PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 

 BY DR. HENRY WOODWARD, F.R.S. 



LATE KEEPER OF GEOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 



I HAVE been requested by my friend Mr. Hutchinson, to 

 express my opinion upon the series of drawings which have been 

 prepared by that excellent artist of animals, Mr. Smit, for this 

 little book entitled "Extinct Monsters." 



Many of the stories told in early days, of Giants and Dragons, 

 may have originated in the discovery of the limb-bones of the 

 Mammoth, the Ehinoceros, or other large animals, in caves, 

 associated with heaps of broken fragments, in which latter the 

 ignorant peasant saw in fancy the remains of the victims devoured 

 at the monster's repasts. 



In Louis Figuier's World before the Deluge we are favoured 

 with several highly sensational views of extinct monsters ; whilst 

 the pen of the late Dr. Kinns has furnished valuable information 

 as to the " slimy " nature of their blood ! 



The late Mr. B. Waterhouse Hawkins (formerly a lithographic 

 artist) was for years occupied in unauthorised restorations of 

 various Secondary reptiles and Tertiary mammals, and about 1853 

 he received encouragement from Professor Owen to undertake the 

 restorations of extinct animals which still adorn the lower grounds 

 of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 



But the discoveries of later years have shown that the Dicyno- 

 don and Labyrinthodon, instead of being toadlike in form, were 



