Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/169

 Rh May it not therefore be concluded (since, in addition to these circumstances, its respiration must have required frequent access of air,) that it swam upon or near the surface; arching back its long neck like the swan, and occasionally darting it down at the fish which happened to float within its reach. It may perhaps have lurked in shoal water along the coast, concealed among the sea-weed, and raising its nostrils to a level with the surface from a considerable depth, may have found a secure retreat from the assaults of dangerous enemies; while the length and flexibility of its neck may have compensated for the want of strength in its jaws, and its incapacity for swift motion through the water, by the suddenness and agility of the attack which they enabled it to make on every animal fitted for its prey, which came within its reach."—Geol. Trans. N. S. vol. i. part ii. p. 388.

We began our account of the Plesiosaurus with quoting the high authority of Cuvier, for considering it as one of the most anomalous and monstrous productions of the ancient systems of creation; we have seen in proceeding through our examination of its details, that these apparent anomalies consist only in the diversified arrangement, and varied proportion, of parts fundamentally the same as those that occur in the most perfectly formed creatures of the present world.

Pursuing the analogies of construction, that connect the existing inhabitants of the earth with those extinct genera and species which preceded the creation of our race, we find an unbroken chain of affinities pervading the entire series of organized beings and connecting all past and present forms of animal existence by close and harmonious ties. Even our own bodies, and some of their most important organs are brought into close and direct comparison with those of reptiles, which, at first sight, appear the most monstrous productions of creation; and in the very hand and fingers with which we write their history, we recognise