286 LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS. 



any other of the great Vertebrate Division. Look at the 

 ponderous Tortoise enclosed in an unyielding box, with an 

 orifice in front and behind just large enough to allow him. 

 to poke out his head and limbs. Look at the grim 

 Crocodile lurking in the river reeds, with his enormous 

 jaws bristling with conical teeth, his body covered with 

 bony shields, and his lashing serrated tail. Look at the 

 Chameleon running on the leafy twig, with his shagreen 

 coat, his great inflated head, his long tongue shot out to 

 capture a distant fly, and his slender tail-tip coiled round 

 the branch to hold fast. And finally, look at the tor- 

 tuous Snake as he lies basking on the sunny bank, in 

 gleaming scales, darting out his forked tongue in play : 

 see how he Iks in twisted coils; and now mark how, foot- 

 less and limbless as he is, he glides awav on alarm, leaving 

 only an undulating trail in the dust where he passed ! 



Surely all these various creatures are not formed on the 

 same model ! Surely there can be no community of struc- 

 ture here which can bind together into one group forms so 

 remotely diverse 1 Yes, diverse as they are, they possess 

 characters in common, which more than outweigh their 

 differences, and the whole are united into a chain of many 

 links, which, by a beautiful gradation, conduct us from 

 one to the other. 



Many of these animals are more or less noxious; and 

 some of them are terribly fatal to other creatures, and to 

 man himself: hence, a certain amount of popular prejudice 

 against the whole Class exists, and the innocent, which 

 far out-number the noxious, share the reputation, and are 

 visited with the hatred and aversion due to their rnalific 

 fellows. Yet there are points in their history, which make 



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