CHAPTER VIII. 



FLYING DRAGONS. 



"Geology does better in reclothing dry bones and revealing lost creations 

 than in tracing veins oflead or beds of iron." RUSKIN. 



THE great Ocean of Air was not uninhabited during the long 

 ages of the Mesozoic era, when fishes swarmed in the seas, and 

 reptiles, such as we have attempted to describe in the last five 

 chapters, trod the earth, or swam across lakes and rivers. With 

 such an exuberance of life in various forms, it would indeed have 

 been strange if the atmosphere had only been tenanted by humble 

 little insects like dragon-flies, locusts, or butterflies and moths, all 

 of which we know were living then. 



Now, the record of the rocks tells us that one great order of 

 reptiles somehow acquired the power of flying, and flitted about 

 as bats or flying-foxes do now. Since they were undoubtedly 

 reptiles in spite of certain resemblances to birds we have 

 ventured to call them " flying dragons," as others have done. 

 The notion of a flying reptile may perhaps seem strange, or even 

 impossible to some persons ; but no one has a right to say such 

 and such a thing "cannot be," or is " contrary to Nature," for the 

 world is full of wonderful things such as we should have con- 

 sidered impossible had we not seen them with our eyes. Charles 

 Kingsley, in his delightful fairy tale, The Water-Babies, makes 

 some humorous remarks on that matter, which we may quote 

 here. He says, " Did not learned men too hold, till within the 

 last twenty-five years, that a flying dragon was an impossible 



