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How Extinct Monsters Are Preserved: Already

And lastly, it must ever be borne in mind that, as yet, our knowledge of the stratified rocks of the earth's crust is very limited. In course of time, no doubt, this deficiency will be to a great extent made good; but it will take a long time. Already, within the last thirty years, the labours of zealous geologists in the colonies and in various countries have added largely to our knowledge of the geological record. Still, only a small portion of the earth's surface has at present been explored; and doubtless one may look forward to future discoveries of extinct forms of animal and plant life as wonderful and strange as those that have been of late years unearthed in the "far West," in Africa, and India. The Siwalik Hills of Northern India offer a rich harvest of fossils to future explorers. Already one remarkable and large horned quadruped has come from this region; and it is known that other valuable treasures are sealed up within these hills, only awaiting the "open sesame of some enterprising explorer to bring them to light. دو As previously pointed out, deposits formed in lakes are the most promising field for geologists in search of the remains of old terrestrial quadrupeds and reptiles; but, unfortunately, such deposits are rare.

It is very much to be regretted that the carelessness and indifference of ignorant workmen in quarries, clay-pits, and railway cuttings have sometimes been the cause of valuable fossils being broken up, and so lost for ever. Unless they are accustomed to the visits of fossil-collectors who will pay them liberally for their finds, the men will not take the trouble to preserve any bones they may come across in the course of their work. (Examples of this negligence will be found on pp. 41, 65, and 295.) But when once they realise that such finds have what political economists call an "exchange value," or, in other words, can be turned into money, it is astonishing what zealous guardians of Nature's treasures they become! For this reason collectors often find what Professor Bonney calls the "silver hammer"-in other words, cash-more effective than the steel implement they carry with them.