3i6 Dwellers of the Sea and Shore 



propel the animal; swimming was accomplished by the 

 aid of its four large paddles wliich grew out from the 

 trunk, and were covered witli integument, forming 

 simple undivided Hippers, as in the turtle. Although 

 nothing is known of its general habits, speculation has 

 not been wanting; and it has been presumed that it 

 swam on or near the surface, occasionally snapping up 

 any prey which happened to come within the compass 

 of its long snakelike neck; or that it may have lurked 

 in the shallow water along the shore, concealed among 

 the seaweeds, raising its nostrils to the surface from 

 time to time for breath. Both the ichthyosaurus and 

 the plesiosaurus and all their brethren that took to the 

 sea had perished from the earth before the British 

 Isles were raised from their oceanic crib. 



From the time of the first trilobites, the Cambrian 

 age, to the era that was marked by the formation of 

 those isles, that is, the age of chalk, the lapse is so over- 

 whelmingly vast that there is absolutely no comparative 

 measure by which it can properly be appreciated. The 

 mind fails utterly in any attempt to conceive in their 

 relative light the stupendous number of years that it 

 must have taken to bring about what appear to be some 

 of the most transient conditions in the history of the 

 earth. Some day man may be able to determine quite 

 accurately, in round numbers at least, the age of organic 

 life on this globe; but, when all is said, the figures will 

 be meaningless to the imagination. In truth, there is 

 not anything within the province of language that can 

 adequately convey a conception of that awful span 

 which bridges the dawn of life with the chalk period. 



And how tremendously removed from the present 



