in.] THE STONES IN THE WALL. 77 



there must have been something there for him to eat ; 

 and I dare say that he was about as happy and about 

 as intellectual as the toad is now. Remember always 

 that there is nothing alive now exactly like him, or, 

 indeed, like any animal found in these sandstones. 

 The whole animal world of this planet has changed 

 entirely more than once since the Labyrinthodon 

 waddled over the Cheshire flats. A lizard, for in- 

 stance, which has been found in the Keuper, had a 

 skull like a bird's, and no teeth a type which is now 

 quite extinct. But there is a more remarkable animal 

 of which I must say a few words, and one which to 

 scientific men is most interesting and significant. 



Both near Warwick, and near Elgin in Scotland, in 

 Central India, and in South Africa, fossil remains are 

 found of a family of lizards utterly unlike anything 

 now living save one, and that one is crawling about, 

 plentifully I believe of all places in the world in 

 New Zealand. How it got there ; how so strange a 

 type of creature should have died out over the rest of 

 the world, and yet have lasted on in that remote island 

 for long ages, ever since the days of the New Red 

 sandstone, is one of those questions quite awful 

 questions I consider them with which I will not 

 puzzle my readers. I only mention it to show them 

 what serious questions the scientific man has to face, 

 and to answer, if he can. Only the next time they go 

 to the Zoological Gardens in London, let them go 

 to the reptile-house, and ask the very clever and 

 courteous attendant to show them the Sphenodons, or 

 Hatterias, as he will probably call them and then 

 look, I hope with kindly interest, at the oldest Conser- 

 vatives they ever saw, or are like to see ; gentlemen of 



