62 THE BRONTOSAUR AND ITS COUSINS 



(which we may compare to the period 1848-70). It 

 is said that there will be another Ice Age some day ! 



To return to our Middle Ages and Brontosaurs. 

 The earth was again generally low-lying, but sunny 

 and with a clearer air. Europe was mostly under 

 water. Only the summits of its higher hills peeped 

 above water, apart from a few regions which are now 

 elevated table-lands. Europe was, in fact, mainly an 

 archipelago, like the Pacific Islands. A warm blue 

 ocean, with prodigious sharks and swimming reptiles, 

 covered the greater part. Coral reefs of great beauty 

 fringed the islands; we find their remains now high 

 up on our mountains. There was more land where 

 the North Atlantic now is than in Eurpoe. A swampy 

 continent stretched from Scotland to America, and the 

 great animals wandered (as species) from continent 

 to continent. 



These conditions explain the Brontosaur and its 

 cousins. Probably most of the larger reptiles were 

 swamp animals, floating their great bulk on the 

 water like the hippopotamus. If you notice carefully 

 the very small allowance of leg to the monstrous 

 skeleton of the Diplodocus in the South Kensington 

 Museum, and the breadth of foot, you will realize 

 this. One can hardly imagine it walking, much less 

 running ! Probably most of these larger " Deinosaurs," 

 as this group of the reptiles is called, were aquatic 

 animals. Food was very abundant, and they were 

 vegetarians, taking in, lazily, tons per day of the 



