104 Transactions of the 



told of the dragon. I feel sure that any person with an 

 exaggerative turn of mind, inclined to the marvellous, could 

 mould them in his memory into such a shape as would be 

 very like those of the ancient dragons. And so, those old 

 tales may he traced back to ornamented accounts of large 

 snakes, represented with all the paraphernalia of wings, feet, 

 and poisonous breath, which lent so many horrors to the 

 dreaded monster 



Dragon-flies are well named, on account of the ferocious 

 look displayed by their jaws ; but badly on account of their 

 elegant wings and body, for we can never suppose dragons 

 to have possessed such slender and well-shaped appendages 

 as these flies. The ancient mythical flying dragons, with 

 their thick and heavy bodies, could only have flown very low 

 and clumsily, and the flight could not be compared to that 

 of the graceful dragon-fly, which we see in summer darting 

 along the hedge-rows, then suddenly turning, and sweeping 

 back so swiftly that the eye can scarcely follow it in its 

 aerial evolutions. 



The hand of Providence is apparent in adjusting the 

 balance of creatures. As the earth can afford room and 

 support to only relative proportions of carnivorous animals, 

 if they should multiply beyond proper bounds, they must of 

 necessity feed on one another. To keep the balance equal, 

 Providence has limited the lives of all creatures to definite 

 lengths, and their increase to such a number as is propor- 

 tionate to their use in the world. It is therefore evident, 

 that if human beings ceased to multiply in a proportionate 

 ratio, the brute creation must soon preponderate and exceed 

 the appointed limits. 



Even with animals that are apparently injurious to man, 

 a balance of power seems requisite. At Singapoi'e, the 

 planters have found that the killing of tigers has been 

 attended by the greater pest of an increase of wild hogs, 

 which destroyed the crops. One English planter has there- 

 fore become a protector of tigers. Creatures, too, which are 

 useful and serviceable to man, abound more than those which 

 are hurtful. There are no herds of lions as there are of 

 oxen ; no flocks of tigers as there are of sheep. The flying 

 dragons have been succeeded by birds ; Ichthyosaurus, Ple- 

 siosaurus, and the like, by whales, dolphins, and great fishes. 

 Instead of the Iguanodon, the ox, deer, and the sheep 

 quietly crop the verdant herbage, whilst in place of the 

 destructive Megalosaur, the carnivorous mammalia keep down 

 the excessive multiplication of ruminantia, and man has the 



