vi P REPACK. 



It is not given to every one to be able to consult the 

 old Naturalists ; and, besides, most of them are written 

 in Latin, and to read them through is partly unprofit- 

 able work, as they copy so largely one from another. 

 But, for the general reader, selections can be made, and, 

 if assisted by accurate reproductions of the very quaint 

 wood engravings, a book may be produced which, I 

 venture to think, will not prove tiring, even to a super- 

 ficial reader. 



Perhaps the greatest wonders of the creation, and 

 the strangest forms of being, have been met with in the 

 sea ; and as people who only occasionally saw them 

 were not draughtsmen, but had to describe the monsters 

 they had seen on their return to land, their effigies came 

 to be exceedingly marvellous, and unlike the originals. 

 The Northern Ocean, especially, was their abode, and, 

 among the Northern nations, tales of Kraken, Sea-Ser- 

 pents, Whirlpools, Mermen, &c., &c., lingered long after 

 they were received with doubt by other nations ; but 

 perhaps the most credulous times were the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries, when no travellers' tales seem 

 too gross for belief, as can well be seen in the extreme 

 popularity, throughout all Europe, of the " Voyages and 

 Travels of Sir John Maundeville," who, though he may 

 be a myth, and his so-called writings a compilation, 

 yet that compilation represented the sum of knowledge, 

 both of Geography, and Natural History, of countries 

 not European, that was attainable in the first half of 

 the fourteenth century. 



All the old Naturalists copied from one another, and 



