The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-30

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 The collection in itself is an exception
 ally rich one, and it's gaps are filled by
 exact copies of unique specimens in
 other museums.
 The age of dragons corresponded with the secondary era of geologtsts. There were once dragons of the air,
 dragons of the water, dragons of the land. The first are related to other reptiles much as bats are to mammals.
 The great flying membrane was sup
 ported by one finger, immensely pro-
 longed; the others probably took no
 part in supporting this, but were used in clinging to crags. There were many
 kinds which differed much in size,
 some being hardly greater than our
 largest English bat while others dwarf
 ed the biggest bird of prey. One speci-
 men, considerably restored, in a wall
 case at one end of the gallery, meas
 ured IS feet between it's wngtips.
 Dragons of the water were far more
 abundant. How far some of these were
 amphibious-like our crocodiles and al-
 ligators, representatives of which even
 then were in being-it is difficult to de-
 termine. Probably not few widowed
 in the slime and frequented marshy
 places. Others were distinctly marine, though even they, like seals, may occa- sionally have come on shore. But there
 were water snakes, as we'll as land snakes, and some creatures which might claim to represent our perennial visitor, the sea serpent,
 Armed with great teeth, these snake like creatures, which sometimes exceed ed 70 feet in length, must have been tyrants of the seas. But long before them swimming lizards quite as for midable had occupied the ocean. One called Ichthyosaurus or tish-lizard
 was occasionally from 30 to 40 feet in length. A fine specimen In the museum must have measured over yards, A heavily built creature, f1sh-like in out line, propelled by two pairs of strong paddles, its powerful jaws fitted with large conical teeth, it must have rushed at it's prey like a monstrous pike.
 But the land dragons were, if possi- ble, more remarkable than those of the water. Many of these-the Dinosaurus, or terrible lizards as they are rightly called-reached a huge size. These giants were more abundant In America; but some of them, such as Pelarosaurus and Cetiosaurus, have been found in this country. Bones such as we can see here make a man feel small indeed; | the towering hind limb of Brontosaurus, an American form, gives an idea of this creature, which is noted for the | bigness of its body and the smallness of it's brain. But with more than one ! genius the thigh bone is often quite | six feet long. In the middle of the [ room rises perfect skeleton of one of | the strangest of the dragons, called the | Iguanodon. This, indeed, is only cast; | but many bones are shown in the cases together with Dr. Mantells original f specimen, embedded in a block of Til gate stone, from which the genus was determined more than 60 years ago. The specimen is reproduction of X one found at Bernissart in Belgium. In a coal mine the men struck, far below the surface, a broad Assure )r gorge in the rock, which had been filled with clay in the days when our Wealden beds were formed. From this, If Iguanodons alone, 29 skeletons, prac- ically perfect, have been extracted. This creatures loks as if 1t were trying to become kangaroo, for it's fore legs were smaller than Its hind, and it sat ID in the same way, supported by it's ong tail. But, though huge-for its ength was 30 feet-it was harmless; since it's teeth, rather like those of the lying Iguana, show 1t to have been Not so another Dnosaur which lived about the same time and esembled it generally In form and bulk. This, called the Megalosaurus, or great izard. had large, conical pointed teeth nd was worthy to represent the legen- ary dragons. Quite as strange, though ass conspicuous, are some extinct reatures from South Africa. One of hese, very perfect skeleton, obtained nd described by Prof. H. c. Seeley, ully maintains the reputation of that for wonders. In the outline { its head and some other respects it lightly resembles a saamander; but : T it's general build this heavy, wad- ling creature suggests another and a ifferent version of the frog initiating he ox-namely, that a reptile Is trying ) become a mammal. The gallery, in act as a whole shows that truth is at least, as strange as fic on, and that, though the fights with ragons are dreams, the world has seen 1me very real monsters.
 I