THE DINOSAURS 101 
looking him squarely m the face, one notices 
in front of each eye a thick guard of projecting 
bone, and while this must have interfered with 
vision directly ahead it must have also fur- 
nished protection for the eye. So long as Tri- 
ceratops faced an adversary he must have 
been practically invulnerable, but as he was 
the largest animal of his time, upward of 
twenty-five feet in length, it is probable that 
his combats were mainly with those of his own 
kind and the subject of dispute some fair fe- 
male upon whom two rival suitors had cast 
covetous eyes. What a sight it would have 
been to have seen two of these big brutes in 
mortal combat as they charged upon each 
other with all the impetus to be derived from 
ten tons of infuriate flesh! We may picture to 
_ ourselves horn clashing upon horn, or glancing 
from each bony shield until some skilful stroke 
or unlucky slip placed one combatant at the 
mercy of the other, and he went down before 
the blows of his adversary “ as falls on Mount 
Alvernus a thunder-smitten oak.” 
A pair of Triceratops horns in the National 
Museum bears witness to such encounters, for 
