Notice of Dr. MantelVs Medals of Creation. 129 



The most singular fishes that have been discovered were 

 brought to h'ght by Mr. Hugh Miller, in the old red sandstone of 

 Caithness in Scotland ; but to obtain an adequate idea of them, 

 one must study his delightful work, "New Walks in an Old 

 Field," one of the most eloquent, beautiful, and philosophical 

 productions of science, — and its author began his career as a com- 

 mon quarry man. 



Some of the more ancient fishes had teeth like the Saurians, 

 and were occasionally of enormous size. All the species of fossil 

 fishes are extinct ;* but those of the tertiary approximate very 

 nearly to those of our own time. The fishes are excellent geo- 

 logical indices ; having such perfect organs of locomotion, they 

 spread far and wide horizontally, but do not mix vertically — the 

 same species not being common to different strata. 



We have hardly glanced at the fishes, and the Reptiles we 

 can do little more than to mention. Besides the Saurians, there 

 are other reptiles : — the Chelonians, or Tortoises ; the Ophidi- 

 ans, or Serpents ; and the Batrachians, or Frogs. 



In the language of Cuvier, " we revert to a different age of the 

 world — to that epoch when the earth was occupied by cold blood- 

 ed reptiles ; when the sea abounded with Ammonites, Belem- 

 nites, Terebratulee, Encrinites ; and when all these races, now 

 so extremely rare, formed the chief population of the globe." 



The reptiles of the lizard family were denizens of the land, 

 and the sea, and the air ; they were herbivorous and carnivorous, 

 and among them were creatures terrible in their forms, and co- 

 lossal in size, and all of them such as the world now no where 

 presents, for they are all extinct ; although their analogues are 

 found, being of a similar construction and destination. Their 

 epoch was between the coal and the tertiary ; none of the an- 

 cient Saurians survived the latter period. 



The Ichthyosaurus had eyes of great size, and they were so 

 constructed as to answer both for telescopic and for microscopic 

 vision; they could, like turtles, lizards, and many birds, as for 

 example the owl and the eagle, so vary the focus of the eye, as to 

 see objects both near and distant. Sometimes the teeth amount- 

 ed to 200, the vertebrae to 140, and the bones in some of their 

 paddles to nearly 100. The swan has 24 vertebrsB in its neck — 



* Possibly a single exception in Iceland. 

 Vol. xLviii, No. 1.— Oct.-Dec. 1844. 17 



