426 SUDDEN DESTRUCTION OF SAURIANS. [Ch. XXL 



short snout. * Of these lizards one is terrestrial in its habits, and 

 burrows in the ground, swarming everywhere on the land, having a 

 round tail, and a mouth somewhat resembling in form that of a tortoise. 

 The other is aquatic, and has its tail flattened laterally for swimming 

 (see fig. 459). " This marine saurian," says Mr. Darwin, " is extremely 

 common on all the islands throughout the Archipelago. It lives 

 exclusively on the rocky sea-beaches, and I never saw one even ten 

 yards in shore. The usual length is about a yard, but there are some 

 even 4 feet long. It is of a dirty black color, sluggish in its move- 

 ments on the land ; but, when in the water, it swims with perfect ease 

 and quickness by a serpentine movement of its body and flattened 

 tail, the legs during this time being motionless, and closely collapsed 

 on its sides. Their limbs and strong claws are admirably adapted for 

 crawling over the rugged and fissured masses of lava which everywhere 

 form the coast. In such situations, a group of six or seven of these 

 hideous reptiles may oftentimes be seen on the black rocks, a few feet 

 above the surf, basking in the sun, with outstretched legs. Their stom- 

 achs, on being opened, were found to be largely distended with minced 

 sea-weed, of a king which grows at the bottom of the sea at some 

 little distance from the coast. To obtain this the lizards go out to 

 sea in shoals. One of these animals was sunk in salt water from the 

 ship, with a heavy weight attached to it, and on being drawn up again 

 after an hour it was quite active and unharmed. It is not yet known 

 by the inhabitants where this animal lays its eggs ; a singular fact, 

 considering its abundance, and that the natives are well acquainted 

 with the eggs of the terrestrial Amblyrhynchus, which is also her- 

 bivorous." f 



In those deposits now forming by the sediment washed away from 

 the wasting shores of the Galapagos Islands, the remains of saurians, 

 both of the land and sea, as well as of chelonians and fish, may be 

 mingled with marine shells, without any bones of land quadrupeds or 

 batrachian reptiles ; yet even here we should expect the remains of 

 marine mammalia to be imbedded in the strata, for there are seals, 

 besides several kinds of cetacea, on the G-alapagian shores ; and, in this 

 respect, the parallel between the modern fauna, above described, and 

 the ancient one of the lias would not hold good. 



Sudden destruction of Saurians. — It has been remarked, and truly, 

 that many of the fish and saurians, found fossil in the lias, must 

 have met with sudden death and immediate burial; and that the 

 destructive operation, whatever may have been its nature, was often 

 repeated. 



" Sometimes," says Dr. Buckland, " scarcely a single bone or scale 

 has been removed from the place it occupied during life ; which could 

 not have happened had the uncovered bodies of these saurians been 



* 'Ay6Xv^ amblys, blunt ; pvyx°C, rhynchus, snout, 

 f Darwin's Journal, chap. xix. 



