PREFA CE 



Childeex who read this book will perhaps ask 

 whether all the stories are true ? Now all the 

 stories are not true ; at least, we never meet the 

 Phoenix now in any known part of the world. To 

 be sure, there are other creatures, such as the 

 Mastodon and the Pterodactyl, which are not found 

 alive anywhere, but their bones remain, turned into 

 stones or fossils. It is unlikely that they were 

 changed into rocks by a witch, or by Perseus with 

 the Gorgon's Head, in the Greek story. It must 

 have been done in some other way. However, the 

 bones, now stones, show that there were plenty of 

 queer beasts that have died out. Possibly the sight 

 of the stone beasts and birds made people believe, 

 long ago, in such creatures as Dragons, and the 

 water-bulls that haunt the lochs in the Highlands. 

 One of these was seen by a shepherd about eighty 

 years since, and an account of it was sent to Sir 

 Walter Scott. There is also the Bunyip, a strange 

 creature which both white and black men say that 

 they have seen in the lakes of Australia. Then there 



