It has been said that everything on earth has its double in the water. Are there not water-beetles, water-scorpions, water-rats, water-snakes, sea-lions, sea-horses, and a host of other living things, whether plants or animals, bearing some sort of resemblance to others that live on land? Then why not sea-serpents? The great controversy of the sea-serpent, that has so often been discussed in the newspapers, need not be considered here. We are dealing not with the present, but with the past; and whether or no the wonderful sailors' yarns of sea-serpents can be regarded as authentic, even in a single case, we can offer our readers infallible proof that, during the so-called "Age of Reptiles," certain monstrous saurian animals flourished in considerable abundance, which, though not true serpents, nevertheless must have borne a striking resemblance to such, as they cleaved he waters of primæval seas.[32] [32] See an interesting little work, entitled, _Sea-Monsters Unmasked_, by H. Lee (Clowes and Sons). Appendix II. contains some extracts therefrom. The modern evolutionist believes that snakes are descended from lizards, possessing, as usual, four legs; that some primitive form of lizard with very small legs appeared on the scene, and found that it could better move along by wriggling its body and pushing with its ribs than by walking. So, in course of time, a race of lizards without legs arose; these, by Natural Selection, and perhaps other means, became more and more elongated, so that they could move faster than their ancestors, and glide out of harm's way more effectually. Thus was the snake evolved from a lizard. Now, in the great geological museum of the stratified rocks, there have been discovered skeletons of marine reptiles, which propelled themselves chiefly by means of their tails and elongated bodies, rather than by their limbs. The limbs were not discarded entirely as in the case of the serpents, but were useful in their way as the fins of fishes are. Perhaps, therefore, we may be justified in calling these ancient monsters sea-serpents, in consideration of their long thin bodies; for they certainly would be called by that name if now living. Strictly speaking, they were not serpents, but more or less like some of the extinct saurians described in chap. iv. The name, however, has been adopted by geologists, and is useful in so far as it serves to remind us of their very peculiar shape and structure. Remains of these strange creatures have been found both in Europe and America.