146 MARINE SAURIANS. 



of mechanical contrivances, which are now distributed 

 among three distinct classes of the animal kingdom. If. 

 for the purpose of producing vertical movements in the 

 water, the sternum of the living Ornithorhynchus assumes 

 forms and combinations that occur but in one other genus 

 of Mammalia, they are the same that co-existed in the 

 sternum of the Ichthyosaurus of the ancient world ; and 

 thus, at points of time, separated from each other by the 

 intervention of incalculable ages, we find an identity of ob- 

 jects effected by instruments so similar, as to leaye no doubt 

 of the unity of the design in which they all originated. 



It was a necessary and peculiar function in the economy 

 of the fish-like Lizard of the ancient seas, to ascend continu- 

 ally to the surface of the M^ater in order to breathe air, and 

 to descend again in search of food ; it is a no less peculiar 

 function in the Duck-billed Ornithorh3aichus of our own 

 days, to perform a series of similar movements in the lakes 

 and rivers of New Holland. 



The introduction to these animals, of such aberrations 

 from the type of their respective orders to accommodate de- 

 viations from the usual habits of these orders, exhibits a 

 union of compensative contrivances, so similar in their rela- 

 tions, so identical in their objects, and so perfect in the adap- 

 tation of each subordinate part, to the harmony and perfec- 

 tion of the whole ; that we cannot but recognise throughout 

 them all, the workings of one and the same eternal principle 

 of Wisdom and Intelhgence, presiding from first to last over 

 the total fabric of Creation* 



