186 SPECIES NOT 



(batrachian) in the higher palaeozoic periods, hut 

 not of a very low type; and the reptiles of the 

 penman groups, (at the very top of the palaeo- 

 zoic rocks,) are of a high type. If all this be 

 true, (and I think it is,) it gives but a sturdy 

 grist for the transmutation-mill, and may soon 

 break its cogs. 



We know the complicated organic phenomena 

 of the mesozoic (or oolitic) period. It defies the 

 trunsmutationist at every step. 'Oh! but the 

 document,' says Darwin, 'is a fragment. I will 

 interpolate long periods to account for all the 

 changes/ I say, in reply, if you deny my con- 

 clusion, grounded on positive evidence, I toss 

 back your conclusions, derived from negative 

 evidence the inflated cushion on which you try 

 to bolster up the defects of your hypothesis. The 

 reptile fauna of the mesozoic period is the gramlor 

 and highest that has lived. How came they all 

 to die off, or to degenerate? And how came the 

 dinosaures to disappear from the face of nature, 

 and leave no descendants like themselves, or of 

 a corresponding nobility? Did they tire of the 

 hind, and become whales, casting oiF their hind- 

 legs! And, after they had lasted millions of 

 years as whales, did they tire of the water, and 

 leap out again as pachyderms? I have heard of 

 both hypotheses; and I cannot put them in 

 words without falling into terms of mockery. 

 This I do affirm, that if the transmutation 

 theory were proved true in the actual world, 

 and we could hatch rats out of the eggs of 



