description. In the fore extremities the same singu-
lar contrivances present themselves; and in the hinder
extremities and the tail, the strength is perhaps greater
in proportion than in any known animal, living or ex-
tinct.

Of these bones the femur, or thigh-bone, is the
most remarkable, and it differs in some points from
the corresponding part of the megathere, its breadth
being greater in proportion to its length than is the
case even in that singularly proportioned animal. It
appears, that, although the total length of the scelido-
there could not have been greater than that of a New-
foundland dog, the fore extremities not being larger,
and the height not nearly so great, the hind extremi-
ties were more gigantic than those of the largest
rhinoceros or hippopotamus, and the animal was pro-
vided with a tail so thick and strong, that there is
nothing in existing nature with which to compare it.

We have now only to consider what can have been
the habits of animals so strangely organized, resem-
bling the sloth in the structure of the teeth and other
characters which mark the food to have been the leaves
and tender twigs of trees, but rather approximating to



OF CREATION.



371



the armadillpes and ant-eaters in certain peculiar con-
trivances for strength which in these living edentates
are connected with habits of digging and burrowing
beneath the surface of the earth. All the extinct
species we have yet discovered of the group attained
dimensions which seem to have unfitted them entirely
for any such habit, neither allowing them to climb
trees like the sloth, or to burrow like the mole, the
ant-eater, or the armadillo.

We know that the general proportions of the
megatheroid animals resemble those of the elephant ;
but, although their body was relatively quite as large,
their legs were shorter and much thicker, and their
fore extremities were endowed with greater facili-
ties of motion.

The head, moreover, is very diminutive, and the
neck, although longer, was not so much so as to
enable the animal to reach to any height above its
body. It is also quite certain that these animals
could not have had a long proboscis, and some had no
proboscis at all ; so that the question presents itself, how
they could have obtained the leaves of trees, which
the structure of their teeth shows to have been the
only food adapted for them.

Now we have seen, in the course of our investiga-
tion concerning the peculiarities of structure of these
animals, that they exhibit in all cases very remark-
able modifications of the extremities, the hinder part
of the body being enormously large, powerful, and
massive, and bearing every mark of the greatest pos-
sible adaptation for resisting pressure, forming as it
were a point tfappui, from which the rest of the
body could act with safety and certainty. It is also



372 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

the case that the fore extremities were exceedingly
powerful, hut in a different way, admitting of free
motion, and provided with large and prominent claws,
so that they were well adapted for grasping the trunk
or the larger branches of a tree, while the forces con-
centrated upon them from the broad posterior basis
are such as could well assist in the act of wrenching
off a branch, or even, if need were, uprooting a tree.

There is, indeed, no other reasonable conclusion to
be drawn from the consideration of the framework of
these gigantic quadrupeds. Their massive proportions
cannot but arrest the attention of even the most indif-
ferent beholder, and such proportions seem to imply
powers and actions as peculiar to the living animal,
as are these modifications to the framework of the
body handed down to us.

The enormous pelvis of the Megatherium proclaims
itself the centre, whence muscular masses of unwonted
force diverged to act upon the trunk, the tail, and the
hind legs ; but, in order that it should possess sta-
bility and resistance equivalent to the due effect of
the forces acting from it, it required to be bound
down and supported by members of corresponding
strength.

'We find, accordingly, a thigh-bone, which, though
longer than the shoulder-bone, is half as broad as it
is long, and is provided with bony crests, giving un-
equivocal evidence of the magnitude and power of the
muscles once attached to and working from them.

This thigh-bone, placed vertically, rested on leg
bones of corresponding magnitude, and on a foot
which in all its proportions must have served as a fit
basis for the leg. The foot was of great length



OF CREATION. 373

(equalling, if not surpassing, that of the femur) ; the
prolongation of the heel served as a fulcrum, and the
powerful claw of the middle toe held fast to the
ground, at the moment when the forces of the fore-
limbs were exerted. There was also a strong and
powerful tail, its proportions being exactly such as
to complete with the two hind legs a tripod strong
enough to afford a firm foundation for the massive
pelvis, and sufficient resistance to the forces acting
from that great bony centre. The proportions of
these parts, colossal as they are, lose their anomalous
character when we view them as the fixed point to-
wards which the fore part of the body was to be
drawn when the animal was in the act of uprending
a tree to serve as its subsistence; and the value of
all these contrivances is seen, when we understand
the habits of these singular animals.

The nature of the food required by them has been
already mentioned ; and since it is utterly incredible,
that creatures so vast in their proportions should have
been either climbers of trees or burrowers in the
earth, while their teeth and jaws were expressly
adapted for the comminution of foliage, and their
height and general form prevented them from reach-
ing up to obtain such food, it only remains for us to
conclude that they were enabled by their great
strength to uproot the trees themselves, and bring the
foliage on which they fed within the reach of their
mouths or short trunks. Having thus obtained the
means of supporting life, and being provided with a
tongue of remarkably large size and strength, not
less adapted than that of the giraffe (and apparently
even larger and stronger in proportion), the creature



374 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

was thus enabled to strip off the leaves and smaller
branches, which the absence of teeth in the front of
the jaw left to be performed by such agency. Every
contrivance was introduced to fit these animals for
the performance of certain offices in the ancient
forests of South America, which are now executed
by a multitude of smaller animals, not very dissimilar
in many points of structure.

The megatheroid animals, however, are not the
only gigantic species of the edentate order living at
this period. Associated with them was an arma-
dillo, almost as colossal in its proportions and quite
as anomalous in its structure. This animal has been
called the Glyptodon* and it exhibits in the compli-
cated structure of its teeth an approach rather to
the pachydermatous type shewn in the Toxodon than
to the megathere or the existing armadilloes, while
in other respects it seems to have connected the
edentates with the heavy-coated rhinoceros.

The Glyptodon, like the armadillo, was covered and
defended by a shell not unlike a coat of mail, made
up of round or many-sided pieces, fitting one another
accurately, continuous over the whole of the upper
part of the body, and covering the upper surface of
the thick and powerful tail. The armour is massive
and very heavy, and when detached from the body
resembles a barrel.

The bones of the leg and foot, perfectly adapted
to bear the steady pressure of an enormous weight,
are extremely interesting. They present the frame-
work of a foot of such structure and form as is
without a parallel in the animal kingdom, so admi-

* r\V7TTO (glyptos), sculptured ; odovg (odoits), tooth.



OF CREATION. 375

rably is it contrived to form the base of a column
destined to support a vast superincumbent weight,
and at the same time to allow of that degree of
motion of the fore extremities which is required for
the scratching and digging operations of animals like
armadilloes. The Glyptodon can only be matched

Fig. 147




GLYPTODON.

by the great land tortoise, whose remains are found
fossil in the Sewalik Hills; and we may almost con-
sider it to have represented this monster, performing
a nearly similar part, and clearing away the decaying
animal and vegetable matter, that might otherwise
have accumulated and become mischievous. Several
species of gigantic size have been determined from
the examination of fossils brought to England, and
now preserved either in the British Museum or the
Royal College of Surgeons.

The inhabitants of the central plains of South



376 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

America during this period appear to have wan-
dered northwards as far as the southern districts
of North America, while the Mastodon of the
countries ranged southwards into Brazil. Whether
the means of passage consisted of continuous or bro-
ken land on the eastern side of the Gulf of Mexico,
or whether the high land of Mexico itself even then
connected the two continents, we are not at present
able to tell, but the very broad distinctions that there
are between the extinct faunas of this comparatively
modern period, as exhibited by the fossils of North
and South America generally, as well as the great dif-
ference observable in the recent faunas, would rather
lead us to conjecture that the species common to
both may have been conveyed accidentally, and that
these two great tracts of land in the western hemi-
sphere were anciently detached from one another.

However the case may have been in that respect,
it is interesting to consider the condition of this part
of our earth at the period immediately antecedent
to the introduction of man. Instead of a country
remarkable for the absence of all large quadrupeds,
it was exactly the reverse, but these ancient giants
are now represented by smaller although similar spe-
cies. The Pampas then, perhaps, presented a con-
dition of vegetation little different from that still
characteristic of them; numerous clumps of forest
trees were dotted about at intervals, and the in-
tervening country was covered for the most part by
rich and luxuriant vegetation. Other trees probably
fringed the margin of those gigantic rivers which still
pour out their torrents of water and drain a mighty
continent. In the half swampy tracts, or in the



OF CREATION.



377



pools formed by the shifting beds of these rivers, the
Toxodon then dwelt; and over the broad plains the
Macrauchenia slowly paced. At one spot, numer-
ous bare trunks of trees, stripped of their verdure,
rotten and half decayed, or alive again with the
busy tread of millions of ants and other insects,
mark the vicinity of the great leaf-eating tribe. The
Glyptodon, with his heavy tread, slowly advances un-
der the weight of a thick and cumbrous coat of mail,
and finally clears away the half- destroyed vegetation.
The smaller species of the megatheroid family each
one, indeed, a giant in his way feed on the younger
and smaller plants, tearing them up by the roots or
reaching from the ground to devour their foliage.

But presently the Megatherium himself appears,
toiling slowly on from some great tree recently laid
low and quite stripped of its green covering. The
earth groans under the enormous mass; each step
bears down and crushes the thickly growing reeds
and other plants; but the monster continues to ad-
vance towards a noble tree, the monarch of this pri-
maeval forest. " For a while he pauses before it, as if
doubting whether, having resisted the storms of so
many seasons, it will yield even to his vast strength.
But soon his resolution is taken. Having set himself
to the task, he first loosens the soil around the tree to
a great depth by the powerful claws on his fore-feet,
and in this preliminary work he occupies himself for
a while: and now observe him carefully. Marching
close to the tree, watch him as he plants his monstrous
hind feet carefully and earnestly, the long projecting
claw taking firm and deep hold of the ground. His
tail is so placed as to rest on the ground and sup-



378 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

port the body. The hind legs are set, and the
animal, lifting itself up like a huge kangaroo, grasps
the tree with its fore-legs at as great a height as
possible, and firmly grapples it with the muscles of
the trunk, while the pelvis and hind limbs, animated
by the nervous influence of the unusually large spinal
cord, combine all their forces in the effort about to be
made. And now conceive the massive frame of the
Megatherium convulsed with the mighty wrestling,
every vibrating fibre reacting upon its bony attach-
ment with the force of a hundred giants : extraor-
dinary must be the strength and proportions of the
tree, if, when rocked to and fro. to right and left, in
such an embrace, it can long withstand the efforts of
its assailant." (Owen, on the Mylodon.) The tree
at length gives way; the animal, although shaken and
weary with the mighty effort, at once begins to strip
off every green twig.

The effort, however, even when successful, was not
always without danger.* The tree in falling would
sometimes by its weight crush its powerful assailant,
and the bulky animal, unable to guide it in its fall,
might often be injured by the trunk or the larger

* In the specimen of Mylodon, in the College of Surgeons, the skull
has undergone two fractures during the life of the animal, one of which is
entirely healed and the other partially. The former exhibits the outer
tables broken by a fracture four inches long, near the orbit. The other
is more extensive, and behind, being five inches long, and three broad,
and over the brain. The inner plate has in both these cases defended
the brain from any serious injury, and the animal seems to have been re-
covering from the latter accident at the time of its death. (See Professor
Owen's memoir " On the Mylodon,' 1 &c., p. 22, et passim. Many of the
remarks in the present chapter have been borrowed from this admirable
monograph.)



OF CREATION. 379

branches. To guard against some of this risk, the
skull, the most exposed part, is found to exhibit more
than usual defence against injury. It is more cellular
than is usual with other animals, and the inner and
stronger plate is covered with an outer table and
intermediate walls, to resist a sudden and violent
shock.

Thus does it appear, that, at a very recent geologi-
cal period, and perhaps not long before the actual
introduction of man upon the earth, a multitude of
strange and monstrous animals tenanted various dis-
tricts; that each group was, then, as it is now, dis-
tinct from the rest, although so organized as to per-
form the same part in nature; and yet more, that
each group possessed certain peculiar characters, ex-
hibiting a relation with the animals still inhabiting
the same districts, although the actual species are
greatly changed, being modified in form, in propor-
tions, and in habits. It would not be easy to imagine
sets of phenomena more instructive, or more sugges-
tive of new ideas and new views of creation ; nor
could any plan that we can conceive have indicated
so clearly the uniformity of action, and the multitude
of different means used to bring about the same great
end. We shall consider in the next chapter the ge-
neral conclusions that are suggested from this study
of ancient nature.



380 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES



CHAPTER XVI.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING THE RESULTS OF GEOLOGICAL
INVESTIGATION.

No one can properly consider the nature of geo-
logical researches, and the extent to which they indi-
cate the ancient history of the globe and its inha-
bitants, without being struck by the simplicity and
grandeur of the great plan of creation, and the adap-
tation of certain typical forms of organic life to a vast
variety of different conditions, examples of which
seem to have been introduced in regular order from
the beginning of the world till now. In the pre-
ceding pages I have endeavoured to give, in the
way of narrative, an idea of some detached but
characteristic events of this history, and a number
of sketches of the different epochs, or times when the
conditions were most peculiar and most instructive.

In carrying out this object, however, I have fre-
quently been forced to dwell rather upon the diffe-
rences than the analogies that may be traced in the
structure and adaptation of successive groups, and
have directed attention so often, and in so marked a
manner, to these differences, that some of my readers
perhaps might over-estimate their importance, did I
not now, in summing up the nature and value of the
evidence already given in detail, explain how far such
an impression may be considered correct. In the
present concluding chapter, therefore, I propose to



OF CREATION. 381

take a general view of the whole subject, tracing as
far as I am able the gradual development of life
upon the globe.

Now a very superficial glance at general natural
history will show, that however great the difference
may be between the groups characteristic of any two
geological periods at the same spot a difference,
therefore, corresponding to a lapse of time the dis-
tinction is equally marked at the present day in
living groups with respect to space. Whatever, also,
may have been the law anciently in force with refer-
ence to the succession of organic beings on the earth,
and the introduction of new ones, that law, so far
as we can tell, is permanent and uniform.

It appears, therefore, that a vast and comprehen-
sive plan, still perhaps only partially unfolded, marks
at once the infinite wisdom, the infinite power, and
the infinite goodness of the Creator ; and we may
also conclude, that this method of action, or, if we
will so call it, this law, may involve in its vast com-
pass, not merely our own planet, but some or all
of those orbs which circle round our sun, and per-
haps, also, those unnumbered systems, which, like
our own, are in motion through space. It is pos-
sible that all these bodies may in their progress ex-
hibit an analogous method of development, consisting
of the elaboration of series of groups, alike and yet
different, each perfectly adapted to its purpose in its
own way, and each having direct reference to all the
rest.*

* It should, however, be distinctly understood, that there is not the
slightest reason to suppose any actual repetition of the same plan. The
evidence we have on the subject would rather lead us to conclude the
contrary ; but there may still be that amount of analogy which involves
unity of plan.



.382 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

I am quite prepared to admit that the advance of
accurate scientific knowledge may be so considerable
as to enable man at some future day to comprehend
not only a few of the details, but even the general
nature of this great plan of development. But he
is certainly not yet in a condition to perceive the
bearing of all those facts which are presented for his
study, or to obtain a comprehensive view of the broad
generalisations they involve ; and in the attempt to
include them within the compass of his imagination,
and express their true relation in language, he has
hitherto always failed. Convinced as I am of this,
I offer with great diffidence those general conclusions
on the subject in question which I have to suggest ;
and if I should be myself accused of speaking less
cautiously or more dogmatically than may seem fit, I
can only repeat this expression of my earnest endea-
vour to avoid such a form of speech. On the other
hand, while I would not wish to blame others for
giving decided expression to their own views, I
would still caution my readers against the premature
and unwise attempts that have been made by some
authors to explain and bring within the compass of
an assumed law of development the obscure and
isolated phenomena hitherto observed and apparently
bearing on this subject,* whatever those views may be.
If, from the study of fossils, we seem to attain
any definite notions concerning the general plan of
creation, these, it must be remembered, are only
valuable so far as they can bear comparison with

* The law of development to which I here allude, supposes the suc-
cessive elaboration of organic beings, each new form exhibiting higher or
more complex organization.



OF CREATION. 383

observations concerning existing nature, and the pre-
sent condition and relations of organic and inorganic
matter. The moment that we pass beyond this limit,
that moment we launch without compass into a vast
and boundless ocean of conjecture, guided only and
warned by the appearance of innumerable wrecks,
the results of similar attempts, which serve to point
out the danger, but hardly teach us how to avoid it.

In the actual condition of the earth's surface we
find abundant proof of change of almost every kind.
Nothing is permanent, nothing continues in a con-
dition absolutely the same for more than the shortest
possible time : there is movement, disturbance, modi-
fication going on, above the surface, on the surface,
and beneath the surface everything is in motion, not
a particle of matter in the whole universe stands
still, and everything is manifestly tending to a some-
what different state, though there appears every pro-
bability that the new state will be strictly analogous
to the old one.

In the case of inorganic nature, this perpetual
turmoil is now universally recognised. Not only
does the earth move as a mass, but every particle of
matter seems to be constantly changing its position
in relation to the adjacent particles. The air is con-
stantly receiving, conveying, and distributing parti-
cles of earth and water. The water is in constant
movement from the action of the winds and tides,
from the influx of rivers, and from unequal evapora-
tion from its surface. But the surface itself is yet
more decidedly exposed to change ; for not only is
part carried from one place and deposited in another
by every dash of the never-tiring wave, and every



384 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

drop that falls in the form of rain, but there is a con-
stant tendency in the parts below the surface to re-
arrange themselves in some other order to obtain an
equilibrium which is no sooner obtained than it is
lost. All nature is thus animated; the sea is never
so quiet, the air is never so calm, the earth is never
so fixed, but that these silent and invisible, but ap-
preciable changes still go on.

And these changes, we are taught by the most
careful observations and measurements, have much
more than a mere superficial and momentary cha-
racter. Large tracts of land are being even now up-
heaved, and others are depressed. But a few years
and what is now a flat coast-line may present a steep
cliff; and large tracts of land now above the water
may then be submerged. Streams and rivers bring
down mud, and by this mud choke up their own
channels ; but they soon make other channels, which,
after a time, are closed in a similar way.

But if this is the case with regard to inorganic
matter, how much more strikingly is it true when we
consider the nature of organic life. A constant re-
placement of every part, both solid and fluid, which
is endowed with the mystic power of life, seems to be
the first requisite for its existence, and the essential
attribute of its presence. Every particle of the solid
frame-work which supports our bodies will, in a
few weeks, or at the most a few months, entirely
disappear, only, however, to give place to other par-
ticles arranged in like manner. Individuals are in
the same way represented by their offspring; and
this representation is carried out in nature, not only
with families of individuals, but also with those



OF CREATION. 385

groups into which we collect similar beings, organized
with the same characteristic peculiarities. Every-
thing in nature speaks of substitution and repre-
sentation a permanence of idea, but a ceaseless
change in the individual.

Analogy, therefore, would teach us to expect that
there has always been and must always be this
amount of change. But does analogy go no farther ?
In the case of some animals, the young is first brought
into the world perfect in its kind, and filling a defi-
nite place among created beings, but not adapted to
the habits, and apparently not possessing the struc-