Cast of Brain-cavity of Dinoceras mirabile 152 45. Skeleton of Brontops robustus 161 46. Skull of Sivatherium giganteum 168 47. Skeleton of Sivatherium giganteum 169 48. Restored Figure of Gigantic Tortoise, Colossochelys atlas 171 49. The Elephant victorious over the Tortoise, supporting the World, and unfolding the Mysteries of the "Fauna Sivalensis" 173 50. Skeleton of Scelidotherium 184 51. Extinct Gigantic Armadillo, Glyptodon clavipes 190 52. Skeleton of Mammoth, Elephas primigenius 203 53. Figure of the Mammoth, engraved on Mammoth Ivory 214 54. Skeleton of Mastodon arvernensis 218 55. Head of Woolly Rhinoceros 224 56. Skeleton of the Elephant-footed Moa, Dinornis elephantopus 233 57. Skeleton of Great Irish Deer, Cervus giganteus 242 58. Skeleton of Rhytina gigas 247 EXTINCT MONSTERS. INTRODUCTION. "The earth hath gathered to her breast again And yet again, the millions that were born Of her unnumbered, unremembered tribes." Let us see if we can get some glimpses of the primæval inhabitants of the world, that lived and died while as yet there were no men and women having authority over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air. We shall, perhaps, find this antique world quite as strange as the fairy-land of Grimm or Lewis Carroll. True, it was not inhabited by "slithy toves" or "jabber-wocks," but by real beasts, of whose shapes, sizes, and habits much is already known--a good deal more than might at first be supposed. And yet, real as it all is, this antique world--this panorama of scenes that have for ever passed away--is a veritable fairy-land. In those days of which geologists tell us, the principal parts were played, not by kings and queens, but by creatures many of which were very unlike those we see around us now. And yet it is no fairy-land after all, where impossible things happen, and where impossible dragons figure largely; but only the same old world in which you and I were born. Everything you will see here is quite true. All these monsters once lived. Truth is 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.