THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



though transmitting no observed representative of 

 its form through the tertiary era, is yet well rep- 

 resented by the existing Tguanaclw of the Ameri- 

 can tropics. 



It is true the Iguana is not an Ignnnoclon ; but 

 the forms are closely allied. I do not suppose 

 that the so-called sea-serpent is an actual Plesio- 

 saur, but an animal bearing a similar relation to 

 that ancient type. The Iguanodon has degener- 

 ated (I speak of the type, and not of the species) 

 to the small size of the Iguana; the Plesiosaurus 

 may have become developed to the gigantic dimen- 

 sions of the sea-serpent. 



A correspondent of the Zoologist (p. 2395) ad- 

 duces the great authority of Professor A gassiz to 

 the possibility of the present existence of the 

 Enaliosaurian type. That eminent palaeontolo- 

 gist is represented as saying, that "it would 

 be in precise conformity with analogy that 

 such an animal should exist in the American 

 seas, as he had found numerous instances in 

 which the fossil forms of the Old World were 

 represented by living types in the New. He in- 

 stanced the gar-pike of the Western rivers, and 

 said he had found several instances in his re- 

 cent visit to Lake Superior, where he had 

 detected several fishes belonging to genera now 

 extinct in Europe." 



On this point, however, an actual testimony 

 exists, to which I cannot but attach a very great 

 value. Mr. Edward Newman, in the same volume 

 of the Zoologist that I have just cited, (p. 235G,) 

 records what he considers "in all respects the 

 most interesting natural-history fact of the pres- 

 ent century." It is as follows:— 



"Captain the Hon. George Hope states, that, 

 when in H.M.S. Fly, in the Gulf of California, the 

 338 



