THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



neck, while it vastly exceeded it in dimensions. 

 What if the existing form should be essentially a 

 Plesiosaur, with the colossal magnitude of a 

 Pliosaur? 



There seems to be no real structural difficulty in 

 such a supposition except the "mane,'' or waving 

 appendage, which has so frequently been described 

 by those who profess to have seen the modern 

 animal. This, however, is a difficulty of igno- 

 rance, rather than of contradiction. We do not 

 know that the smooth integument of the Iwi;i- 

 liosHUTB was destitute of any such appendage, and 

 I do not think there is any insuperable improba- 

 bility in the case. The nearest analogy that I can 

 suggest, however, is that of the ChlamydosHur, a 

 large terrestrial lizard of Australia, whose length- 

 ened neck is furnished with a very curious plaited 

 frill of thin membrane, extending like wings 

 or fins to a considerable distance from the ani- 

 mal.* 



Two strong objections, however, stand in the 

 way of our acceptance of the present existence of 

 Enaliosnnrin, and these are forcibly presented by 

 Professor Owen. They are,— 1. The hypothetical 

 improbability of such forms having been trans- 

 mitted from the era of the secondary strata to the 

 present time; and, 2. The entire absence of any 

 parts of the carcases or unfossilised skeletons of 

 such animals in museums. 



My ignorance of the details of palaeontology 

 makes me feel very diffident in attempting to 

 touch the former point, especially when so great 

 an authority has pronounced an opinion; still I 



* It was not till after this paragraph was written that I 

 noticed the very close similarity of the fins with which Hans 

 Egede has adorned his figure cf the sea-serpent (copied in the 

 Illustrated London News, Oct. 28, 1848), to the frill of the 

 Chlamydosaurus. 



336 



