SOURCE: The Lost Continent by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne (Pearson's Magazine, July-December, 1899)

DESCRIPTION: "Still here, upon this desolate sea, although the giant lizards were new to me, it was a pleasure to pit my knowledge of war against their brute strength and courage. Ever since the first men did their business upon the great waters, they fulfilled their instincts in fighting the beasts with desperation. Hiding coward-like in a hold was useless, for if this enemy could not find men above decks to glut them, they would break a ship with their paddles, and so all would be slain. And so it was recognised that the fight should go forward as desperately as might be, and that it could only end when the beasts had got their prey and had gone away satisfied. It was in a one-sided conflict after this fashion then, that I found myself, and felt the joy once more to have my thews in action. But after my axe had got in some dozen lusty blows, which, for all the harm they did, might have been delivered against some city wall, or, indeed, against the ark of the Mysteries itself, I sought about me till I found a lance, and with that made very different play. The eyes of these lizards are small, and set deep in a bony socket, but I judged them to be vulnerable, and it was upon the eyes of the beast that I made my attack..." (The Lost Continent by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne)

NOTES: The seas about Atlantis are infested with dinosaurs and other dangerous reptiles.

HISTORY: This scene is so inspirational for Edgar Rice Burroughs. He would use it in the novel The Land That Time Forgot, when the U-boat gets attacked by a water dinosaur as well as in other novels. Notice how little the artist knows about dinosaur physiology. It was 1899 after all.

---