FOSSIL SAURIANS. 1(55 
SECTION III. 
FOSSIL SAURIANS. 
In those distant ages that elapsed during the 
formation of strata of the secondary series, so 
large a field was occupied by reptiles, referrible 
to the order of Saurians, that it becomes an im- 
portant part of our enquiry to examine the his- 
tory and organization of these curious relics of 
ancient creations, which are known to us only 
in a fossil state. A task like this may appear 
quite hopeless to persons unaccustomed to the 
investigation of subjects of such remote anti- 
quity; yet Geology, as now pursued, with the 
aid of comparative anatomy, supplies abundant 
evidence of the structure and functions of these 
extinct families of reptiles ; and not only enables 
us to infer from the restoration of their skeletons, 
what may have been the external form of their 
bodies ; but instructs us also as to their economy 
and habits, the nature of their food, and even of 
their organs of digestion. It further shows their 
relations to the then existing condition of the 
world, and to the other forms of organic life with 
which they were associated. 
The remains of these reptiles bear a much 
greater resemblance to one another, than to those 
