OF CREATION. 



207 



with scaly armour, and which was also a true reptile 

 in the important peculiarities of the structure of the 

 heart and circulating organs. But it was at the 

 same time provided with the means of flying ; its 

 wings, when not in use, might be folded back like 

 those of a bird ; and it could suspend itself, by claws 

 attached to the fingers, from the branches of a tree. 

 Its usual position, when not in motion or suspended, 

 would probably be standing on its hind feet, with its 

 neck set up and curved backwards, lest the weight of 

 the enormous head should disturb the equilibrium of 

 the animal. 



The remains of quadrupeds found associated with 

 these anomalous and long extinct forms of reptiles, 

 are hardly sufficiently perfect to enable us to deter- 

 mine except very generally the kind of animals to 

 which they belonged, but they do not seem to pre- 

 sent any wide deviations from the existing type. 

 They appear to be marsupial in character, and to 

 resemble most the tribe of opossums,* a fact no doubt 

 sufficiently curious, but hardly affording evidence 

 enough on which to base any speculations concern- 

 ing the nature or extent of the land, or the possi- 



* The use of the pouch, the characteristic peculiarity of structure in 

 marsupials, may possibly be connected with the condition of the land 

 which animals so provided usually inhabit. There is reason to suppose, for 

 instance, that a great part of Australia, where such animals are now chiefly 

 found, is remarkably exposed to drought, and that there are in that 

 country large tracts deprived of rivers and lakes, and in which compara- 

 tively few springs of water exist in the interior. The animals being 

 thus obliged to carry their young for long distances to obtain the necessa- 

 ries of life food and water need the singular provision accorded them 

 for this purpose. This view is not inconsistent with the presence of 

 gigantic reptiles inhabiting the land near the sea-coast, although no such 

 reptiles exist at present in Australia. 



