NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 57 



their whole structure. In Europe, remains of the marine 

 saurians have been found; they may be presumed to 

 have become extinct in that part of the glol^e before this 

 time, their place and destructive ofiice being perhaps 

 supplied by cartilaginous fishes, of which the teeth are 

 found in great quantities. In America, however, remains 

 of the plesiosaurus have been discovered in this part of 

 the stratified series. The reptiles, too, so numerous in 

 the two preceding periods, appear to have now much 

 diminished in numbers. One, entitled the mosiesaurus, 

 seems to have held an intermediate place bet\\een the 

 monitor and iguana, and to have been about twenty- 

 five feet long, with a tail calculated to assist it power- 

 fully in swimming. Crocodiles and turtles existed, and 

 amongst the fishes were some of a saurian character. 



Fuel abounded in the seas of this era. Conferv^e are 

 found enclosed in flints. Of terrestrial vegetation, as 

 of terrestrial animals, the specimens in the European 

 urea are comparatively rare, rendering it probable that 

 there was no dry land near. The remains are chiefly 

 of ferns, conifers, and cycadeae, but in the two former 

 cases we have only cones and leaves. There have been 

 discovered many pieces of wood, containing holes drilled 

 by the teredo, and thus showing that they had been 

 long drifted about in the ocean before being entombed 

 at the bottom. 



The series in America corresponding to this, entitled 

 the ferruginous sand formation, presents fossils generally 

 identical with those of Europe, not excepting the frag- 

 ments of drilled wood ; showing that, in this, as in earlier 

 ages, there was a parity of conditions for animal life 

 over a vast tract of the earth's surface. To European 

 rq)tiles, the American formation adds a gigantic one, 



D 



