38 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 



that the individuals to which they belonged 

 were deposited in situations more exposed to the 

 action of the atmosphere, so as to decompose the 

 ligaments that kept the skeleton entire. The 

 interment of these animals was therefore various, 

 and evidently regulated by circumstances, so 

 that no satisfactory hypothesis can be built upon 

 it. When the whole globe was submerged, and 

 the waters overtopped the highest mountains, 

 the terrestrial animals would, in numberless 

 cases, float upon the surface, and be deposited 

 in countries far distant from those which they 

 inhabited, while those that were aquatic, being 

 in their native element, must have owed their 

 death to other circumstances ; they must either 

 have been overwhelmed by some sudden force 

 that they could not resist or escape from ; or 

 some cause that we cannot now appreciate may 

 have overtaken and destroyed them. 



With regard to the numbers of these animals, 

 which Mr. Mantell thinks prove their preva- 

 lence, we can only judge of it by those that are 

 found in a fossil state, and these, certainly, are 

 sufficiently numerous ; but surely it cannot be 

 safely affirmed that for one individual found in 

 a fossil state thousands must have been devoured 

 or decomposed. These mighty monsters were 

 more likely to devour than to be devoured ; and 

 even the herbivorous ones, such as the vast 

 Jguanodon, supposed to be sometimes one hun- 



