PREFACE TO NEW EDITION 
Palaeontology, like all other sciences, has made many advances 
since the year 1892, when the first edition of Extinct Monsters 
was published. This was followed in 1894 by Creatures of 
Other Days. The former is now out of print, and the latter not 
far off that state. Books, monographs, and papers have been, 
and still are, pouring out in a big continuous stream, in some 
cases setting forth results of the highest importance to ISTaturalists 
and Geologists. In the following pages an endeavour has been 
made to deal with some of this mass of material in a light and 
superficial way. The process may be compared to skimming 
samples of cream from many bowls of milk. Por it is only 
the cream that the general public require. The reservoir of 
milk below would he too deep, dark, and unintelligible. In 
order to avoid making two volumes the greater part of Creatures 
of Other Days has been incorporated in the present book, and 
the two titles are therefore retained. A certain amount of 
condensation has been necessary in order to keep down the 
size of the book, and the chapters dealing with fossil fish, 
crocodiles, and “ Eelics of the Pleistocene Period ” {e.g. Toxodon, 
Macrauchenia, Bos primigenius) have been omitted. A few 
creatures from Extinct Monsters are also reluctantly omitted. 
Every endeavour has been made to illustrate the subject fully 
