600 Limestone Quarries and Petrifying Spring 



and that strange species more recently discovered, the hyla> 

 osaurus, from 20 ft. to 25 ft. in length, whose skeleton, ob- 

 serves Fitton, " blends the osteology of the crocodile and 

 lizard," and the scaly fringes on whose back *, some 17 in. 

 in length, must, when erected, have startled the astonished 

 beholder ; roamed through the forests of palms, ferns, and 

 gigantic reeds which then flourished in luxuriant profusion in 

 Sussex. The plants found fossilised in the Wealden, com- 

 prising five species of distinct genera; viz. 1. Sphenopteris 

 Mantelh' Brong., 2. Lonchopteris MantelU, 3. Lycopodites 

 (species not determined), 4. Clatharia Lyelh', 5. Carpolithus 

 Mantelh', now no longer exist, but appear, as already stated, 

 to have been allied to the palms and tree-ferns found only at 

 present in the warmest parts of tropical climates. The species 

 are peculiar to the Wealden rocks, being found neither in the 

 lower green-sand, the gault, the upper green-sand, nor the 

 chalk, the strata immediately above; nor in the Portland and 

 oolites, nor even in the Purbeck beds (which appear, as I have 

 already observed, to differ from the Pounceford group only 

 in being less shaly.and more stony) immediately below them : 

 nor do they at all resemble any hitherto discovered in the 

 coal formation. All these fossil remains, with the exception 

 of the beds of shells which appear to have been deposited 

 tranquilly in deep water, bear evidence of having been trans- 

 ported from a distance, the bones of the reptiles being detached 

 from the skeleton, and more or less broken and rolled, and 

 the stems of most of the plants much torn, and intermingled 

 with pebbles of quartz and flinty slate and jasper, " all con- 

 curring," says Mantell, " to prove that these heterogeneous 

 materials have been subject to the action of water ; yet it is 

 manifest that the action was fluviatile, not littoral. The pebbles, 

 though smooth, from their angles having been worn away, are 

 not rounded into beach or shingle ; they have been subject to 

 the operation of currents and torrents, but not to attrition 

 from the waves of the ocean." {Geology of South-East of Eng- 

 land, p. 330.) Among the numerous fossils of the ancient 

 delta of the Wealden no remains of a single mammiferous 

 animal have hitherto been discovered. This is a very remark- 

 able fact, which has excited a great deal of discussion, and 

 given rise to a variety of hypotheses ; as we should naturally 

 expect, on examining the deposits now forming in similar 

 rivers, the Ganges and Indus in Asia, the Mississippi in 



* Large cartilaginous processes, with horny coverings, which form a 

 sort of dermal fringe along the back. See Mantell, Geol. S. E. England, 

 p. 326. 



