Catalogue of the organic remains, which, with other geological and some mineral articles, were presented to the New-York Lyceum of Natural History, in August 1826 / by their associate, Samuel L. Mitchill.

Samuel L. Mitchill

Date:: 1826

Credit: Catalogue of the organic remains, which, with other geological and some mineral articles, were presented to the New-York Lyceum of Natural History, in August 1826 / by their associate, Samuel L. Mitchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$16. \ ertebral joint and two teeth of a fossil animal, conjectured to have been a sea serpent, or an astonishing shark; discovered by digging for a plantation-improve¬ ment in the ground adjoining Meherrin River, at Murfrees- borough, North Carolina. They were brought by Captain Seville, who, with Dr. Forster, measured the joints of the vertebral column, as they adjusted them lrom their dispers¬ ed situation where the laborers had thrown them about. By putting the joints ot the back-bone in a row, they mea¬ sured thirty-four feet; and by adding a reasonable allow¬ ance for the head and tail, the creature must have been at least forty teet long. The bones and teeth lay in a stratum of water-worn pebbles and sand, situated about twenty feet above tide-water, and mingled with an abundance of large oyster and cockle-shells. The distance from the ocean at Currituck, the nearest point, is about 70 miles. The bone of the back weighs twelve pounds and a half. The teeth, which are three-sided, with a base of four inches and a half, connected with sides of six inches, weigh sixteen ounces each. It has been supposed by some zoologists and geolo¬ gists, that these uncommon relics indicate a connexion really with the hydrophis, plature, enhydros, laticauda, or ^ome other snake of the ocean, rather than with the squalus, or any other cartilaginous fish. (a) Fossil jaw and teeth; the teeth growing out of the jaw, as in the fossil crocodile of New-Jersey. From Salis¬ bury, N. C. : with a recent specimen of the like, found on the shore of Lake Huron. (See Shelf II., No. 7.) 17. Four enormous oyster-shells, from the rock of Lis¬ bon.—-Captain Riddell. 18. Two molded terebratulites, from Kentucky.—M. Beattie. 19. Very singular fossil echinus; figured and described in Med. Repos, vol. ii. p. 416. Georgia.—D. Meriwether. 20. Elegant favosite, with some of the cells empty, and the others filled. Near the mouth of the river Illinois.— Major Long,$