x PEE FACE 



is the Sea Serpent ; many people have seen him 

 alive, but no specimen of a dead Sea Serpent is in 

 any of the museums. About 1,300 years ago, more 

 or less, St. Columba saw a great water-beast, which 

 lived in the river Ness, and roared as it pursued men ; 

 but the Saint put an end to its adventures. For my 

 part, I do not disbelieve that there may be plenty of 

 strange animals which scientific men have not yet 

 dissected and named by long names. Some of the 

 last of these may have been remembered and called 

 Dragons. For, if there were never any Dragons, 

 why did all sorts of nations tell stories about them ? 

 The Fire Drake, however, also the Ice Beast, or 

 Eemora, do seem very unlikely creatures, and perhaps 

 they are only a sort of poetical inventions. The 

 stories about these unscientific animals are told by 

 Mr. H. S. C. Everard, who found them in very 

 curious old books. 



The stories about Foxes are by Miss B. Grieve, 

 who is a great friend of Foxes, and takes their side 

 when they are hunted by the Duke of Buccleuch's 

 hounds. I am afraid she would not tell where the 

 Fox was hiding, if she knew (as she sometimes 

 does), just as you would not have told his enemies, 

 if you had known that Charles II. was hiding in the 

 oak tree. Not that it is wrong to hunt foxes, but 

 a person who is not hunting naturally takes the 

 weaker side. And, after all, the fun is to pursue the 

 fox, not to catch him. The same lady wrote about 

 sheep in ' Sheep Farming on the Border." 



