150 THE ICHTHYOSAURUS, 
fossil hunting, discovered some bones projecting from a cliff: 
she got some workmen to clear away the surroundings and dig 
out the block in which they were buried, when the first known 
Ichthyosaurus lay before human eyes “a monster some thirty 
feet long, with jaws some feet in length.” This was at Lyme 
Regis in Dorsetshire, a locality now famous as the ‘‘ sepulchres 
of the ancient dragons,” though they have been discovered in 
various parts of England, the lias formation forming a surface 
band reaching from Lyme Regis in a N.W. direction into York- 
shire. Of course, as you know, all representations are ideal ones 
as no specimen has been found perfect, yet they are no doubt 
very near the actual truth. You may be tempted then to ask how 
is it possible that we can represent thus a creature which disap- 
peared from the earth many thousands of years since? I will try 
to show you. It is by the aid of comparative anatomy, a science 
which has made wonderful strides of late years, and without 
which many of our greatest discoveries could not have been made. 
There is such an intimate connection between the different organs 
of the body and the habits of the animal, that if you know one 
you can tell the other; and further than this, one particular 
organ or arrangement of organs, requires another particular 
organ or arrangement, and is never found without it, so that if 
you get hold of but even one or two bones you many mentally 
construct the skeleton and afterwards write a description of the 
appearance and habits of the creature, no further divergent from 
the truth than many a description of foreign animals now to be 
read in books. I may mention as a case in point that several 
years ago one or two bones were seut from New Zealand to this 
country by a naturalist who could not refer them to any known 
animal. Professor Owen, however, our greatest authority in such 
matters, could say positively that no such animal was known, yet 
he described what kind of creature it would be when found, and 
urged them to hunt both for bones and living specimens. The 
search was successful though difficult, and the curious creature 
known as the Apteryz, the bird without a vestige of wings and 
covered with feathors more like hair, is now to be seen alive in 
