86 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



when, it was struck : in like manner the geologist can decipher 

 these natural memorials, interpret the hieroglyphics with which 

 they are inscribed, and from apparently the most insignificant 

 relics trace the history of beings of whom no other records 



FIG. 19. Skeleton of Compsognathus longipes. (From the Solenhofen lime- 

 stone.) 



are extant, and ascertain the forms and habits of unknown types 

 of organisation whose races are swept from the face of the 

 earth, ere the creation of man, and the creatures which are his 



