SEA-SERPENT OF THE MEUSE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13907, 7 November 1919, Page 3

SEA-SERPENT OF THE MEUSE.

(By F. Chapman.) In tiieir marauding march through neutral and belligerent countries, tlie Germans proved themselves no respecters of ancient, monuments, whether of mediaeval art or architecture, by their destruction of the famous' Cloth Hall of Ypres, and bombardment of Rheims Cathedral. As a contrast to modern Teutonic ku]cur, the story is worth recounting how the army of the French Revolutionists in the Reign of Terror paid respect even to so exceptional an object as a fossil sea-snake.

At the time of its discovery, this fossil was quite unique. It was found in one of the oldest freestone quarries in Western Europe, at St. Peter's Mount, near Maestricht. The hill is a mile south of the town, and extends towards Liege for about nine miles. It forms a headland between the Meuse land flip ,)aar, the scai-p-faee presenting | a steep bank to the Meuse. . The rocks of this headland, i'rom base to top, consist of white chalk, with layers of Hint, nodules, hard, gritty chalk, and calcareous freestone, with beds of fawncolored sand full of fossils. Layers of flints ' occur throughout these beds, i From this fine section of limestone., measuring 500 ft in thickness, a great quantity of freestone has been removed, and the hill is ramified with cttverns and galleries. Amongst the fossils found in the freestone are shells, corals, crabs, teeth of fishes, and wood bored by the shipworm. But the most remarkable find of all was the skeleton |of the gigantic marine, reptile, named Mosasaurus, literally '"'Meuse lizard," from its occurrence on the Meuse.

Faujas St. Fond, in his "'Histoire Naturelle de la. Montague do St. Pierre,'' tells us how in 1770 M. Hoffmann, who was making up a collection of fossils was fortunate enough to discover the specimen, unique at that time, which has made the locality so interesting. Some workmen, whilst blasting in one. of the caverns of the interior of the hill, saw to their amazement the jaws of an enormous animal attached to the roof. Their discovery was communicated to Hotrhijgnu. who went to the spot, and for some time watched the difficult task of separating the block of stone containing these remains. The specimen was eventually extricated and conveyed in triumph to the house. Unfortunately the canon of the cathedral, which stands on the hill, claimed the fossil in right of being the- lord of the manor, and succeeded, by a lawsuit, in obtaining this valuable relic. It remained in his possession for years. Hoffmann died without regaining his treasure, or receiving compensation. When the French revolution broke out, the armies of the Republic advanced to the gates of Maestricht. They bombarded the town, but obedient to the wish of the Committee of savants who accompanied the French troops, -*. the artillery was not allowed to fire on that part of the. city in which the fossil was known to be kept. In the meantime the canon, shrewdly guessing why such favor was shown to his residence, hid the specimen in a secret vault; but when the city was taken, the French authorities compelled him to bring out his ill-gotten prize, which was immediately sent to the Jardins des Plantes at Paris, where it still forms one of the most striking objects in that wonderful collection. Nearly everyone has discussed the sea-serpent, yet probably not manyHave heard of this particular species, which lived somewhere about 15 million years ago. This strange and huge reptile* of the chalk period belongs to the great group of the lizards and snakes. The Maestricht- saurian was about 36ft long. It had a slender body, .a flatpointed head," rather long neck, and a. pair of powerful pad'dles in the front of the body: the tail was long and flat, like that of an eel, whilst the entire vertebra consisted of 130 joints. Its flesh-eating am* predatory habits are shown by the 14 pairs of trenchant teeth in the upper jaws, and nearly as many in the lower. Remains of this giant sea-serpent are widely disturbed in the Northern Hemisphere, being found in Holland, Belgium, Northern Germany, and the United States, whilst, related forms of these "python-shaped reptiles" lived in

Now Zealand seas in Cretaceous times. I Its reign seems to have been short, in | spite of its wide geographical range, lor it is only known from the upper Cretaceous or white chalk era. We cannot with certainty say that Mosasaurus was one of the last developments in the evolution of the terrihle marine reptiles, which ravaged the Continental seas of the mcsozoic period, on account of its well-developed teeth, and there may yet be found remains of later stages in the rocks. Tts slender ouild and lithe body made it appear a true sea-serpent, except' lor the paddleiimbs: and the fater discoveries in: Kansas, in which one species seems to have attained the enormous length of "sft to 80ft. prove once again that truth is strange] - than fiction! t