OF CREATION. 157 



adapted as to permit the animal to live in a different 

 element. We shall see presently the kind of modifi- 

 cations made use of for this purpose. 



The PLESIOSAURUS*" is the name given to the one 

 of these animals we shall first describe. The name 

 is applied in consequence of its offering in many 

 points strong analogies with the other reptiles ; 

 but these are not sufficiently close to prevent it from 

 exhibiting a form most strange and anomalous, and 

 a structure equally remarkable, and differing consi- 

 derably from that of any other animal. 



Fig. 57 



RESTORED OUTLINE OF PLESIOSAURUS. 



The most striking and manifest peculiarity in the 

 Plesiosaurus consists in the enormous length of the 

 neck, which, in some species, not only exceeds in ab- 

 solute dimensions, but also in its proportion to the size 

 of the animal, that of the longest-necked quadruped 

 or bird. But the perfect mobility of this neck, of 

 which we may form an idea by the number of joints 

 it possesses, was no less remarkable. The giraffe, 

 the longest -necked quadruped we are acquainted with, 

 has only seven vertebrse of the neck, not differing 

 in this respect from the other mammals ; the swan, 

 the longest-necked bird, has twenty- three : but the 



* Tlx<r;av (plesion)^ near or resembling ; o-ixvgo; (sawros), a reptile. 



