In England there were originally vast plains where the
plentiful supply of water could gather. The streams were deep and slow,
and there were holes of abysmal depth, where any kind and size of
antediluvian monster could find a habitat. In places, which now we can
see from our windows, were mud-holes a hundred or more feet deep. Who
can tell us when the age of the monsters which flourished in slime came
to an end? There must have been places and conditions which made for
greater longevity, greater size, greater strength than was usual. Such
over-lappings may have come down even to our earlier centuries. Nay, are
there not now creatures of a vastness of bulk regarded by the generality
of men as impossible? Even in our own day there are seen the traces of
animals, if not the animals themselves, of stupendous size--veritable
survivals from earlier ages, preserved by some special qualities in their
habitats. I remember meeting a distinguished man in India, who had the
reputation of being a great shikaree, who told me that the greatest
temptation he had ever had in his life was to shoot a giant snake which
he had come across in the Terai of Upper India. He was on a
tiger-shooting expedition, and as his elephant was crossing a nullah, it
squealed. He looked down from his howdah and saw that the elephant had
stepped across the body of a snake which was dragging itself through the
jungle. 'So far as I could see,' he said, 'it must have been eighty or
one hundred feet in length. Fully forty or fifty feet was on each side
of the track, and though the weight which it dragged had thinned it, it
was as thick round as a man's body. I suppose you know that when you are
after tiger, it is a point of honour not to shoot at anything else, as
life may depend on it. I could easily have spined this monster, but I
felt that I must not--so, with regret, I had to let it go.'

"Just imagine such a monster anywhere in this country, and at once we
could get a sort of idea of the 'worms,' which possibly did frequent the
great morasses which spread round the mouths of many of the great
European rivers."

"I haven't the least doubt, sir, that there may have been such monsters
as you have spoken of still existing at a much later period than is
generally accepted," replied Adam. "Also, if there were such things,
that this was the very place for them. I have tried to think over the
matter since you pointed out the configuration of the