REPTILES. 421 



gold and artificial stones." In other places it was held in the same detes- 

 tation as to-day. It now rarely occurs north of Manfalert, but it formerly 

 descended the Nile, nearly to the sea. 



The gavials live in the East Indies, and as they are protected by the 

 various native religions, they fairly swarm in localities where the Euro- 

 peans are few, and in such places they really are very dangerous to human 

 life. The snout of the gavials is even narrower than that of the crocodiles, 

 but the tip is swollen into a sort of a ball. 



We must say a few words about the fossil reptiles, so wonderful are 

 some of them. In some the most striking features were the enormous 

 size. The reptiles of the present time are small in comparison ; our largest 

 pythons and alligators shrink before these monsters. America seemed to be 

 the especial home of these gigantic forms ; and in the rocks of our western 

 territories, Professors Cope and Marsh have exhumed the remains of 

 almost numberless specimens. Away back in geological time, when the 

 deposits of chalk were being laid down, these regions were a shallow 

 inland sea ; and in the waters these animals flourished. Some were whale- 

 like in shape, and had a length of eighty feet, while others had a back- 

 bone six feet in diameter. Some swam freely through the water, while 

 others walked about in water thirty or forty feet in depth, and were still 

 able to capture animals swimming on the surface. 



Others were more like snakes, with very long neck and tail, and the 

 legs like flippers ; while others must have been terrestrial and able to 

 browse upon the tops of the trees thirty or forty feet in height. Strangest 

 of all were the bat-like forms, the Pterodactyls, some of which could 

 spread their wings to a width of twenty feet, while others had the body 

 terminated with an oar-like tail. About all that we know of any of these 

 is from their bones ; but these give us evidence of animals utterly unlike 

 anything existing to-day. Restorations are often made of these forms ; 

 but in all these there must of necessity be a certain amount of guess- 

 work. 



