na 



THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



CHAP. XL 



THE KEPTILES OF THE OCEAN. 



The Saurians of the Past Seas. — The Anatomical Structure of the Turtles — 

 Their Size — Their Visits to the Shores — The Dangers that await their Young 

 — Turtles on the Brazilian Coast — Prince Maximilian of Neuwied and the 

 Turtle — Conflicts of the Turtles with Wild Dogs and Tigers on the Coast of 

 Java — Turtle-catching on Ascension Island — Tortoise-shell — The Ambly- 

 rhynchus cristatus — Marine Snakes — The Great Sea-Snake. 



Theke was a time when the reptiles were the monarchs 

 of the sea, when the ocean swarmed with gigantic saurians, 

 tyrants of the fishes, combining the swift- 

 ness of the dolphin with the rapacity of the 

 crocodile. Had those monsters of the deep 

 been endowed with human intelligence, 

 they would most likely also, with human 

 arrogance, have boasted of an eternal sway. 

 For where in the whole ocean was the 

 enemy that could cope with them? Did 

 not all beings flee wherever they appeared ? 

 and did not the inexhaustible sea promise 

 them an everlasting supply of food ? 



But in spite of their colossal power, the 

 saurians, like all created beings, have been 

 forced to succumb to time. 



Centuries and centuries passed on, the 

 sea and air gradually changed, the tempe- 

 rature of the elements no longer remained 

 the same, and thus by degrees a new ocean 

 and a new atmosphere were formed, uncon- 

 genial to the nature of those huge reptiles. 

 Thus they have been effaced from the roll 

 of living things, and some petrified re- 

 mains alone bear testimony to their former 

 existence. 

 The most powerful saurians of the present day — the crocodile 



Ichthyosaurus. 



