There is scarcely a place in all the world where a boy cannot find for himself some tokens of this Age of Monsters, where he cannot himself be the hunter and the captor of strange things. In this book all that is told of that grim past is true and every statement may be taken as scientifically accurate. To show to the boys of the United States the thrill of discovery in their own country, and the splendor of the work that their scientists and museum experts are accomplishing, is the aim and purpose of THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I KILLING THE LAST DRAGON 1 CHAPTER II THE MONSTERS THAT NEVER WERE 28 CHAPTER III PIRATES OF THE AIR 52 CHAPTER IV SEEING THE SEA-SERPENT 81 CHAPTER V THE MAD ARTIST AT THE SPHINX 116 CHAPTER VI ACROSS THE DESERT ON CAMEL-BACK 154 CHAPTER VII FINDING THE ELEPHANT’S GREAT-GRANDFATHER 187 CHAPTER VIII THE VALLEY OF FOSSIL WHALES 208 CHAPTER IX THE MARCH OF THE MASTODONS 237 CHAPTER X THE THREE-TOED HORSE 277 CHAPTER XI UNDER THE CLAWS OF A DINOSAUR 306 ILLUSTRATIONS A Battle to the Death _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Dragon Slain by Regulus 20 Scylla of the Seven Heads 20 Merman from the Mediterranean 20 The Dragon of the Drachenfels 20 Monsters Thought Real by the Ancients 20 The Unicorn in China 42 Stegosaurus, the Super-Dreadnought of Old 50 The Largest Creature that Ever Flew 72 A Flying Nightmare of Olden Time 72 Sea-Serpent Attacking a Pirate Ship 82 The Fiercest Monster that Ever Lived 84 The Sharp-Toothed Death 86 The Jurassic Sea-Serpent 86 Combat Between Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus 88 Sea-Serpent Swallowing Sailors 96 The Most Authentic Sea-Serpent 96