?. EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



stranger than fiction ; and perhaps we shall enjoy our visit to 

 this fairy-land all the more for that reason. For not even the 

 dragons supposed to have been slain by armed knights in old 

 times, when people gave ear to any tale, however extravagant, 

 could equal in size or strength the real dragons we shall presently 

 meet with, whose actual bones may be seen in the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington. 



Many people who visit this great museum and find their way 

 to the geological galleries on the right, pass hastily by the cases 

 of bones, teeth, and skeletons. These things, it seems, fail to 

 interest them. They do not know how to interpret them. They 

 cannot picture to themselves the kinds of creatures to which the 

 relics once belonged ; and so they pass them by and presently 

 go to the more attractive collection of stuffed birds on the other 

 side. There they see the feathered tribes of the air all beautifully 

 arranged ; some poised in the air by almost invisible wires ; some 

 perched on branches : but all surrounded by grass, flowers, and 

 natural objects, imitated with marvellous reality, so that they see 

 the birds as they really are in nature, and can almost fancy they 

 hear them singing. 



Now, it has often occurred to the present writer that some- 

 thing more might be done for the long-neglected " lost creations " 

 of the world, to bring them out of their obscurity, that they 

 may be made to tell to the passer-by their wondrous story. We 

 can, however, well imagine some of our readers asking, " Can 

 these dry bones live?" "Yes," we would say, "they can be 

 made to live; reason and imagination will, if we give them 

 proper play, provide us eyes wherewith to see the world's lost 

 creations." To such men as Cuvier, Owen, Huxley, and others, 

 these dry bones do live. It will be our object to describe to the 

 reader some of the wonderful results that have rewarded the 

 lifelong labours of such great men. We shall take some of 

 the largest and strangest forms of life that once lived, and try to 

 picture them as they really were when alive, whether walking on 



