162 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



The Plesiosaurus was highly carnivorous in its ha- 

 bits, and no doubt fed indiscriminately on whatever 

 came within reach, whether living or dead. Its 

 powers of locomotion in the water were great, and 

 its strength must have been formidable; but it had 

 an enemy in the Ichthyosaurus* from which there 

 was probably little chance of escape. We have 

 good reason to suppose that it could move about on 

 shore, and it probably did so with greater facility 

 than the seal or walrus ; but it is not likely that it 

 resorted frequently to the land, since the sea appears 

 to have been its more congenial habitat. 



The animal just mentioned as the fierce and pow- 

 erful enemy of the Plesiosaurus, which was itself a 

 voracious reptile attaining a length of from ten to 

 thirty feet, belongs unquestionably to a most re- 

 markable and anomalous genus, but departed, per- 

 haps, much less considerably than the other from 

 the present external form of marine animals. With 

 the exception of a larger head, and paddles some- 

 what more developed, it was not very unlike the 

 porpoise in its appearance, but it was a true reptile, 

 adapted for constant residence in the sea, and in 

 that respect claims comparison as being the ancient 

 analogue and representative of the great existing 

 tribe of marine mammalia, of which the whale is 

 perhaps the best known type, 



The head of the Ichthyosaurus was in all cases 

 large compared with the general proportions of the 

 body, and in general form it resembled that of the 

 dolphin, the chief part of its magnitude consisting of 

 a greatly elongated snout, like that of some of the 



(icldliys], a fish ; faults (saurus), a reptile. 



