2 
EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
stranger than fiction; and perhaps we shall enjoy our visit to 
this fairy-land all the more for that reason. For not even the 
dragons supposed to have been slain by armed knights in old 
times, when people gave ear to any tale, however extravagant, 
could equal in size or strength the real dragons we shall presently 
meet with, whose actual bones may be seen in the Natural 
History Museum at South Kensington. 
Many people who visit this great museum and find their way 
to the geological galleries on the right, pass hastily by the cases 
of bones, teeth, and skeletons. These things, it seems, fail to 
interest them. They do not know' how to interpret them. They 
cannot picture to themselves the kinds of creatures to which the 
relics once belonged ; and so they pass them by and presently 
go to the more attractive collection of stuffed birds on the other 
side. There they see the feathered tribes of the air all beautifully 
arranged ; some poised in the air by almost invisible wires ; some 
perched on branches : but all surrounded by grass, flowers, and 
natural objects, imitated with marvellous reality, so that they see 
the birds as they really are in nature, and can almost fancy they 
hear them singing. 
Now, it has often occurred to the present writer that some- 
thing more might be done for the long-neglected “ lost creations ” 
of the world, to bring them out of their obscurity, that they 
may be made to tell to the passer-by their wondrous story. We 
can, however, well imagine some of our readers asking, “ Can 
these dry bones live?” “Yes,” we would say, “they can be 
made to live; reason and imagination will, if we give them 
proper play, provide us eyes wdierewith to see the world’s lost 
creations.” To such men as Cuvier, Owen, Huxley, and others, 
these dry bones do live. It will be our object to describe to the 
reader some of the wonderful results that have rewarded the 
lifelong labours of such great men. We shall take some of 
the largest and strangest forms of life -that once lived, and try to 
picture them as they really w'ere when alive, wdiether walking on 
