01] ^ SirococSiie. 



WHILE paddling up the Rohan, a small stream in the north- 

 west province of India, I saw what appeared to be a half- 

 burned log of wood lying on a sandbank. I paddled close up 

 to it. To my astonishment, it proved to be a huge reptile. 

 The old stories of dragons, griffins, and monsters, seemed no 

 longer fables ; the speculations of geologists concerning mo- 

 sosaurians, hyleesaurians, and plesiosaurians, were no longer 

 dreams. There, in all his scaly magnificence, was a real 

 saurian, nearly eighteen feet long. For a while I stood gazing 

 at this, to me, new fellow-citizen of the world, and speculat- 

 ing on his mental constitution. The monster was, or pre- 



(355) 





