108 The Great Spiked Dinosaur 



ing above, and protecting the vital organs, the 

 great cat-like reptile crawls stealthily forward. 

 Don't fear friends to watch the combat. It is 

 very terrible to see a blood thirsty tyrant slack 

 his thirst in the blood of his victim. He at- 

 tempts to find a vulnerable spot to strike with 

 his powerful claw-armed hind foot, the claws of 

 hardened horn, sharp and recurved, each a foot 

 in length and spreading over half a square yard 

 of surface. Or he would like to seize the thinly 

 covered abdominal walls, with his horrid teeth, 

 lance-like that fill the dentary and maxilary bones 

 of the lower and upper jaws, that are nearly 

 three feet in length. With a gape of the mouth 

 of nearly two feet, the red gums, roof and floor 

 of the mouth, with the great forked tongue, pre- 

 sent a terrifing appearance. But the spiked liz- 

 ard is on guard, and when his enemy makes a 

 sudden dash at him, he presents his impregnable 

 head. In spite of his bulk, being much heavier 

 than the carnivore, he seems to revolve on a 

 pivot, and the shield is where the Gorgosaur at- 

 tempts to strike. The instinct of self-defense is 

 ever present, in time of danger. Sometimes the 

 herbivore makes a sudden dash, and trys to horn 

 the agile foe, or with open mouth tries to bring 

 his vise-like beak together in his enemies flesh. 

 We watch the combat with bated breath. 



The seven horned brute is too much for the 

 tiger of the glades; so, thoroughly exhausted at 

 last, he creeps off a side path to hunt an easier 



