320 An Attempt to ascertain the Animals 



for the residence of crocodiles, although no longer fit for that 

 of iguanodons, megalosauri, and many other animals which 

 were contemporaneous with crocodiles in England. The inter- 

 tropical climates would, however, be fitted for a long period 

 for the residence of iguanodons, and megalosauri, after those 

 animals had ceased to exist in England ; and I think that, in 

 that view of the matter, it may be fair to suppose that a few 

 of the last remnants of the race would be found in the southern 

 latitudes which Job inhabited, after they had ceased to be 

 known in these parts, especially as the more hardy crocodile, 

 their contemporary here, still exists there, although no longer 

 found here. Should the climate of Egypt grow gradually 

 cooler (as some suppose it does), most probably the crocodile 

 itself will at some time cease to inhabit the Nile : certain it is 

 that it is now a rare animal there compared to what it formerly 

 was. [Mr. Bakewell has suggested, in his Introduction to Ge- 

 ology, and in our VII. 246., that " the great American sea 

 serpent," noted as occasionally seen, although not yet identi- 

 fied by men of science, may prove a saurian, of, perhaps, the 

 genus Plesiosaurus : see VII. 246.] 



To sum up, then, I trust I have shown you that there is 

 good ground for supposing that the leviathan of the Scrip- 

 tures is the same animal as the now fossil megalosaurus ; and 

 that the behemoth was identical with the iguanodon. 



[Hull, January, 1835,] 



[Mr. Thompson illustrated his lecture by a drawing which 

 represented the animals, man, the crocodile, and the mega- 

 losaurus delineated to a scale ; also the living iguana enlarged, 

 with the addition of the horn, and drawn to the same scale, 

 so as to be of the proportion of 70 ft. in length, and thus 

 present the greater semblance to the probable appearance of 

 the iguanodon. Man w r as represented 5 ft. 10 in. high, the 

 crocodile 20 ft. long, the megalosaurus of such an enlarge- 

 ment of the crocodile's proportions as to be 70 ft. long, and 

 of consistent height. 



" Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast : they give 

 suck to their young ones." (Lamentations, iv. 3.) The He- 

 brew word, of which the English word " sea-monsters," used 

 in the words quoted, is meant to be a translation, is, we have 

 been told, " tannin or thannin." As the saurians had not a 

 breast, nor gave suck to their young ones, the " thannin," 

 or " sea-monsters," could not be, in this case, saurians. 



To the interesting information on fossil saurians which the 

 preceding communication supplies, we would add a reference 

 to a notice in VI. 75. of a " new species of enormous fossil 

 reptile," which Mr. Mantell had then recently made known. 



