even enables us to carry inductions
tlirough Sir E. Home’s, and tbe head of our Plate
V, of the most interesting kind.
The fragment of Plate IV, is the only example of
Scapul® belonging to this Race of Giants, save a detached
joint with the Vertebral Column just quoted, in the British
Museum. For this reason the plate is valuable, and I
shall carry it on in the Chronicles of tlie Great Sea-serpents,
until I am enabled to present my indulgent reader
a better sternal illustration, and posterity the anticipated
individual which shall afford it.
Some seven or eight years ago Mr. Bowerbank, of
London, of whom I could say many handsome tilings, but
that I fear to offend his remarkable goodness and modesty
of disposition, intimated to me the discovery of an immense
Iclitliyosaurus at Wliitby, in Yorksliire, parts of
which he had only cursorily seen, but which he imagined
might be an acquisition worthy my Collection. Accordingly
I started by the mail, for York one winter day, and
posted thence to Whitby in an agony of fear lest I should be
too late to secure the fancied prize. I found there a load of
worthless stone, certes with two or three long, staring,
impudent bones of a jaw, a few teetli and vertebr®, and
that was a ll; Had it lain at my feet, in any place whatever,
it would have been a nuisance. By what extraordinary
legerdemain I know not, nor can I guess any of
the parties by whom it was effected, or I should immedi