OF CREATION. 39 



and fleshy ventral disc, and endowed with this loco- 

 motive apparatus, exhibit senses of proportionate per- 

 fection. Lastly, the CEPHALOPODA,* the most active 

 and highly organized of this large and important di- 

 vision of animated nature, are furnished with both 

 eyes and ears, and armed with formidable means of 

 destroying prey, so that they are thus enabled to 

 become tyrants of the deep, and gradually conduct to 

 the most exalted type of animal existence.^ 



Of these classes of Mollusca, most of them seem 

 to have been introduced at the very commencement 

 of the existence of our globe : but two groups have 

 since then greatly diminished in number and relative 

 importance, although each is still represented in our 

 own seas : these are the Brachiopoda^ and the Ce- 

 phalopoda. The Conchifera and Gasteropoda, or 

 ordinary bivalve and univalve molluscs, seem to 

 have been at first either totally absent or extremely 

 rare ; and, although they afterwards increased, they 

 do not seem to have taken the place of the Brachi- 

 opoda till after the close of the second great epoch ; 

 while the Cirrhopoda and Tunicata may indeed have 

 existed, but have left no remains of their existence 

 in the ancient rocks. 



The Brachiopoda were unquestionably the chief 

 and almost the only representatives in the primseval 

 seas of that large class of animals inhabiting bivalve 

 shells, which were then scantily distributed, but now 

 perform an important part in the great world of 

 waters. They exhibit, however, an internal organi- 



* K0a\7j (cepltale), the head ; TroSa (poda), feet. 

 f* Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom 3 p. 352. 



