OF CREATION. 



173 



prolites,* or dung-stones (fig. 63). From the exami- 

 nation of these fossils it is easy to determine the 

 nature of the food of the animals and 'some other 

 points ; and when, as happened occasionally, the ani- 

 mal was killed while the process of p . 63 

 digestion was going on, the stomach 

 and intestines being partly filled with 

 half digested food, and exhibiting the 

 coprolites actually in situ, we can 

 make out with certainty, not only 

 the true nature of the food, but the 

 proportionate size of the stomach, 

 and the length and nature of the 

 intestinal canal. 



Within the cavity of the ribs 

 of an extinct animal, the palaeon- 

 tologist thus finds recorded in in- 

 delible characters some of those hie- 

 roglyphics upon which he founds his history. He 

 learns, that of this animal, manifestly well adapt- 

 ed for the most predaceous habits, the stomach formed 

 a pouch of prodigious size, extending through nearly 

 the entire cavity of the body. It was therefore of a 

 capacity well proportioned to the powerful jaws and 

 teeth which were admirably and beautifully con- 

 trived to supply its wants. With this enormous 

 stomach, there was, however, very little room for a 

 corresponding intestinal canal, and it is interesting to 

 find the shape of the coprolites distinctly showing 

 that this part of the animal economy in the Ichthyo- 

 saurus, as in the most voracious of the existing fishes, 



* KoTrpoc (copras), dung ; \i9oc (lithos), a stone. There are strata, 

 many square miles in extent, almost made np of these fossils. 



COPROLITE. 



