68 EXPLANATIONS. 



human hand, with the rudiment of a sixth toe at ; 

 the outside. The reptilian families indicated by 

 these foot-marks have not yet been pronounced 

 upon, as far as I am aware ; but from the extreme 

 resemblance of some of them to the vestiges of the 

 labyrinthidon, there can hardly be a doubt that 

 some of the order batrachia are amongst them. If 

 they prove wholly batrachian, as is not unlikely, 

 for we have living families with feet resembling the 

 first group of vestiges, or even if only a portion of 

 them be certified as of this order, where will be 

 the lacertilians, and where the confident counter- 

 assertions of the Edinburgh reviewer? The 

 batrachia he has himself allowed to be a low order 

 of reptiles (p. 51.) They are so considered by all 

 naturalists. Might I not here, then, take my stand 

 upon the fact of animals, the lowest apparently 

 of the reptile order, being now found at the 

 earliest point of time ? I might unquestionably 

 do so with a decided immediate advantage to my 

 hypothesis. It would in a great measure neutra- 

 lise the whole of the objections of the reviewer 

 with regard to the chronology of the reptiles. But 

 I am, whatever he may think of me, willing to read 

 the book of nature aright. I receive the fact as 

 one liable any day to receive a new aspect from 



