24 
THE BOOK OF THE GREAT SEA-DRAGONS. 
every respect beside; Lord Cole’s also having six tarsal 
joints. We have often shuddered upon the precipice of our 
Generic Hypothesis, but this one fact of comparison places 
us entirely out of danger from the cervix, as ere now we 
have escaped the no less trying test of the teeth. 
The Sternum remains in all its entirety, composed of 
three bones, a body and aim at its side : Plate XXVI 
contains the drawing of a large Sternal bone, in which 
the connexion of the two wings with the centre is most 
carefully shown. Anatomists who value more than meta¬ 
physical relations, the coincidences of natural forms, will 
study the breast and scapular bones of Ichthyosauri and 
Plesiosauri side by side; the scapulae, clavicles, and Ster¬ 
num of both having the same style of mechanism. 
It is impossible, hidden as they are under the ribs, the 
Sternum, and the pelvis, to count decisively the dorsal 
vertebrae, only four of which, just anterior to the pelvis, 
discover themselves. The true and the floating ribs main¬ 
tain their order, while the ventral ones have been slightly 
displaced, by the explosion, probably, of Animal gases. 
Oryctologists have so much exaggerated the length of 
the neck, at the expense of the carcase and tail of Ple¬ 
siosauri, that the equipoise of the first and last is a fact 
they will unwillingly learn, although it certainly may have 
been assumed from the very first. In Plate XXIV the neck 
apparently is rather longer than the tail, but such is not 
the truth, seeing that the latter is imperfect. The cau- 
dum of the superb skeleton Plate XXVII is the only entire 
one extant, the three terminal bones being thrown back 
upon the preceding vertebrae. And it is difficult to as¬ 
certain even here, the exact point where the tail com¬ 
mences, the ischia projecting backward over the bones 
so as effectually to conceal the vertebra, which succeeded 
those with which the ilia articulated. The manner of 
that articulation is fully shown in Plate XXV; so that 
we can approximate to a correct measure, and prove the 
neck and tail nearly alike in length. Moreover, the tail, 
arming its squared solidified vertebrae with heavy spines, 
reaches the balance of the head and neck together, so that 
the Creature oscillated upon a fulcrum fixed in his navel. 
The paddles elongating, or downward, backward, or be¬ 
fore, fixed the pivot upon which Plesiosauri swung for¬ 
ward in heat for prey, or wanton flight, or prone down to 
the nether deeps, their den. 
The longest phalangal series of the anterior extremity 
amounts to nine, the longest posterior one to ten joints; 
thus reversing the fact in Lord Cole’s specimen, and ex¬ 
ceeding, by two joints, the longest toe-in the Plesiosaurus 
of Plate XXIV. 
The long, lank, skinny hands, the deathy paddles of 
Plesiosaurus, or spotted, or livid yellow and pale, upon 
them fiend-like he fled: his hide, or black or freckled, 
or russet, his eyes blood-shot fiery, or green, lizard-like; 
his teeth, his fangs whetted sharp, gloating upon and 
crunching the gristles of his dying prey: or fleeting 
through the Expanse of Ocean, or tempting the Pro¬ 
found, or cresting the Upper Waves, preying, or at watch 
for prey, or lulling himself upon the wide, the universal 
deep : coming from the Abysm of Ages, the Gog, or the 
Magog of Pre-Adamite Earth, Giant of Wrath and Battle, 
behold! the Great Sea-Dragon, the Emperor of Past 
Worlds, maleficent, terrible, direct, and sublime. 
CHAPTER VII. 
Genus Hexatarsostinus. E Ta^ao;, et otrrsov. (Sex ossibus in tabs.) Animalium lacertiformium in pago Street, cuia 
et opere Auctoris, in lucem prolatorum genus. Tab. XXVIII. 
T HE Manes of the Primal Earth, melancholical and 
extremely tenuous, haunting the solitary wastes and 
ruins of the World, stalks away alone from the fickle Ge¬ 
nerations of Man, through the labyrinthian Chambers 
and oppressive Mists of Ages. 
The Antique Spirit of Earth, wrinkled with Time, and 
of visage, ploughed by Grief and Despair, plunging into 
abstracted parts, sits for ever upon the centres of things, 
remote from Vulgar gaze. The mortalities, certes, are 
sometimes found in the tomb of uncounted Ages, exuvial 
bones protrude ghastly through the worn out Pall of 
Matter, or are cast up of the sickening Grave in earth¬ 
quake pangs, but the stern and terrible Ghost of the Dead 
worlds is abstraction all, shapeless, and infinitely strange. 
The awful Golgotha of Time, we explore, O reader, in 
no rude mind, and the skeletons of traditionary monsters 
value for no materialism, but for the moralities they 
induct, and the secret passages they conceal of the an¬ 
cient of Days, mysterious nature. We rate the Taninim 
not for their perfect parts anatomical, so much as for the 
Ideas they subscribe, the Language they perpetuate, and 
the sublimity which is the text thereof; the gross, the 
palpable skeletons may satiate the eye and fulfil the 
desire of a common curiosity, but the last elevate the 
Soul of Man over the Profound Past, and the endless 
perspective To Come. 
The grand Plesiosaurus of Plate XXVIII lies in a pon¬ 
derous grave, built up with irregular lamellae of Lias 
stone: the carcase seems to have passed through the 
several stages of corruption unbroken, but the unquiet 
waters finally sported with and scattered the osseous 
monster, which erst ruled them, and reluctantly gave him 
burial. His was a hasty and begrudged obsequy, so the 
capricious Seas first wrecking him, heaped up the Pall of 
Cold Matter about his bones with no ceremony nor care. 
How long and through what vasty Cycles did the Seas 
