248 THE STORY OF THE EAfrTH AND MAW. 



graceful, combining some features of the antelope with 

 those of the Tapir (Anoplotherium) ran in herds over 

 the drier ridges, or sometimes timidly approached the 

 treacherous clay, tempted by the saline waters. Other 

 creatures representing the Modern Damans or Conies 

 " feeble folk " which, with the aspect of hares, have 

 the structure of Pachyderms were also present. 

 Creatures of these types constituted the great majority 

 of the animals of the Parisian Eocene lakes ; but there 

 were also Carnivorous animals allied to the hyaena, 

 the wolf, and the opossum, which prowled along the 

 shores by night to seize unwary wanderers, or to prey 

 on the carcases of animals mired in the sloughs. 

 Wading birds equal in size to the ostrich also stalked 

 through the shallows, and tortoises crawled over the 

 mud. 



Lyell mentions the discovery of some bones of one 

 of these gigantic birds (Gastornis) in a bed of the 

 rolled chalk flints which form the base of the Paris 

 series, resting immediately on the chalk; one of the 

 first inhabitants perhaps to people some island of 

 chalk just emerged from the waters, and under which 

 lay the bones of the mighty Dinosaurs, and in which 

 were embedded those of sea birds that had ranged, 

 like the albatross and petrel, over the wide expanse 

 of the Cretaceous ocean. These waders, however, like 

 the tortoises and crocodiles and small marsupial 

 mammals, form a link of connection in type at least 

 between the Eocene and the Cretaceous, for bones of 

 wading birds have been found in the Greensands 



