named Behemoth in the Scriptures. 317 



net, through the meshes he will pierce with his snout" And 

 the iguanodon, or behemoth, if armed with a horn upon the 

 snout, would, no doubt, with it readily tear any net in pieces, 

 even the iron ones used, as Diodorus says, to capture cro- 

 codiles. That the horn of the iguanodon is here alluded to, 

 under the description of the weapon of behemoth, I cannot 

 doubt. 



The remainder of the account of the behemoth in Job is 

 descriptive of his places of feeding and of rest ; and of his size 

 and power, which enabled him to retain his situation even 

 against the most powerful streams. Have we not here, also, 

 particulars corresponding with the account of the iguanodon, 

 both in habitat and size ? " He sheltereth himself under the 

 shady trees ; in the coverts of the trees and ooze. The branches 

 tremble as they cover him ; the willows of the stream while 

 they hang over him. Behold the eddy may press, he will 

 not hurry himself: he is secure though the river rise against 

 his mouth." Does not all this well correspond with the haunts 

 and description of the iguanodon quoted from Griffith's Cuvier, 

 where he states that the iguanodon inhabited the mouths of 

 freshwater rivers ? 



The 17th verse of the 40th chapter of Job seems to me 

 descriptive of the place of the behemoth's, or iguanodon's, 

 feeding, and also of the confidence with which the harmless 

 nature of his food inspired other animals, as contrasted with 

 the terror they felt at the sight of the crocodile and mega- 

 losaurus. " Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where 

 all the beasts of the field do play." Thus in every particular 

 do the iguanodon and behemoth tally in description. May 

 we not, therefore, fairly presume that they were the same 

 animal ? 



Geologists tell us that the crust of the earth is composed 

 of a regular succession of strata, lying one over another, like 

 the coats of an onion; and that each of these (except a few of 

 the lowest of all) is characterised by the remnants of animals 

 or vegetables peculiar to itself: those which are formed in 

 any particular stratum will not be all found, perhaps none of 

 them, in the stratum next above it, and so on. Geologists 

 are enabled, from these animal and vegetable remains, to form 

 a tolerable estimate of the condition of the earth at the suc- 

 cessive periods at which each stratum (however lowly buried 

 now) was the upper stratum of our earth. 



Nearly the last formed (perhaps, in many parts of this 

 country, the last formed) of the rocky strata, prior to the dilu- 

 vium and alluvium which form the soil we cultivate, was the 

 cretaceous or chalk formation, and existent about the same 



