118 
LIFE OF DEAN B(ICELAND. 
[CH. IV. 
living approach to them is the insignificant little Draco-Volans of the 
isles of the Indian Archipelago. 
At fig. 5 is seen a fish whose name is Dapedius, so called on account 
of its “ pavement-like ” scales ; it has encountered in its peregrinations 
an Ichthyosaurus, who is making short work of him, and is about to 
gorge him down into its capacious stomach in the same manner that 
a jack does a roach or dace. We know that Ichthyosaurus fed upon 
this fish, because its scales are found in the fossil coprolites. 
In the Oxford Museum is the fossil stomach of an Ichthyosaurus 
that had died shortly after its dinner, as it had not had time to digest 
entirely the fish it had swallowed. The Ichthyosaurus (as seen in the 
engraving) did not refuse to eat cuttle-fish, and we know this because 
the ink of the cuttle-fish is found staining the fossil coprolites. 
Other fossil fishes whose remains are found are seen swimming about 
in company with young Ichthyosauri, all enjoying life, and following 
the laws of nature which ordained that they should both prey upon one 
another and be preyed upon themselves. 
Sailing along the surface of this sea, upon which no human eye ever 
rested, may be noticed a fleet of the beautiful Ammonite shells. Their 
remains are seen at the bottom of the sea, where they would become 
gradually covered with mud and converted into fossils, a theme for 
the geologists and for the adornment of our cabinets. 
At fig. 6 we see growing in great luxuriance a remarkable form 
of life—the Pentaerinite, or Stone Lily, so called on account of the 
pentangular or five-sided shape of its supporting column. It consisted 
of innumerable calcareous joints, united by a fleshy material; it was, 
in fact, a “stalk star-fish,” which is represented in existing seas by the 
Comatula, or Feather-star, of our own shores, and by the rare and all 
but extinct Pentacrinites of the West Indies. 
For a full and beautifully illustrated description of the Pentaerinite, 
as well as of the Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Pterodact}de, and other 
creatures represented in the drawing, I must refer my readers to 
Dr. Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise. 
At fig, io is represented the Zamia, or “bird’s nest,” of the Portland 
quarry men, together with restorations of vegetation which once 
flourished in luxuriance, but which is found now only in a fossil state. 
At the bottom of the primaeval sea are strewed the bones and 
carcases of its inhabitants, both small and great. Saurians, fishes, 
molluscs, and shells have all yielded up their remains in obedience 
to the dictum which pronounces the sentence of death upon everything 
that has ever been or ever will be animated with the breath of life. 
