132 Notice of Dr. MantelVs Medals of Creation. 



The classification of the Mammalia is — 



I. Cetaceous, or animals of the whale tribes. 



II. Ruminants ; including the giraffe^ deer, oxen, &c. 



III. Pachydermata ; including the Proboscideans, as the ele- 

 phant ; the ordinary Pachyderms, as the rhinoceros ; and the 

 Solipeds, or horses. 



IV". Edentata ; animals without teeth, or with only molar 

 teeth, as the sloth, ant-eater, Megatherium, &c. 

 Y. Rodents or Gnawers ; as the hare, beaver, &c. 



VI. Marsupialia ; animals whose females have an abdominal 

 pouch, as the kangaroo. 



VII. Carnivora ; including the bats, and the carnivorous tribes 

 in general. 



VIII. duADRUMANA ; ttjpes and monkeys. 



Many cetaceans have been discovered in elevated sea-beaches, 

 proving the great changes of level in land and sea, even in very 

 modern geological epochs. On the banks of the Forth the skel- 

 eton of a whale 72 feet long was found imbedded in clay. The 

 Zeuglodon of Dr. Harlan, more than 70 feet long, was found in 



ever be honorably associated with fossil ornithology of the earliest epoch. Still, it is 

 also true, that Dr. Deane, struck with the marked character of the fossil impressions 

 that were presented to his observation, gave the earliest decided impulse towards 

 these researches, by communicating specimens, descriptions, and casts, first to 

 Prof Hitchcock, and afterwards to the writer of these remarks in 1835, when he 

 received a plaster cast of one of the ornithichnite impressions from Dr. Deane, 

 accompanied by a distinct expression of the opinion that they were the genuine 

 impressions of the feet of birds, — an opinion, however, which had been inciden- 

 tally advanced by others at an earlier date. Dr. Deane has also followed up the 

 subject since 1840, by frequent and successful researches in the quarries, and by 

 freely communicating his specimens — first to his two geological friends, and two 

 years since, to Dr. Mantell. Prof Hitchcock had, long before, liberally distribu- 

 ted specimens both at home and abroad. 



In the address delivered before the American Geological Association at Boston, 

 in May, 1842, in adverting to the history of the Ornithichnites of the valley of 

 the Connecticut, as a fact in strict chronological order. Dr. Deane was named first, 

 and Prof. Hitchcock next. Not the remotest idea was entertained of placing the 

 merits of Prof. Hitchcock on this subject in a second position. No one has de- 

 lighted more to honor this distinguished geologist and excellent man, the early 

 pupil and constant friend of the writer, who has on many occasions presented his 

 just claims to high consideration, before both popular and academic audiences, 

 and who was the first to espouse and zealously to defend his views on this subject; 

 nor is it at all believed that he will fail, in the present instance, to occupy the 

 eminent place which he now holds among men of science both at home and 

 abroad. There is room enough in the world for all honest laborers in the great 

 work of enlarging the boundaries of knowledge. 



