There is a wealth of material for reconstructing the past that is simply bewildering; and yet little has been done to bring before the public the strange creatures that have perished.[1] [1] Figuier's _World before the Deluge_ is hardly a trustworthy book, and is often not up to date. The restorations also are misleading. Professor Dawson's _Story of the Earth and Man_ is better; but the illustrations are poor. Nicholson's _Life-History of the Earth_ is a student's book. Messrs. Cassells' _Our Earth and its Story_ deals with the whole of geology, and so is too diffusive; its ideal landscapes To the writer it is a matter of astonishment that the and restorations leave much to be desired. discoveries of Marsh, Cope, Leidy, and others in America, not to mention some important European discoveries, should have attracted so little notice in this country. In the far and wild West a host of strange reptiles and quadrupeds have been unearthed from their rocky sepulchres, often of incredibly huge proportions, and, in many cases, more weird and strange than the imagination could conceive; and yet the public have never heard of these discoveries, by the side of which the now well-known "lost creations" of Cuvier, Buckland, or Conybeare sink into the shade. For once, we beg leave to suggest, the hungry pressman, seeking "copy," has failed to see a good thing. Descriptions of some of "Marsh's monsters" and how they were found, might, one would think, have proved attractive to a public ever on the look out for something new. Professor Huxley, comparing our present knowledge of the mammals of the Tertiary era with that of 1859, states that the discoveries of Gaudry, Marsh, and Filhol, are "as if zoologists were to become acquainted with a country hitherto unknown, as rich in novel forms of life as Brazil or South America once were to Europeans." The object of this book is to describe some of the larger and more monstrous forms of the past--the lost creations of the old world; to clothe their dry bones with flesh, and suggest for them backgrounds such as are indicated by the discoveries of geology: in other words, to endeavour, by means of pen and pencil, to bring them back to life. The ordinary public cannot learn much by merely gazing at skeletons set up in museums. One longs to cover their nakedness with flesh and skin, and to see them as they were when they walked this earth. Our present imperfect knowledge renders it difficult in some cases to construct successful restorations; but, nevertheless, the attempt is worth making: and if some who think geology a very dry subject, can be converted to a different opinion on reading these pages, we shall be well rewarded for our trouble.