EARTH DRAGONS. 183 



feeble, long and slender in character : longest in 

 the middle of the jaws and decreasing and finally 

 disappearing on each side, so that by far the 

 greater part of the jaws were quite toothless. 

 The suggestion that this peculiar dentition is due 

 to adaptation to feeding on succulent aquatic vege- 

 tation is borne out by several features in the skele- 

 ton. Chiefest of these is the fact that there was 

 but a single external bony nostril, and this opened 

 on the middle of the top of the skull, as in whales 

 and porpoises. From this we may gather that 

 the creature led a more or less completely aquatic 

 life, the position of the nostril allowing it to come 

 to the surface to breathe without exposing the 

 rest of the body. But hugest of all these giants 

 was the great Atlantosaurus, with a length of 80 

 feet, and a height of thirty feet ! Mere figures will 

 not convey any idea of the real proportions of 

 this living mountain of flesh. This can only be 

 done by comparing it with some of the giants of 

 to-day. An elephant beside this monster becomes 

 a pygmy : only some of the largest whales equal 

 it in length, but they do not approach it in 

 height, being to all intents and purposes legless. 

 As we have before remarked, somfe are inclined 

 to believe that the great size of these monsters 

 was incompatible with a life on land, and that 

 accordingly they must have lived in the water. 

 Bodies of such huge size, it is argued, could 

 scarcely be moved on land, but, buoyed up by 

 water locomotion would be easy. That many 

 species were indeed aquatic, obtaining their sus- 

 tenance by browsing on aquatic vegetation, there 

 is good reason to believe ; indeed, in the remains 



