the surface. The vast jaws, lined with formidable
rows of teeth, soon open wide to their full extent ;
the object of attack is approached is overtaken.
With a motion quicker than thought the jaws are
snapped together, and the work is done. The mon-
ster, becoming gorged, floats languidly near the sur-
face, with a portion of the top of its head and its
nostrils visible, like an island covered with black mud,
above the water.

Such scenes as these must have been every day
enacted during the many ages when the waters of
the ocean were spread over what is now land in the
eastern hemisphere, and when the land then adja-
cent provided the calcareous mud now forming the
lias.

But a description of such scenes of horror and car-
nage, enacted at former periods of the earth's history,
may perhaps induce some of my readers to question
the wisdom that permitted, nay enacted them, and
conclude rashly that they are opposed to the ideas we
are encouraged to form of the goodness of that Being,
the necessary action of whose laws, enforced on all
living beings, gives rise to them. By no means, how-
ever, is this the case. These very results are perfectly
compatible with the greatest wisdom and goodness,
and, even according to our limited views of the course
of nature, they may be shewn not to involve any need-
less suffering. To us men, constituted as we are, and
looking upon death as a punishment which must be
endured, premature and violent destruction seems to
involve unnecessary pain. But such is not the law of



182 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

nature as it relates to animal life in general. The
very exuberance and abundance of life is at once
obtained and kept within proper bounds by this
rapacity of some great tribes. A lingering death a
natural decay of those powers which alone enable the
animal to enjoy life would, on the contrary, be a
most miserable arrangement for beings not endowed
with reason, and not assisting each other. It would
be cruelty, because it would involve great and hope-
less suffering. Death by violence is to all unreason-
ing animals the easiest death, for it is the most
instantaneous ; and therefore, no doubt, it has been
ordained that throughout large classes there should be
an almost indefinite rate of increase, accompanied by
destruction rapid and complete in a corresponding
degree, since in this way only the greatest amount of
happiness is ensured, and the pain and misery of slow
decay of the vital powers prevented, All nature,
both living and extinct, abounds with facts proving the
truth of this view ; and it would be as unreasonable
to doubt the wisdom and goodness of this arrange-
ment, as it would be to call in question the mutual
adaptation of each part in the great scheme of crea-
tion. No one who examines nature for himself, how-
ever superficially, can doubt the latter ; and no one
certainly, who duly considers the laws ordained for
the general government of the world, can believe it
possible for these laws to have acted without a system
of compensation, according to which the vital ener-
gies of one tribe serve to prepare food for the de-
velopment of higher powers in another.



OF CREATION. 183



CHAPTER IX.

THE GIGANTIC LAND REPTILES, THE FLYING REPTILES, AND OTHER
ANIMALS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE OOLITIC AND WEALDEN FOR-
MATIONS.

AFTER the termination of that great deposit of
calcareous mud, so characteristic of the older part
of the middle secondary period, considerable change
seems to have taken place in the relative position of
land and sea ; and, from the abundance of calcare-
ous rock afterwards developed, as well as from the
nature of the fossils, it may safely be concluded that
these changes involved important alterations in the
whole system of organic nature in this part of the
world. Referring only to those districts which, being
now land, enable us to discover their structure, and
drawing our conclusions only from the actual facts
that have been determined, we may venture to con-
clude, that, immediately after the deposit of the lias,
the bed of the sea was affected by widely acting
earthquake movements, and that tracts of land, more
or less extensive, rose up, especially on the north-
eastern flank of the lias in Yorkshire, in several dis-
tricts on the continent of Europe, and in the central
and eastern portions of North America.

It also appears that these elevations must have
alternated with depressions, and that thus a number
of islands were formed in a sea of moderate depth,



184 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

but frequently changing both in depth and in the
nature of its deposits ; the islands being the habita-
tion of land animals, while the surrounding coasts af-
forded food and shelter for vast multitudes of fishes
and other marine groups. The marine deposit, how-
ever, seems to have been nearly limited towards the
west by a recently formed lias coast, leading us to
suspect the existence of land extending westwards
and northwards from the line of that bed. Possibly
this land may have formed a broken ring surrounding
a Mediterranean Sea, just as the two portions of the
great continent of America, connected partly by the
Isthmus of Darien, and partly by the chain of the
West India islands, now enclose a tract under nearly
similar conditions.

However this may be, the great eastern oolitic
archipelago seems to have been limited towards the
west by England, and perhaps terminated towards
the north with the land which now forms the range
of the Hartz mountains, the mountains of Saxony,
and those of Bohemia. Throughout the whole tract
the general conditions of deposit must have been
nearly analogous ; but there were many important
modifications in detail, especially in the western,
southern, and south-eastern part, where the older beds
are most developed ; while in the north-eastern and
central districts, the newer beds are apparently the
most important. The newest of all the deposits was
a great fresh- water formation known as the Weal den
group, occupying a portion of the south-east of Eng-
land, and met with again in Hanover.

By a gradual change in the nature of the deposits,
the whole oolitic range seems to have served as the



OF CREATION. 185

habitation and burial-place of many successive races of
beings ; but there is nowhere evidence of such con-
siderable or violent change as would justify us in sepa-
rating the series into two or more parts. The whole
was probably continuous ; and, although aifected by
contemporaneous and successive disturbances fre-
quently repeated, these hardly involved any changes
of great moment modifying the general result.

The inhabitants of the sea during the oolitic
period include, as might be expected, a vast mul-
titude of species. Of these some were attached per-
manently to marine bodies, and so were partly or
entirely dependant on a particular mechanical, chemi-
cal, or mineralogical condition of the sea bottom ;
others were attached less permanently, possessing
only imperfect powers of locomotion, and limited as
to the depth at which they conveniently live ; while
there were others, again, swimming freely in the
ocean, and limited only in their range by the nature
of the supply of food. The first-mentioned of these
groups includes the coral animal and many others of
low organization, the next comprehends the encrinites,
star-fishes, sea-urchins, &c., as well as a number of
crustaceans and insects, and a large proportion of the
animals enclosed in shells ; while the last, in some
respects the most important and interesting group,
includes the more highly organized mollusca, the
fishes, and the marine reptiles. It will be convenient
to describe, first, these different groups of the inha-
bitants of the ocean, and then proceed to the account
of the land animals of the period.

The corals of the oolitic seas formed some con-
siderable reefs and islands, especially during the mid-



186



PICTURESQUE SKETCHES



Fig. 65




OOLITIC CORAL.



die part of the period ; but the species then common
resemble so closely those of existing seas in all im-
portant points of structure (fig. 65), that it will not be

necessary to describe
them in detail. They
differ, indeed, in spe-
cific, and often in ge-
neric character ; but,
in spite of this, there
can be no doubt of the
general analogy, and
we find exactly the
same set of contri-
vances adopted to pro-
vide that varied and
effectual resistance to the waves which characterizes
the labours of the coral animal, and which are espe-
cially seen in those gigantic monuments of its labours
distributed over a vast expanse of sea in the Tropics
and the southern hemisphere.

The oolitic encrinites are neither more numerous
nor more remarkable than those of an earlier period ;
and it would appear, indeed, as if the original form
of the development of this tribe had by this time
given way to a more advanced type. There are,
however, still some, and those very pretty and in-
teresting groups of these animals, amongst which we
may enumerate a fossil well known to collectors in
the west of England as the " pear " or " Bradford "
Encrinite. This species grew from a large and swel-
ling base attached to a rock or some marine sub-
stance ; it was provided with a stout stem of mo-
derate length, and the plates of the upper part, or



OP CREATION. 187

body, are singularly thick and strong. The rock
immediately below a particular bed of clay (called
the Bradford clay) seems to have been a favourite
locality, since the remains are there found in great
beauty. The stem, or stony column, terminated
with five pairs of short arms rising immediately from
the upper plates ; and these, when expanded, collected
food and conveyed it to the mouth.

Although the encrinites are not extremely abun-
dant in the oolitic rocks, the tribe of radiated
animals, to which they belong, was still amply repre-
sented. Star-fishes, sea-eggs, and sea-urchins of va-
rious kinds and size are universally distributed, and
exceedingly beautiful species of an extinct genus
(Cidaris), provided with stoukcal- pig. 66

careous spines, are found singu-
larly perfect (fig. 66). It would
hardly be thought possible, that
animals provided, as these are,
with a vast multitude of thick,
heavy, and perfectly solid stony
clubs, attached only to the shell at
one point, should, notwithstanding, OOLITIC SEA-EGG.*
be perfectly free in all its move- (Cidaris.)

ments, and, in fact, be greatly assisted in its locomo-
tion by such appendages. The spines or clubs, to
those accustomed only to watch the habits of animals
inhabiting the land, and therefore surrounded with air
and not water, appear so heavy as to be almost
clumsy ; but, in fact, they are so little heavier than

* In the specimen figured, the stony club-shaped spines are absent, as
is often the case in fossils ; but the small mammillated projections to
which they were attached by sockets are very beautifully shewn.




188



PICTURESQUE SKETCHES



water, that they are perfectly manageable in that
element, and when used as spades in the soft wet
sand, the animal moves with great rapidity, and in
any direction by their aid. Most of the animals of
this group inhabit the shore, or moderate depths at
no great distance from shore.

The oolitic Crustacea include an extensive series
not very different from the lobster, the prawns (see
fig. 67), and the king-crabs of the existing seas. Most

Fig. 67




LONG-CLAWED OOLITIC SHRIMP.
(Megackirus.)

of these are found in one particular spot in the
north of Bavaria, in a peculiar fine-grained absorbent
stone, much used for lithographic purposes. This
stone is calcareous ; it has a peculiar aspect and
a remarkably delicate texture, and has, doubtless,
Fig. 68 Fig. 6.9 been deposited from

an impalpable mud.
The numerous

X^^SBr**^ fossils it contains,
Qli*Liuhh \ and they are even
more remarkable for
their perfect condi-

INSBCTS OF THE SECONDARY EPOCH. ^ ^ ^^ num _

ber, include but few remains of ordinary mollusca,





OF CREATION. 189

but, on the other hand, a very unusual proportion of
fishes, of crustaceans of various kinds, and of insects,
often in the most singular state of preservation.
From these as well as from other remains of in-
sects and crustaceans of the same period, character-
istic forms of which are given in the accompanying
wood-cuts (68, 69), we may deduce the fact that
there was but little difference in general form, pro-
portions, or structure between the ancient inhabitants
of the sea-coast and the existing ones, so far as such
groups are concerned, and that there is nothing in
them to indicate a warmer climate, or any peculiarity
in the condition of the atmosphere.

Among the shells most common during the oolitic
period there are many whose resemb- Fig. 70
lance to existing species is also strik-
ing, and which certainly point to a
very different condition having then
obtained ; but the genus Terebratula
seems to have been far more pre-
dominant than it now is, and in Some TEREBRATULA.
localities particular species of these gregarious animals
existed in beds at the bottom of the sea, almost
to the exclusion of other animals.

The tribes of bivalve and also of univalve mol-
luscs were, however, amply represented during this
period, and every day is adding to the number of
species, and the variety of generic forms assumed by
these creatures. From the careful study of these
on the spot, much light will probably hereafter be
thrown on the condition and depth of the sea and the
movements of the sea bottom during the part of the
period of which certain groups are characteristic.




190 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

The Ammonite, so greatly developed in the lias
seas, was scarcely less so during the whole of the
succeeding period, and the variety of form which it
exhibits is not less remarkable than the vast multi-
tude of the individuals preserved. This form is some-
times more perfectly preserved also in the rocks of
this period than in any others ; and one example,
in which the fragile termination of the aperture has
been handed down in a perfect state, is given in the
accompanying figure (fig. 71). But this tribe of Ce-

phalopoda was then repre-
sented by another group
numbers of which also are
met with in the lias, and
to which the name Belemnite
has been applied ; and this,
taking the place of a more
highly organized animal of

its class than even the nauti-
OOLITIC AMMONITE. lug flnd ammonite? has been

sometimes perfectly embalmed. The structure of the
soft parts is indeed so beautifully shewn in that same
clayey bed from which the perfect ammonite has been
worked out (the Oxford clay), that the oolitic period
is the most proper for its final description, though the
animal has been already alluded to,* and is almost
equally characteristic, not only of the lias and oolites,
but also of the newer secondary deposits.

The Belemnite has received its name from a pecu-
liar dart- shaped stony fossil which is not uncommon,
and which, under various local names (such as thun-
derbolt, devil's toe-nail, &c.), is familiar to most

* See ante, p. 145 et seq.




OF CREATION.



191



people in the different
parts of England where
it occurs abundantly. It
is found varying in size
from specimens not an
inch long, to others mea-
suring upwards of a foot ;
but the structure is gene-
rally seen to be the same,
the fossil when complete
being more or less cylin-
drical, with one conical
extremity, the other end
widening out and exhibi-
ting a conical hollow,
which is sometimes filled
up with a number of lit-
tle cup-shaped bodies like
watch-glasses, fitting into
one another.

Without amusing the
reader with the mistakes
of different authors with
regard to this fossil, it
will be sufficient to state
at once what it is, and
what is the meaning and
use of the various parts,
since the whole history
of the animal is now per-
fectly cleared up by the
aid of specimens which not
only exhibit all the solid



Fig. 72




BKLEMNITE.
(Restored Figure.



192 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

parts in their natural position, but even present to
our notice the muscular fibre, very little altered.
The whole contour of the animal is indeed accu-
rately determined, including the feelers projecting from
the head, the fins, the tail, and even a solidified
dark fluid once preserved within the body, and in-
tended to serve the living animal as a defence from
its enemies by enabling it to cloud the surrounding
water when attacked or desirous of concealment.

The fossil known to Geologists by the name
Belemnite is the internal skeleton of a cephalopodous
animal very much like the cuttle-fish, but provided
not only with a solid framework for the attachment
of muscles, but also with an apparatus like that pos-
sessed by the nautilus and ammonite. The animal
appears, however, to have combined also in some
degree the characteristic peculiarities of several of
the more highly organized genera of cephalopods, and
perhaps was fitted for a condition of the sea in which
the enemies of such an animal were more numerous
and powerful, and its food less easily obtained, than
is the case at present.

It is now known that the animal of the Belemnite
was naked, or rather that it was enclosed within a
muscular sheath, which formed a closed sac or bag
terminating above with the head. From around this
eight arms proceeded, whose length in the species ex-
amined seems to be about one-fourth part of the entire
length of the animal ; and each arm was provided
with from fifteen to twenty pair of hooks resembling
those now seen only in the most powerful and the
fiercest of the whole tribe of Cephalopoda, and used
to pierce the flesh of fishes and other animals, in



OF CREATION. 193

order to secure firm hold when the Belemnite was
about to seize its prey.

The head was provided with very large eyes ; the
jaws were probably horny ; and, besides the eight
arms, there seems to have been one pair of long tenta-
cles. Far down below the head, and within the
cavity of the shell, there was placed an oval sac
containing black fluid, communicating by a tube with
the aperture. This fluid exactly resembles the ink of
the common squid ; and there can be no doubt that it
was used by the animal in the same way, and for the
same purpose, namely, to darken the water when its
possessor, becoming alarmed, desired to escape. The
ink itself in a solid state, the bag which contained it, and
the tube or pen by which it was shot out into the water,
are all preserved in some of the specimens of this fossil.

The mantle of the belemnite, passing over the'
guard or shell, seems to have accommodated it-
self to the shape of the shell, and terminated in a
blunt point. Two fins, however, of a rounded form,
and of considerable size, extended on each side near
the middle of the animal. From this position of the
fins, from the shape of the shell, and from its general
structure, it has been concluded that the animal com-
monly remained in a vertical position, rising and
sinking with great facility, and possessing very un-
usual powers of locomotion and destruction.

The larger belemnites, as well as the ammonites
of this period, must have attained very gigantic
dimensions compared with their subsequent or previ-
ous size, and compared with the ordinary inhabitants
of the sea. Few fishes, perhaps, could have escaped
them except the larger sharks ; and even the young

K



194



PICTURESQUE SKETCHES



ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and other reptiles, may have
fallen a prey to these rapacious and terrible monsters.
Fishes of various kinds were manifestly very abun-
dant during the period we are now considering; but,
except the shark tribe, we have no knowledge of
the existence of any of large size. Those of which
the remains are most common were enclosed in ena-
melled plates or scales of considerable proportion-
ate size, and they possessed powerful teeth, enabling
them to prey on the Crustacea and on each other, as
well perhaps as on the stony Radiata. Another group

Fig. 73




ASPIDORHYNCHUS.

of fishes provided with sharp conical teeth, and be-
longing to the sauroid family, were mostly small, but
include some interesting species with very long snouts
(see fig. 78). These, no doubt, were rapid swim-
mers, while the former were probably slow and heavy

Fig. 74




LEPIDOTUS.

in their movements. One of the more common forms
of the latter is represented in outline in figure 74.



OF CREATION. 195

Reptiles abounded throughout this period, and
exhibit many forms no less interesting than they are
remarkable. Many of them seem to have been more
or less exclusively marine in their habits, but many
others were partly, and some entirely, terrestrial ;
these latter exhibiting peculiarities of structure which
render them well worthy of minute description.

The reptiles of the oolites include one genus
strictly marine in addition to the Ichthyosaurus and
Plesiosaurus ; and there were also several animals of
the same tribe whose habits were aquatic, although,
from peculiarities of structure, they are referred to the
crocodilian group. These chiefly resemble the crocodile
or garial of the Ganges, a species especially organized
for the capture of fish. There are also several others
exhibiting analogies with existing crocodilian reptiles.
I shall not, however, dwell on the slight differences of
structure by which this group is characterised, but,
after saying a few words concerning the third true
marine reptile, and a gigantic whale-like reptile called
Cetiosaurus,* proceed at once to some species still
more gigantic in comparison, which at the same
period inhabited the land.

Associated with the remains of the long-necked
plesiosaur there are found in some of the clay beds of
the oolites the teeth and bones of several species of
animals very nearly allied to that genus in many
important characters, but of enormously greater size.
These species seem to have been intermediate between
the Plesiosaurus and Ichthyosaurus, the teeth, verte-
brae, bones of the extremities, &c. being more like the

e/os), a whale ; aavpog (sawros), a lizard or saurian.



196 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES.

corresponding parts of the former, but the animal
resembling the latter in the absence of apparent neck.
For these reasons the genus has been named PUosaurus.*
One of the most remarkable of the numerous
crocodilian reptiles, a natural group, which, though
not first introduced into the earth in the middle se-
condary period, yet seems then to have attained in
all respects its chief development, was the Cetio-
saurus, already alluded to. This animal, rivalling the
largest whales in bulk, seems to have been of strictly
aquatic, and most probably of marine habits, and
was indeed closely allied to the group of true marine
reptiles. In this genus, too, was combined a broad
vertical tail and extremities developed into webbed
feet, the toes of which were terminated by strong
claws, probably assisting the animal in taking its prey.
Nothing is known of the teeth or skull, but there is
no doubt that the habits of the genus must have
been strictly predaceous.

About the middle, or perhaps before the middle of
the secondary period, there existed a considerable
tract of dry land, so near what is now England that
the remains of the animals dwelling there could be de-
posited at the bottom of the sea, and this in a condition
admitting of their being almost instantly embedded
and preserved. One bed in particular of the oolitic
series, occurring at Stonesfield, near Oxford, has
received remains of this kind in comparative abun-
dance; and we find in it, associated with marine
shells, several fruits, leaves, and other fragments of
vegetable origin, several wing-cases and other parts

* IlXawv (pleion\ more ; aavpog (sauros), a saurian : having greater
analogy with reptiles than the plesiosaurg.



OF CREATION.



197



of beetles and flies, some very singular bones of
small size, belonging, it would seem, to a flying rep-
tile, and others of gigantic proportions, referred to
large land reptiles ; but these latter were exceedingly
unlike the land reptiles at present existing, and exhi-
bit curious analogies with the gigantic living pachy-
dermal mammals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros,
and hippopotamus. Lastly, there are found in these
beds, though so rarely that but three or four instances
are known, the remains of small warm-blooded qua-
drupeds supposed to be referable to insectivorous