CHAPTER IV 
THE GREAT FISH-LIZARDS 
“ Berossus, the Chaldean saith: A time was when the universe was dark- 
ness and water, wherein certain animals of frightful and compound forms were 
generated. There were serpents and other creatures with the mixed shapes of 
one another, of which pictures are kept in the temple of Belus at Babylon.” — 
The Archaic Genesis. 
Visitors to Sydenham, who have wandered about the spacious 
gardens so skilfully laid out by the late Sir Joseph Paxton, will 
be familiar with the great models of extinct animals on the 
“geological island.” These were designed and executed by that 
clever artist, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, who made praiseworthy 
efforts to picture to our eyes some of the world’s lost creations, as 
restored by the genius of Sir Richard Owen and other famous 
naturalists. His drawings of extinct animals may yet be seen 
hanging on the walls of some of our provincial museums; but 
of these many are far from correct. The difficulties were much 
greater in those early days. Mr. Karl Hagenbeck is now setting 
up “ Restorations” in his famous Zoological Garden at Hamburg. 
Lazily basking in the sun, when it condescends to shine, and 
resting his clumsy carcase on the ground that forms the shore 
near the said geological island at Sydenham, may be seen the 
old fish-lizard, or Ichthyosaurus, that forms the subject of the 
present chapter. He looks awkward on land, as if longing to 
get into his native element once more, and cleave its waters with 
his powerful tail-fin. His “flippers” seem too weak to enable 
him to crawl on land. Moreover, the most recent discoveries 
