part in the fierce and deadly struggle--the monster, the whale, the

lizard, and the turtle. I distinctly saw them every moment. I pointed

them out to the Icelander. But he only shook his head.

"Tva," he said.

"What--two only does he say. Surely he is mistaken," I cried in a tone

of wonder.

"He is quite right," replied my uncle coolly and philosophically,

examining the terrible duel with his telescope and speaking as if he

were in a lecture room.

"How can that be?"

"Yes, it is so. The first of these hideous monsters has the snout of a

porpoise, the head of a lizard, the teeth of a crocodile; and it is this

that has deceived us. It is the most fearful of all antediluvian

reptiles, the world--renowned Ichthyosaurus or great fish lizard."

"And the other?"

"The other is a monstrous serpent, concealed under the hard vaulted

shell of the turtle, the terrible enemy of its fearful rival, the

Plesiosaurus, or sea crocodile."

Hans was quite right. The two monsters only, disturbed the surface of

the sea!

At last have mortal eyes gazed upon two reptiles of the great primitive

ocean! I see the flaming red eyes of the Ichthyosaurus, each as big, or

bigger than a man's head. Nature in its infinite wisdom had gifted this

wondrous marine animal with an optical apparatus of extreme power,

capable of resisting the pressure of the heavy layers of water which

rolled over him in the depths of the ocean where he usually fed. It has

by some authors truly been called the whale of the saurian race, for it

is as big and quick in its motions as our king of the seas. This one

measures not less than a hundred feet in length, and I can form some

idea of his girth when I see him lift his prodigious tail out of the

waters. His jaw is of awful size and strength, and according to the

best-informed naturalists, it does not contain less than a hundred and

eighty-two teeth.

The other was the mighty Plesiosaurus, a serpent with a cylindrical

trunk, with a short stumpy tail, with fins like a bank of oars in a

Roman galley.

Its whole body covered by a carapace or shell, and its neck, as flexible

as that of a swan, rose more than thirty feet above the waves, a tower

of animated flesh!

These animals attacked one another with inconceivable fury. Such a

combat was never seen before by mortal eyes, and to us who did see it,

it appeared more like the phantasmagoric creation of a dream than

anything else. They raised mountains of water, which dashed in spray

over the raft, already tossed to and fro by the waves. Twenty times we

seemed on the point of being upset and hurled headlong into the waves.

Hideous hisses appeared to shake the gloomy granite roof of that mighty

cavern--hisses which carried terror to our hearts. The awful combatants

held each other in a tight embrace. I could not make out one from the

other. Still the combat could not last forever; and woe unto us,

whichsoever became the victor.

One hour, two hours, three hours passed away, without any decisive

result. The struggle continued with the same deadly tenacity, but

without apparent result. The deadly opponents now approached, now drew

away from the raft. Once or twice we fancied they were about to leave us

altogether, but instead of that, they came nearer and nearer.

We crouched on the raft ready to fire at them at a moment's notice, poor

as the prospect of hurting or terrifying them was. Still we were

determined not to perish without a struggle.

Suddenly the Ichthyosaurus and the Plesiosaurus disappeared beneath the

waves, leaving behind them a maelstrom in the midst of the sea. We were

nearly drawn down by the indraft of the water!

Several minutes elapsed before anything was again seen. Was this

wonderful combat to end in the depths of the ocean? Was the last act of

this terrible drama to take place without spectators?

It was impossible for us to say.

Suddenly, at no great distance from us, an enormous mass rises out of

the waters--the head of the great Plesiosaurus. The terrible monster is

now wounded unto death. I can see nothing now of his enormous body. All

that could be distinguished was his serpent-like neck, which he twisted

and curled in all the agonies of death. Now he struck the waters with it

as if it had been a gigantic whip, and then again wriggled like a worm

cut in two. The water was spurted up to a great distance in all

directions. A great portion of it swept over our raft and nearly blinded

us. But soon the end of the beast approached nearer and nearer; his

movements slackened visibly; his contortions almost ceased; and at last

the body of the mighty snake lay an inert, dead mass on the surface of

the now calm and placid waters.

As for the Ichthyosaurus, has he gone down to his mighty cavern under

the sea to rest, or will he reappear to destroy us?

This question remained unanswered. And we had breathing time.