180 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



mals, birds, or reptiles ; but when comparative anatomy- 

 became better understood, it was perceived that their re- 

 lations to mammals and birds were only in external forms, 

 while the essential features of their structure were undeni- 

 ably reptilian. Every one has heard of flying dragons, 

 reptiles which, like "flying fishes" and "flying squirrels," 

 are able partially to sustain themselves in the air by 

 means of parachute -like expansions from their bodies. 

 But in the Pterodactyls w T ere true aerial reptiles, as bats 

 are genuine flying mammals (see Fig. 72). The Pterodac- 

 tyl, in the length of its neck and form of its head, resem- 

 bled a bird. The trunk and tail were like those of a quad- 

 ruped. The numerous conical recurved teeth were formed 

 after the Saurian type. The anterior extremities were con- 

 structed after the character of bats, the last finger having 

 been greatly elongated, and adapted for supporting a mem- 

 branous wing, the impression of which is sometimes pre- 

 served in connection with the bones. We know twenty 

 species of this remarkable order, all Old- World marvels 

 save a single pair of long finger-bones found at Phcenix- 

 ville in Pennsylvania. Some were no larger than a snipe, 

 while others were capable of expanding their wings to a 

 breadth of sixteen feet. 



Along the valley of the Connecticut River, from the 

 neighborhood of New Haven to the northern part of Mas- 

 sachusetts, is a brownish-red sandstone, resting mostly in 

 horizontal beds, which ha\ T e been extensively quarried for 

 building purposes. On the banks of the river at Portland, 

 opposite Middletown, are excavations several acres in ex- 

 tent, which have been in progress more than a hundred 

 years. Thousands of ship-loads have been sent down the 

 Connecticut, and built into the aristocratic brown stone 

 fronts of New York. This formation furnished a valua- 

 ble resource to the earliest settlers of Connecticut. Their 



