CHAPTER [xX 
DINOSAURS (continued) 
“Everything in Nature is engaged in writing its own history: the planet 
and the pebble are attended by their shadows, the rolling rock leaves its 
furrows on the mountain side, the river its channel in the soil, the animal its 
bones in the stratum, the fern and the leaf inscribe their modest epitaphs on 
the coal, the falling drop sculptures its story on the sand and on the stone,— 
not a footstep on the snow or on the ground, but traces in characters more or 
less enduring the record of its progress.” —EMERSON. 
WE propose now to give a brief account of a wonderful group 
of Dinosaurs, first introduced to the scientific world through Dr. 
Mantell’s labours. The first of these monsters is the Iguanodon, 
the earliest known individual of the “ bird-footed” division 
(Ornithopoda). The history of the gradual reconstruction of its 
skeleton is an instructive instance of the results that may be 
obtained by a careful and patient study of fragmentary remains. 
Through the labours of Dr. Mantell, in the first half of the last 
century, a considerable knowledge was acquired of the greater 
part of the skeleton, but certain portions remained a puzzle ; 
these, however, were eventually explained by Professor Huxley 
and Mr. Hulke, and a few years ago a series of complete 
skeletons was most fortunately obtained in Belgium, so that 
now every part of the huge framework of this monster is 
known to the paleontologist. Its history, as a fossil, is most 
interesting, and furnishes one more example of the marvellous 
insight into the nature of extinct animals displayed by the 
