AUTHOR'S PREFACE xi 



proportions, and, in many cases, more weird and strange than 

 the imagination could conceive; and yet the public have never 

 heard of these discoveries, by the side of which the now well- 

 known "lost creations" of Cuvier, Buckland, or Conybeare 

 sink into the shade. For once, we beg leave to suggest, the 

 hungry pressman, seeking " copy," has failed to see a good thing. 

 Descriptions of some of "Marsh's monsters" and how they 

 were found, might, one would think, have proved attractive to 

 a public ever on the look-out for something new. 



Professor Huxley, comparing our present knowledge of the 

 mammals of the Tertiary era with that of 1859, states that 

 the discoveries of Gaudry, Marsh, and Filhol are " as if zoologists 

 were to become acquainted with a country hitherto unknown, 

 as rich in novel forms of life as Brazil or South America once 

 was to Europeans." 



The object of this book is to describe some of the larger 

 and more monstrous forms of the past the lost creations of 

 the old world ; to clothe their dry bones with flesh, and suggest 

 for them backgrounds such as are indicated by the discoveries 

 of geology : in other words, to endeavour, by means of pen and 

 pencil, to bring them back to life. The ordinary public cannot 

 learn much by merely gazing at skeletons set up in museums. 

 One longs to cover their nakedness with flesh and skin, and to 

 see them as they were when they walked this earth. 



Our present imperfect knowledge renders it difficult in some 

 cases to construct successful restorations ; but, nevertheless, the 

 attempt is worth making : and if some who think geology a very 

 dry subject, can be converted to a different opinion on reading 

 these pages, we shall be well rewarded for our pains. 



We venture to hope that those who will take the trouble 

 to peruse this book, or even to look at its pictures, on which 



