106 The Great Spiked Dinosaur 



bones, and mussel shells. There is plenty of 

 drift wood too, lying in heaps, left there by the 

 last flood. We wander on towards the plain. 

 Hark ! don't you hear a noise in the thick vege- 

 tation as if a heavy reptile was cropping his 

 morning fare? For reptile it must be, as only 

 diminutive marsupial-like mammals live at this 

 time. If you will follow me, we will see. So, 

 without further ado, we walk into the rank vege- 

 tation, and parting it, look down a narrow path 

 along which a spiked dinosaur is feeding. He is 

 unconscious of our presence and is feeding to- 

 wards us. His powerful limbs of equal length, 

 are sunk deep in the moist earth. His head is in 

 plain sight, and the crest stands up when he bent 

 it, to crop off a mouthful of succulent herbage 

 with his heavy beak, sheathed in horn. This he 

 shears with his beveled teeth behind, very much 

 like the mechanism of an old fashioned hay cut- 

 ter. 



The teeth are double rooted, and in magazines 

 like those of the duck-billed dinosaurs, though 

 not as numerous. The great horn is black and 

 polished, full three feet long, like the sharp spear 

 point in the shield of thick buffalo hide of a 

 Philippian Warrior. The great spikes stand out 

 from the top of the crest when he lowers his head. 

 Thus fully armored he can force a passage way 

 through the thickest vegetation, beating it down 

 beneath his feet. There are four hoofed toes on 

 each front foot, and three behind. The large 



