CONCLUSION. 377 



But not only its respiration, and even its nostrils, 

 are accurately adapted to its subaqueous habits, but 

 the eye itself is so accommodated. It is specially 

 adapted for seeing in the water, and as the seal 

 is often at great depths exposed to unusual pres- 

 sure, a provision for the protection of the eye is 

 made by an appropriate mechanism, consisting of 

 an additional eyelid, placed at the inner angle of 

 the cornea, which at the will of the animal may 

 be drawn over the whole eye. It appears more- 

 over, that even the apertures of the ears may "be 

 closed, a structure existing for this purpose, by 

 which they are rendered impervious, however 

 great the pressure of the surrounding fluid may 

 be. Can any causes be assigned for arrangements 

 so specially adapted to the required conditions 

 other than the design and purpose of that Being 

 who gave to the material world its peculiar laws, 

 without a suitable adaptation to which animal life 

 could not subsist? Can any arrangements in the 

 body of an animal be pointed out more clearly 

 indicative at once of Divine intelligence, power, 

 and goodness ? 



Having thus confined our attention, with few 

 if any exceptions, to illustrations of our subject, 

 derived from the natural history of the sea-shore, 

 and having presented to our readers a variety of 

 examples derived from the chief branches into 

 which that delightful science is divided, we now 



