OF CREATION. 165 



no other parts of the head or body, would be brought 

 into the air. There can be no question that a 

 voracious animal like the Ichthyosaur, obliged from 

 time to time to appear above water, and perhaps 

 occasionally to come on shore, required an extraor- 

 dinary provision, enabling it not only to see, but to 

 see distinctly, everything passing around it. It was 

 thus provided with a peculiar apparatus, enabling it to 

 adapt its vision not only to shallow but to deep water, 

 and not only to water but to air. This apparatus 

 effected its purpose by permitting a change of shape 

 of the pupil of the eye, according as circumstances 

 required ; the pupil dilating at great depths, where 

 but little light is transmitted, the shape flattening 

 to allow of distant vision on shore, and the whole 

 eye pushed forwards to enable its owner to sec 

 objects close at hand, thus affording every variety 

 of action to this important organ. The bony 

 scales which enclosed and defended the soft ball of 

 the eye most resemble what is seen in the golden 

 eagle and some other birds of prey, and may be 

 best understood by a comparison with the scales of 

 the artichoke. The structure is characteristic of 

 reptiles rather than of fishes, and amongst reptiles 

 is most remarkably shewn in the lizard tribe. 



The head was connected immediately with the body 

 in the Ichthyosaur, the neck being scarcely percep- 

 tible, as is the case with fishes and whales. The 

 back-bone, which is thus almost directly attached to 

 the skull, is made up of about fifty double concave 

 vertebrae (fig. 60), exceedingly unlike those of any land 

 animal, but nearly resembling the corresponding parts 

 of fishes, though at the same time clearly distinguish- 



