INTRODUCTION 11 



strange beasts that lived in a time when there was 

 no human being to look at them. 



It is a pity to spoil a story, or a book, by draw- 

 ing a moral, yet there is one point that I cannot 

 help making. How often, when looking at the 

 skeleton of one of these huge monsters, has some 

 one remarked, "What a pity that these creatures 

 could not have lived until now, so that we might 

 see them in the flesh ! " True, it would be interest- 

 ing ! Now there is much danger that our very 

 great grandchildren, passing through the museums 

 of to-morrow, will often remark, "What a pity that 

 all these animals should have been exterminated by 

 our ancestors ! " 



Let us therefore try to save a few animals in 

 some sanctuary so that our descendants may know 

 about the creatures of to-day, for then there may be 

 no Miss Mix to tell about them. 



