18 December 2011

'Turtles might deposit eggs in the sand of the beach where now the walrus sleeps'

Then might those genera of animals return, of which the memorials are preserved in the ancient rocks of our continents. The huge iguanodon might reappear in the woods, and the icthyosaur in the sea, while the pterodactyl might flit again through the umbrageous groves of tree ferns. Coral reefs might be prolonged to the arctic circle, where the whale and narwal now abound. Turtles might deposit eggs in the sand of the sea beach, where now the walrus sleeps, and where the seal is drifted on the ice-floe.
-- from Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830-32)

Duria antiquior (1830)

2 comments:

Emily said...

This picture might be more fitting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Awfulchanges.jpg

Caspar Henderson said...

Thanks, Emily, that would have been an excellent choice!