THE OOLITIC SYSTEM. 723 



presenting a striking contrast to the organisation of the ichthyosaurus, which so admirably 

 fitted it for that purpose. May it not therefore be concluded (since, in addition to these 

 circumstances, its respiration must have required frequent access of air) that it swam 

 upon or near the surface, arching back its long neck like the swan, and occasionally 

 darting it down at the fish which happened to float within its reach ? It may perhaps 

 have lurked in shoal water along the coast, concealed among the sea-weed, and raising 

 its nostrils to the surface from a considerable depth, may have found a secure retreat from 

 the assaults of dangerous enemies ; while the length and flexibility of its neck may have 

 compensated for the want of strength in its jaws, and its incapacity for swift motion 

 through the water, by the suddenness and agility of the attack which they enabled it to 

 make on every animal fitted 'for its prey." These remarks are in harmony with the 

 appearance of the animal, which is far less formidable than that of the ichthyosaurus, 

 more adapted to occupy the tranquil waters of sheltered creeks and bays, than to brave 

 the rough breakers of the deep, with which its congener might contend. The first almost 

 entire skeleton of plesiosaurus was obtained in January 1824, from the cliffs of Dorset, 

 by Miss Mary Anning ; and soon afterwards Cuvier demonstrated its existence on the 

 opposite side of the Channel, from an examination of some vertebra and other bones 

 which had been collected at Honfleur, near the mouth of the Seine. Subsequently sixteen 

 species have been established, ranging from the lias to the chalk. From the connected 

 and almost perfect state of the skeletons of ichthyosauri and plesiosauri, as if prepared 

 by an anatomist, these animals appear to have been suddenly destroyed and immediately 

 imbedded ; a circumstance which we have had occasion to remark, from the condition of 

 other organic remains. 



In addition to these animals of the liassic period, marine, fresh-water, and terrestrial 

 tortoises flourished, with crocodilians of extinct species, but approaching in structure to 

 the existing gavial of the Ganges, and the pterodactyle, or wing-fingered reptile, perhaps 

 the most singular and monstrous creature of the ancient world, the type of which appears 

 in no living genus. Naturalists pored over its remains, and were unable to refer it to its 

 true place in the animal kingdom, some pronouncing it a bird, others a reptile, and others a 

 bat, till Cuvier took its skeleton in hand. " Behold," he observes, " an animal, which, in 

 its osteology, from its teeth to the end of its claws, offers all the characters of the saurians ; 

 nor can we doubt that those characters existed in its integuments and soft parts in its 

 scales, its circulation, its generative organs. But it was, at the same time, an animal 

 provided with the means of flight, which, when stationary, could not have made much 

 use of its anterior extremities, even if it did not keep them always folded as birds keep 

 their wings ; which, nevertheless, might use its small anterior fingers to suspend itself 

 from the branches of trees, but when at rest must have been ordinarily on its hind feet, 

 like the birds, again ; and also, like them, must have carried its neck sub-erect, and 

 curved backwards, so that its enormous head should not interrupt its equilibrium." Pte- 

 rodactyles had the head and neck of a bird, the mouth and teeth of a reptile, the wings 

 of a bat, the body and tail of a mammifer. Their eyes were enormously large, so that 

 they could seek their prey in the night. They could not only fly, but Dr. Buckland 

 supposes that, like the existing vampire-bat, they had the power of swimming. 

 " Thus," says he, " like Milton's fiend, all-qualified for all services, and all elements, the 

 Pterodactyle was a fit companion for the kindred reptiles that swarmed in the seas, or 

 crawled on the shores of a turbulent planet : 



" The Fiend, 



O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 

 With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way, 

 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 



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