36 The discoveries of Geology 
Tam against thee Pharaoh, King of Egypt, the great dragon (hath- 
anim hagadol) that lieth in the ‘midst of his rivers,” where the 
Septuagint has sov dpaxovra cov peyov. The figure in this passage is 
evidently borrowed from the crocodile of the Nile, and this circum- 
stance of itself would shew that dragon, in place of whale, would 
be a better translation in Genesis. But (thanin) has a still more 
comprehensive meaning. We find two words formed from it, one of — 
which (Leviathan) is the specific name of the crocodile, as is obvi- 
ous from the descriptions of Job chap. xli. and of Isaiah chap. xxvii. 
1, in which last passage (thanin) is also used,—and the other (Pethan) 
is the specific name of some serpent, as is obvious from the refer- 
ence to its poison, in Job xx. 14, and Deuteronomy xxxii. 33. In 
this last passage we also find poison ascribed to the thanin;' “ Their 
wine is the poison of dragons (thaninim), and the cruel venom of asps 
(pethanim) ;” so that here it is evidently meant to express a serpent, 
as in Ezekiel and Isaiah, as we have seen above, it — one of 
the lacertine species. 
These references, which we could hing greatly emmtoniied were it 
necessary, are sufficient to prove that (than) or (thanin) was a sort of 
generic, or rather classical, name, to designate the serpent and lizard 
tribes; and that instead of great whales in the 21st verse, the trans- 
lators should have given the words great reptiles.* 
The result of our criticism is, that the work of the fifth epoch, 
as described in Genesis, was the creation of the inhabitants of the 
waters; of the birds, winged insects, and reptiles 5 3 in fact, of the 
oviparous races named in detail, with some omissions which are to 
be accounted for by the uniformly condensed and brief form of the 
whole narration. 
We proceed to the work of the sixth epoch, which concluded 
with the creation of man 
In the English indoalatitin we find creeping things again innluiflad 
among the beings which were created during this period, and these 
English terms, in their most commonly received acceptation, imply 
some of the insect or reptile tribes. We have seen that the Sep- 
tuagint countenances the interpretation creeping things; but the 
* Their is only one passage in which (than) means, with certainty, any thing 
else than a serpent or reptile, which is Lamentations iv. 3, where probably a seal 
is meant; but the passage is highly poetical, and no authority can be given to it to 
supersede the uniform meaning of the term in all the earlier writers, which we 
have tablished | in the text 
