There were fewer reptiles; but the quantity
of carnivora seemed to have increased, and the reptiles that we
did see were perfectly gigantic. I shall never forget one enormous
specimen which we came upon browsing upon water-reeds at the edge
of the great sea. It stood well over twelve feet high at the rump,
its highest point, and with its enormously long tail and neck it
was somewhere between seventy-five and a hundred feet in length.
Its head was ridiculously small; its body was unarmored, but its
great bulk gave it a most formidable appearance. My experience of
Caspakian life led me to believe that the gigantic creature would
but have to see us to attack us, and so I raised my rifle and at
the same time drew away toward some brush which offered concealment;
but Ajor only laughed, and picking up a stick, ran toward the great
thing, shouting. The little head was raised high upon the long
neck as the animal stupidly looked here and there in search of the
author of the disturbance. At last its eyes discovered tiny little
Ajor, and then she hurled the stick at the diminutive head. With
a cry that sounded not unlike the bleat of a sheep, the colossal
creature shuffled into the water and was soon submerged.
As I slowly recalled my collegiate studies and paleontological
readings in Bowen's textbooks, I realized that I had looked upon
nothing less than a diplodocus of the Upper Jurassic; but how infinitely
different was the true, live thing from the crude restorations of
Hatcher and Holland! I had had the idea that the diplodocus was
a land-animal, but evidently it is partially amphibious.
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