TEE IGUANODON, 353 



thighs " must have supported the heavy body in a manner like that 

 of the large pachyderms," and states that the animal stood higher on 

 its le-s than any existing saurian, and was terrestrial in its habits. 

 Dr. Mantell was of the opinion that the iguanodon had a nasal integu- 

 mental horn. We reproduce in Fig. 3 a picture of the reptile restored, 

 according to the ideas prevailing among geologists ten years ago, in 

 contrast with a view of the actual skeleton set up in the museum at 

 Brussels, as an illustration of the danger of making too hasty general- 

 izations from too few or too imperfectly understood data. 



Fitt. 3. Iguanodon. 



A new and very considerable deposit of remains of iguanodons, 

 from one of the nearly complete skeletons of which the present re- 

 construction of the animal has been made, was discovered in 1878 at 

 the coal-mines of Bernissart, between Mons and Tournay, in Belgium, 

 close to the French frontier. They occur there, like the English fos- 

 sils, in the Wealden or lower cretaceous strata, or morts-ter rains (dead 

 layers), as the workmen call them, that overlie the coal-beds, and which 

 have to be penetrated for about twelve hundred feet before the coal 

 is reached. The discovery was made by M. Fages, director-general 

 of the Bernissart Mining Company, and specimens of the bones were 

 sent to Professor P. J. Van Beneden, who identified them as belong- 

 ing to the iguanodon. The task of removing the fossils was attended 

 with much difficulty, for they were charged with iron pyrites, the de- 

 composition of which caused them to crumble as soon as they were 

 exposed to the air. It was undertaken and accomplished successfully 

 by M. Depauw, superintendent of the workshops of the museum at 

 Brussels. He adopted the habits of the miners, and spent three 

 years in the excavations, personally superintending the removal of 

 every specimen. By subjecting them to a gelatine-bath and envelop- 

 ing every piece, previous to removal, with a casing of plaster, he got 

 them all out whole. The remains were then again examined by Pro- 

 vol. xxiv. 23 



