The fossil remains of crocodiles have been collected in the neighborhood
of Honfleur, on the coast of France, and were found in a bed of hard
limestone, of a bluish gray color, which becomes nearly black when wet,
and which is found along the shore on both sides of the mouth of the
Seine, being in some places covered by the sea, and in others, above its
level, even at high water. Remains of crocodiles have also been found in
other parts of France; as at Angers and Mans. Some of these remains seem
to show, that at least one of the fossil species above noticed is also
found in other parts of France besides Honfleur.
The remains of crocodiles have been also found in different parts of
England; but particularly on the coast of Dorsetshire, and of Yorkshire
near Whitby, in the neighborhood of Bath, and near Newark in
Nottinghamshire. Somersetshire, particularly in the neighborhood of
Bath, the cliffs on the Dorsetshire, or southern coast, and on the
Yorkshire, or northern coast, are the places in this island in which the
remains of the animals of this tribe have been chiefly found. The matrix
in which they are found is in general similar to that which has been
already mentioned as containing the fossils of Honfleur, a blue
limestone, becoming almost black when wet. This description exactly
agrees with the limestone of Charmouth, Lime, &c., in Dorsetshire, on
the opposite coast to that of France on which Honfleur is situated. At
Whitby and Scarborough, where these fossils are also found, the stone is
indeed somewhat darker than in the former places; but no difference is
observable which can be regarded as offering any forcible opposition to
the probability of the original identity of this stratum, which is
observed on the northern coast of France, on the opposite southern
English coast, and at the opposite northern extremity of the island.
Some of these remains are also found in quarries of common coarse gray
and whitish limestone. Instances of this kind of matrix, for these
remains, are observable in the quarries between Bath and Bristol. The
Rev. Mr. Hawker, of Woodchester, in Gloucestershire, formerly had in his
possession, perhaps one of the handsomest specimens of the remains of
the crocodile discovered in all England. It was found by him in the
neighborhood of Bath, and contained a great part of the head and of the
trunk of the animal.