4 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



records are written in strange hieroglyphs, yet it is not difficult to 

 interpret their meaning ; and thus many an old story, many an 

 old scene, may be pictured in the mind of man. 



Shall we call this earth-drama a tragedy or a comedy ? Doubt- 

 less tragic scenes occurred at times ; as, for instance, when 

 fierce creatures engaged in deadly combat : and probably 

 amusing, if not comic, incidents took place occasionally, such as 

 might have provoked us to laughter, had we been there to see 

 them. But let us simply call it a drama. Backgrounds of 

 scenery were not wanting. Then, as now, the surface of the 

 earth was clothed with vegetation, and strange cattle pastured on 

 grassy plains. Vegetation was at times very luxuriant. The 

 forests of the coal period, with their giant reeds and club-moss 

 trees, must have made a strange picture. Then, as now, there 

 rose up from the plains lofty ranges of mountains, reaching to 

 the clouds, their summits clothed with the eternal snows. These, 

 too, played their part, feeding the streams and the rivers that 

 meandered over the plains, bringing life and fertility with them, 

 as they do now. The sun shone and the wind blew : sometimes 

 gently, so that the leaves just whispered in an evening breeze; at 

 other times so violently that the giants of the forest swayed to 

 and fro, and the seas lashed themselves furiously against rocky 

 coasts. Nor were the underground forces of the earth less active 

 than they are now : volcanic eruptions often took place on a mag- 

 nificent scale ; volcanoes poured out fiery lava streams for leagues 

 beneath their feet; great showers of ashes and fine dust were 

 ejected in the air, so that the sun was darkened for a time, and 

 the surface of the sea was covered for many miles with floating 

 pumice and volcanic dust, which in time sank to the bottom, 

 and was made into hard rock, such as we now find on the top of 

 Snowdon. 



Earthquake shocks were quite as frequent, and no doubt the 

 ground swayed to and fro, or was rent open as some unusually 

 great earth-movement took place, and perhaps a mountain 



