8158 



Quadrupeds. 



used, like those in the upper jaw of the walrus, to assist in dragging 

 the body out of the water, and also as formidable instruments of 

 defence. The structure of the scapula, already noticed, ^eems to 

 show that the fore leg was adapted to co-operate with the tusks and 

 teeth in digging and separating large vegetables from the bottom. 

 The great length attributed to the body would have been no way 

 inconvenient to an animal living in the water, but attended with 

 mechanical disadvantages to so weighty a quadruped upon land. In 

 all these characters of gigantic herbivorous aquatic quadrupeds we 

 recognise adaptation to the lacustrine condition of the earth during 

 that portion of the tertiary periods to which the existence of these 

 seemingly anomalous creatures appear to have been limited." 



It would hence appear that successive races of distinct plants and 

 animals have inhabited the earth — a phenomenon perhaps not more 

 unaccountable than one with which we are familiar, that successive 

 generations of living species perish, some after a brief existence of a 

 few hours, others after a protracted life of many centuries. None of 

 these fossil plants or animals appear referable to species now in being, 

 with the exception of a few imbedded in the most recent strata, yet 

 they all belong to genera, families or orders, established for the classi- 

 fication of living organic productions; they even supply links in the 

 chain, without which our knowledge of the existing systems would be 

 comparatively imperfect. It is therefore clear to demonstration that 

 all, at whatever distance of time created, are parts of one concentrated 

 plan. They have all proceeded from the same author, and bear 

 indelibly impressed upon them the marks of having been designed by 

 one mind. There is a gradation of animated beings, from those of the 

 most complicated organization, — from the invertebrated to the verte- 

 brated ; and, ascending in the scale, from the lowest of the vertebrated 

 class to the most perfect, we find at length in the Mammalia all the 

 most striking characters of osteological structure, and all the leading 

 physiology of the human frame fully displayed. When we have 

 ascertained that animals of that class in which the type of our physical 

 organization is so unequivocally developed, existed at distant, though 

 not the most remote, periods in the history of this planet, and that a 

 scheme, of which man forms an inseparable part, is of such high 

 antiquity, the remarks of Bishop Butler on the connexion of the 

 course of things which came within our view, with the past, the 

 present and the future, are forcibly recalled to our recollection. "We 

 are placed," he observes, " in the middle of a scheme, — not a fixed, 

 but a progressive one, — every way incomprehensible, in a manner 



