PLESIOSAUKUS. 165 



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 sur- 

 face ; arching back its long neck like the swan, and oc- 

 casionally darting it down at the fish which happened to 

 float within its I'each. It may perhaps have lurked in shoal 

 water along the coast, concealed among the sea-weed, and 

 raising its nostrils to a level with the surface from a con- 

 siderable depth, may have found a secure retreat from the 

 assaults of dangerous enemies ; while the length and flexi- 

 bility 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, which came within its reach." — Geol. Trans, n. 

 s. vol. i. part ii. p. 388. 



We began our account of the Plesiosaurus with quoting 

 the high authority of Cuvicr, for considering it as one of 

 the most anomalous and monstrous productions of the an- 

 cient systems of creation ; we have seen in proceeding 

 through our examination of its details, that these apparent 

 anomalies consist only in the diversified arrangement, and 

 varied proportion, of parts fundamentally the same as those 

 that occur in the most perfectly formed creatures of the 

 present world. 



Pursuing the analogies of construction, that connect the 

 existing inhabitants of the earth with those extinct genera 

 and species which preceded the creation of our race, we 

 find an unbroken chain of affinities pervading the entire 

 series of organized beings and connecting all past and 

 present forms of animal existence by close and harmonious 

 ties. Even our own bodies, and some of their most im- 

 portant organs, are brought into close and direct comparison 

 with those of reptiles, which, at first sight, appear the most 

 monstrous productions of creation; and in the very hand 

 and fingers with which we write their history, we recog- 



