FOSSIL SAURIANS. 
165 
SECTION III. 
FOSSIL SAURIAN.S. 
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, wdiich 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 
t eir organs ol digestion. It further shows their 
1*0 ations to the then existing condition of the 
^oild, and to the other forms of organic life 
wi^ which they were associated. 
be remains of these reptiles bear a much 
greatei resemblance to one another, than to those 
