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Extinct Whales and Wombats

"The earth from her deep foundations unites with the celestial orbs that roll through boundless space, to declare the glory and show forth the praise of their common Author and Preserver; and the voice of Natural Religion accords harmoniously with the testimonies of Revelation, in ascribing the origin of the Universe to the will of One eternal and dominant Intelligence, the Almighty Lord and supreme First Cause of all things that subsist, 'the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' "-DEAN BUCKLAND.

IT would not be safe to venture any positive statement or opinion as to when the great cetacean order of mammals, which includes such creatures as whales, dolphins, and porpoises, first appeared on the earth. But as far as the geological record is known at present, it would seem as if they were ushered in at the commencement of the Tertiary era, at the same time with many other new forms of life. The original ancestor of all these marine mammals may, for all we know, have been evolved some time before then; say in the Cretaceous period, or perhaps during that great and partly unknown interval between the Secondary and Tertiary eras. What we do know for certain is, that fossil evidence of their existence first comes to light in the Eocene strata of North America.