204 THE STORY OP THE EARTH AND MAN. 



the kangaroos. They were no doubt oviparous ; and 

 this, with their biped habit, seems to explain the 

 strong resemblance of their hind quarters to those of 

 birds. Had we seen the eagle-clawed Lselaps rushing 

 on his prey; throwing his huge bulk perhaps thirty 

 feet through the air, and crushing to the earth under 

 his gigantic talons some feebler Hadrosaur, we should 

 have shudderingly preferred the companionship of 

 modern wolves and tigers to that of those savage 

 and gigantic monsters of the Mesozoic. 



We must not leave the great land-lizards of the 

 reptilian age, without some notice of that Goliath of 

 the race which, by a singular misnomer, has received 

 the appellation of Ceteosaurus or " Whale- Saurian.^^ 

 It was first introduced to naturalists by the discovery 

 of a few enormous vertebraB in the English OoHte ; 

 and as these in size and form seemed best to fit an 

 aquatic creature, it was named in accordance with 

 this view. But subsequent discoveries have shown 

 that, incredible though this at first appeared, the 

 animal had limbs fitted for walking on the land. 

 Professor Phillips has been most successful in col- 

 lecting and restoring the remains of Ceteosaurus, 

 and devotes to its history a long and interesting 

 section of his " Geology of Oxford.'^ The size of 

 the animal may be estimated, from the fact that its 

 thigh-bone is sixty-four inches long, and thick in 

 proportion. From this and other fragments of the 

 skeleton, we learn that this huge monster must have 

 stood ten feet high when on all fours, and that its 



