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 covored 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 lies in twisted coils; and now mark how, foot- 
less and limbless as he is, he glides away 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 ! 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 malific 
fellows. Yet there are points in their history, which make 
