86 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
when, it was struck: in like manner the geologist can decipher 
these natural memorials, interpret the hieroglyphics with which 
they are inscribed, and from apparently the most insignificant 
relics trace the history of beings of whom no other records 
Fic. 19.—Skeleton of Compsognathus longipes. (From the Solenhofen lime- 
stone.) 
are extant, and ascertain the forms and habits of unknown types 
of organisation whose races are swept from the face of the 
earth, ere the creation of man, and the creatures which are his 
