named Leviathan in the Scriptures. 311 



panoply, an embossed munition. The one is so compacted 

 with the other, the very air cannot enter between them. Each 

 is inserted into its next. They are riveted, and cannot be 

 sundered." This description, true, in part, of the crocodile, 

 must have been immeasurably more so of the megalosaurus ; 

 and the coincidence only serves to show how similar the 

 animals were in some respects. 



" His snortings are the radiance of light, and his eyes as 

 the glancing of the dawn." The iris of the crocodile's eye 

 is said, in Griffith's translation of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, 

 to have some analogy to that of fishes, in the metallic tints 

 with which it shines ; and also to resemble that of the cat. 

 He also says that crocodiles have a terrific aspect, which 

 principally proceeds from the fierce glances of their eyes : but 

 how much more ferocious would the glances of an immense 

 megalosaurus be ? let me ask ; for it is fair to presume, that, 

 as he so much resembled, yet surpassed, the crocodile in 

 other respects, he would do so, also, in the brightness and 

 fierceness of his eyes. 



The translation proceeds : " Out of his mouth issue flames; 

 flashes of fire bound away." Virgil uses similar figurative 

 expressions concerning a spirited horse, to indicate his ter- 

 rific aspect. — " From his nostrils bursteth fume, as from a 

 seething pot or a cauldron." Dr. Young observes thus: 

 " The crocodile, say the naturalists, lying long under water, 

 and being thus forced to hold his breath, when he emerges, 

 the breath, long repressed, is hot, and bursts out so violently 

 that it resembles fire and smoke." The same would, on a 

 larger scale, occur in the case of the megalosaurus : " His 

 breath kindleth coals. Raging fire goes from his mouth. In 

 his neck dwelleth might, and destruction exulteth before him. 

 The flakes of his flesh are soldered together ; it is firm about 

 him ; it will in no wise go away. His heart is as firm as a 

 stone ; yet it is firm as the nether millstone. At his rising 

 the mighty are afraid ; they are confounded at the tumult of 

 the sea" At the rising of an immense megalosaurus well 

 might the most courageous be afraid, and confounded at the 

 tumult in the waters occurring in the whirlpool his rising 

 would occasion. 



" The sword of his assailant cannot stand ; the spear, the 

 dart, or the harpoon : he regardeth iron as straw," (The iron 

 nets used, as Diodorus says, to catch crocodiles, would be as 

 straw when a megalosaurus encountered them.) " brass as 

 rotten wood. The bolt from the bow cannot make him fly. 

 Sling stones are turned back from him like stubble; like 

 stubble is the battle-axe refracted ; and he laugheth at the 



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