190 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



later period. Twigs of cypresses have been found fossil in 

 its stomach ; and Dr. Mantell possessed a jaw in which the 

 teeth had been worn down by trituration of food to half 

 their original length. 



With peculiar pleasure I turn now to results of the study 

 of American cretaceous reptiles, which are no less brilliant 

 and no less marvelous than those of Mantell and Owen in 

 the Old World. Thanks to the skill of Dr. Leidy and Pro- 

 fessor Cope, both of Philadelphia, the cretaceous beds of 

 New Jersey have been forced to yield up the secrets of 

 their life -history. We now know that while the chalk 

 was accumulating in Europe, the marshes, and jungles, 

 and bayous of the American shores were the scene of as 

 busy and intense a life as swarmed upon the coasts of En- 

 gland, France, or Germany. The Cimoliasaur (Cimolia- 

 saimis magnns, Leidy) and Elasmosaur {JElasmosaurus ori- 

 entalis, Cope) presented the form of huge sea-serpents from 

 twenty-five to forty feet in length. The body was swollen 

 out to dimensions exceeding those of an ox, and was fur- 

 nished with a pair of flippers like the whale. The neck 

 and tail were elongated, and in the latter the tail was flat- 

 tened, and probably used as an oar in sculling. These 

 were carnivorous monsters, and probably made fierce war 

 upon the feeble representatives of the waning dynasty of 

 fishes. The wrecks of the Mosasaur, of another order of 

 reptiles, are strewn along the ancient coast-line from New 

 Jersey to Alabama, w<here, at Selma and Cahawba, I have 

 seen fragments of their ponderous skeletons protruding 

 from the face of the limestone cliffs cut down by the Ala- 

 bama River. The turtles of the period contributed a 

 unique variety to the reptile fauna. Not less than twen- 

 ty-two species have been described from the cretaceous 

 sands of New Jersey. Nine of these were marine " snap- 

 ping turtles." One of the latter (Euclastes platyops, Cope) 



