410 THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. [The 10th. | 
the dictum of science has consigned to the doom of pre-Adamic 
extinction, can be suspected without unpardonable heresy to be 
yet among the living, what is more allowable than to surmise that 
persons even of cultivated intellect, but quite inconscious that such 
things had ever existed, may have all honestly striven, more or 
less, to mould their visual perception mto accordance with the 
familiar notion suggested by its general outline; and thus have 
given rise to the confusion objected to in their reports. Be this as 
it may, the discovery of Mr. Darwin of marine saurians, though 
but three or four feet long, about some of the south sea islands, 
contradicts any assumption that animals approaching to it in char- 
acter are no longer extant. To account upon this supposition 
likewise for the hide-and-seek sort of life which those in question 
seem to lead, it may be observed that “the breathing holes of the 
Plesiosaurus differ from those of all other existing reptiles, and 
resemble those of whales”. They are placed “near the highest part 
of the head, where they would enable the animal most readily to 
breathe without exposing anything more than the apertures them- 
selves above the water, corresponding admirably with the marine 
habits of the animal as indicated by the structure of its extrem- 
ities.” (Ansted’s Ancient World, 1847). 
“Without committing myself to anything more than a_beliet 
that the subject is one fairly entitled to be considered an open 
question — open to the unrestrained testimony of future casual 
observers, equally with the criticism of the scientific — I feel 
assured that I cannot better express the opinion which every candid 
peruser of what has been stated must be prepared to arrive at, 
than by using the words of a naturalist who has given his atten- 
tion to these remarks: “The argument appears to me _ perfectly 
satisfactory in favour of at least a suspension of judgment on the 
subject. The question is whether the evidence is such as would 
induce any man to believe, whose mind was prepossessed with no 
notions at all respecting it. Should we credit the testimony, if the 
animal to which it relates were claimed to be a mere variety? I 
think we should.” — | 
I am obliged to make a few notes or observations on this paper. 
The account, namely, of which Mr. Coaswztt speaks in the be- 
ginning of his “Plea”, which arrested his attention, because of 
the particulars having been long since familiar to him by oral 
communication, is that of the party of British officers (n°. 97). — 
That “other statement” is that made by Capt. p ABNouR (n°. 106 a). — 
