DESPOTS OF THE SEAS 67 



that the big Ichthyosaurs often made a meal of 

 these small relations of theirs. We would hardly 

 call a fish five feet long small if we tried to eat it ; but 

 to the voracious Ichthyosaurs, a creature of this size 

 probably seemed nothing more than a light lunch. 



All of the Ichthyosaurs, large and small, are 

 believed to have had a smooth skin, for no scales 

 have ever been found lying near any of their skele- 

 tons. Large numbers of these skeletons have been 

 discovered and are now to be seen in museums 

 throughout the world. But it was a long time 

 after the first Ichthyosaur was dug out of the rocks 

 some two hundred years ago, before any one could 

 make out what sort of creature it was. Then, 

 about the year 1814, it was learned that the bones 

 were those of some monster which had lived in the 

 water millions of years before the time of man. 



It is thought that the Ichthyosaur was descended 

 from some land animal. For we know that as the 

 earth slowly changed in its climate and vegeta- 

 tion, the animals living upon it had to change 

 their habits. The species which were not able 

 to do this gradually died off until they entirely 



