Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ THE MONSTER-HUNTERS BOOKS BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER U. S. Service Series Illustrations from Photographs taken for U. S. Government. Large 12mo. Cloth. Price $1.50 each. THE BOY WITH THE U. S. SURVEY THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FORESTERS THE BOY WITH THE U. S. CENSUS THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FISHERIES THE BOY WITH THE U. S. INDIANS THE BOY WITH THE U. S. EXPLORERS THE BOY WITH THE U. S. LIFE-SAVERS LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON [Illustration: _Courtesy of American Museum of Natural History._ A BATTLE TO THE DEATH. Arsinothere of three million years ago impaling a carnivorous creodont, somewhat resembling a hyena.] THE MONSTER-HUNTERS BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER Author of “U. S. Service Series” WITH FIFTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS, MOSTLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS LOANED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY [Illustration: Decoration] BOSTON LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. Published, June, 1916 Copyright, 1916, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. _All Rights Reserved_ THE MONSTER-HUNTERS Norwood Press BERWICK & SMITH CO. NORWOOD, MASS. U. S. A. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The Author desires to express his appreciation of the consultation and assistance of Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, President of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, and of the members of the Scientific Staff of the Museum, especially: Dr. Frederic A. Lucas, Director; Dr. W. D. Matthew, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology; Mr. Walter Granger, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology (Mammals); and Mr. Barnum Brown, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology (Reptiles). The Author further wishes to express appreciation for the use of illustrations provided by the Museum, naming especially the restorations of Mr. Charles R. Knight. PREFACE Mystery and marvel are the gates to that wild world where the Monsters of the past lived out their monstrous lives. Adventure that carries one into those steaming coal forests, into those black and reptile-haunted swamps, that sets one face to face with the sprawling brood of giants, terribly menacing and terribly true, holds a thrill peculiar to itself. So startling, so madly strange seem the conditions that we scarcely dare to believe the adventure true, and then, the slow processes of Time turn one by one the pages of that age-old book, and the most extravagant flight of the imagination is outdistanced by facts. Out to the waste and desert corners of the earth, men go to read these stories. They find the bones of the colossal gladiators still locked in their Titanic struggle, though that struggle ended in death ten million years ago; they find a ruthless war of tooth and claw made tenfold more ferocious than any combat of living beasts of prey by the huge bulk, and the terrible offensive and defensive weapons of those vast animals that the Earth could no longer tolerate.