70 



know nothing yet respecting the lowest, and nothing, ex- 

 cept presumptively, respecting the highest. It is unphilo- 

 sophical, then, and, indeed, impossible, to say what is the 

 largest animated being ; or, even if its species were accu- 

 rately ascertained, to assign to it any particular limits of 

 dimension. If we consider, too, that the sounding line has 

 frequently reached to a depth of more than a thousand fa- 

 thoms, we shall have "ample space and verge enough" for 

 the exercises necessary to existence and enjoyment ; and 

 the fact that our own bodily constitution is formed, not 

 only to sustain, but to require the pressure of an atmosphere 

 externally, suggests that their visits to the surface might be 

 attended with as few pleasurable sensations as our own to 

 the top of a high mountain. 



" We speak of the elephant as the largest terrestrial 

 living creature, and only smaller than the mammoth of 

 a former geological period; but there are grounds for 

 believing, that in the American Mastodon, there existed 

 a contemporary with man which exceeded both. Passing 

 by man himself, and the traditions and evidences of the 

 human race, having furnished more gigantic specimens 

 than at present — it is certain if we take history as we 

 find it, that the lower animals, especially some of the rep- 

 tiles, attained double the dimensions they now do. The 

 American Boas grow to 20 and 25 feet, and of the Pythons of 

 the old world, some were 10 feet longer. — But Livy speaks 

 of a huge serpentiform monster 820 feet long, which 

 stopped the army of Regulus, until killed by the military 

 engines. Pliny asserts that its skin and jaws remained in 

 the Capital for 150 years afterwards. He also relates that 

 a Python was exhibited in Rome, in the clays of Claudius, 

 50 cubits long. Now, an authentic sea serpent does not 

 probably attain 124 feet." 



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" Our common herring grows, iu tropical seas, to the 



