PREFACE TO NEW EDITION 



PALAEONTOLOGY, like all other sciences, has made many advances 

 since the year 1892, when the first edition of Extinct Monsters 

 was published. This was followed in 1894 by Creatwres of 

 Other Days. The former is now out of print, and the latter not 

 far off that state. Books, monographs, and papers have been, 

 and still are, pouring out in a big continuous stream, in some 

 cases setting forth results of the highest importance to Naturalists 

 and Geologists. In the following pages an endeavour has been 

 made to deal with some of this mass of material in a light and 

 superficial way. The process may be compared to skimming 

 samples of cream from many bowls of milk. For it is only 

 the cream that the general public require. The reservoir of 

 milk below would be too deep, dark, and unintelligible. In 

 order to avoid making two volumes the greater part of Creatures 

 of Other Days has been incorporated in the present book, and 

 the two titles are therefore retained. A certain amount of 

 condensation has been necessary in order to keep down the 

 size of the book, and the chapters dealing with fossil fish, 

 crocodiles, and " Kelics of the Pleistocene Period " (e.g. Toxodon, 

 Macrauchenia, Bos primigenius) have been omitted. A few 

 creatures from Extinct Monsters are also reluctantly omitted. 

 Every endeavour has been made to illustrate the subject fully 



