PREFACE BY DR. HENRY WOODWARD, vii 
a huge torpid reptile, with very small head and teeth^ about 
twenty feet in length, and having a series of flattened 
dorsal spines, nearly a yard in height, fixed upon the 
median line of its back ; and his Triceratops, another 
reptile bigger than Stegosaurus, having a huge neck-shield 
joined to its skull, and horns on its head and snout. Nor 
do the Eocene mammals fall short of the marvellous, 
for in Dinoceras we find a beast with six horns, and sword- 
bayonet tusks, joined to a skeleton like an elephant. 
Latest amongst the marvels in modern palaeontological 
discovery has been that made by Professor Fraas of the 
outline of the skin and fins in Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris, 
which shows it to have been a veritable shark-like reptile, 
with a high dorsal fin and broad fish-tail, so that “ fish- 
lizard ” is more than ever an appropriate term for these 
old Liassic marine reptiles. 
As every palaeontologist is well aware, restorations are 
ever liable to emendation, and that the present and latest 
book of extinct monsters will certainly prove no exception 
to the rule is beyond a doubt, but the author deserves our 
praise for the very boldness of his attempt, and the honesty 
with which he has tried to follow nature and avoid 
exaggeration. Every one will admire the simple and un- 
affected style in which the author has endeavoured to tell 
his story, avoiding, as far as possible, all scientific terms, 
so as to bring it within the intelligence of the unlearned. 
He has, moreover, taken infinite pains to study up his 
subject with care, and to consult all the literature 
bearing upon it. He has thus been enabled to convey 
accurate information in a simple and pleasing form, and 
to guide the artist in his difficult task with much wisdom 
and intelligence. That the excellence of the sketches is 
b 
