260 THE HISTORY OF CREATION, 
It is probable that the order of Rapacious animals (Car- 
naria) developed out of a long since extinct branch of 
Insectivora, at the peginning of the Eocene period. It 
is a natural group, very rich in forms, kut still of very 
uniform organization. The Rapacious animals are some- 
times also called Girdle-placentals (Zonoplacentals), although 
the Pseudo-hoofed animals (Chelophora), in the same way, 
also deserve this designation. But as the latter, in other 
respects, are more closely allied to the Rodentia than to 
. Carnaria, we have already discussed them in connection 
with the former. Animals of prey are divided into two, 
externally very different, but internally very closely related, 
sub-orders, namely, Land animals of prey and Marine animals 
of prey. The Land animals of prey (Carnivora) comprise 
bears, dogs, cats, etc., whose pedigree can be approximately 
guessed at by means of many extinct intermediate forms. 
The Marine animals of prey, or Seals (Pinnipedia), com- 
prise sea bears, sea dogs, sea lions, and walruses. Although 
marine animals of prey appear externally very unlike land 
animals of prey, yet by their internal structure, their jaw 
and their peculiar girdle-shaped placenta, they are very 
nearly akin to them, and have evidently originated out 
of a branch of them, probably out of a kind of weasel 
(Mustelina).’ Even at the present day the fish otters 
(Lutra), and still more so the sea otters (Enhydris), present 
a direct form of transition to Seals, and clearly show how 
the bodies of land Carnivora are transformed into the shape 
of a Seal, by adaptation to an aquatic life, and how the 
steering fins of marine rapacious animals have arisen out 
of the legs of the former. The latter consequently stand 
in the same relation to the former as do the Whales to 
