Show THE AGE OF dragona their existence bel eved in by many scientists dragons were important animals in ancient and mediaeval natural history until comparatively recent time a scientist ever thought of questioning the existence of this most formidable of beasts the annals of winchester for 1177 gravely state that in this year dragons were seen of many in england gesner professor of al history at zurich gives a detailed description of the dragon while al dro vandus in his history of serpents and dragons published in 1640 devotes fifty pages to the monster A good specimen of a dragon would seem to have been a beast about the size of a sheep incased in a coat of scales which shone like silver ats back was serrated like a saw it possessed a long tail a pair of wings four heavily clawed feet a head the jaws of which were armed with very formidable teeth the tongue was barbed and fire ana fury issued from the mentser s mouth and the head bore a crest dragons were the most wicked and vindictive of crea tures they seem always to have been in a towering rage and spent the greater portion of their time in rushing up and down the earth de straying ying everything that came in their path the origin of dragons was a disputed point among media evel alises some maintained that these animals were generated by the heat of india others were of opinion that the volcanoes of ethiopia used to belch forth the monsters one scientist john leo by name declared the drag on to be a hybrid a cross between an eagle and a wolf |