OF CREATION. 1 71 



in the whales there is a powerful horizontal tail, by 

 the beating of which up and down against the water, 

 the animal is enabled at once to sink or raise itself in 

 the water with extreme rapidity and force ; but the 

 only indication of such a tail in the skeleton consists 

 of this slight flattening in a horizontal direction. 

 From the position and regularity of appearance of the 

 fractured tail of the Ichthyosaurus, and from the shape 

 of the vertebrse, it has been concluded that this animal 

 was provided with a long vertical tail, like that of 

 fishes*; and, as we know that it was amply provided 

 with paddles which would enable it to rise or sink 

 very readily, such a tail would be of the greatest 

 possible utility in producing rapid motion through 

 the water a power possessed to an almost incredible 

 extent by some of the larger and more voracious fishes, 

 such as the shark, and one which in them transcends 

 any locomotive power that man has yet been able 

 to attain, exceeding even that which birds possess in 

 their familiar element the air. It should not be for- 

 gotten that a powerful vertical tail would be almost 

 necessary to the Ichthyosaurus to enable it to turn with 

 precision and rapidity, so that its elongated head 

 should be able to make a sudden and sure seizure 

 of the anticipated prey. 



Having now mentioned successively the most strik- 

 ing peculiarities of each part of the skeleton of this 

 animal, and having even drawn conclusions with 



* After the death of the animal the vertebral column would very soon 

 tend to fall asunder, owing to the absence of connecting processes, and the 

 deep interspaces filled with fluid that existed between each pair of verte- 

 brae. The mere weight of a vertical tail falling on one side would thus 

 drag with it a portion of the bony series, and produce the dislocation so 

 often observed. 



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