FISH-LIZARDS. 83 



usually the case. In the two short and angulated 

 bones, marked r and u, it is more difficult to recognise 

 the representatives of the long-bones of the fore-arm ; 

 but that they really are their representatives is at 

 once shown by their position. Passing over the bones 

 of the wrist, we find that the bones corresponding to 

 those of the fingers, instead of being elongated and 

 limited to three in each of the five fingers, are poly- 

 gonal in contour, and arranged in as many as seven 

 or eight longitudinal rows, while those of each finger 

 (as shown in Fig. 17) are exceedingly numerous. The 

 whole structure forms, in fact, a complete bony pave- 

 ment, which in the living animal must have been 

 perfectly supple, and thus have formed one of the 

 most efficient and powerful swimming organs known 

 in the whole animal kingdom. The paddles of the 

 Whales resemble those of the Fish-Lizards in the great 

 number of bones in each finger, but they differ in that 

 the number of the fingers themselves does not exceed 

 the universal five. 



In the few words that we can devote to the skull of 

 the Fish-Lizard, we may observe that the muzzle was 

 produced into a more or less elongated beak (Figs. 17, 

 22), while the nostrils were placed close to the eye, 

 and the soft parts of the latter were strengthened with 

 a ring of bony plates surrounding the iris and pupil, 

 as is the case in birds. The teeth were large and 

 pointed, and implanted in a deep groove in the jaws. 

 Their pointed crowns at once tell us that the Fish- 

 Lizards were creatures of carnivorous habits, preying 



