Di cae 
_— 
_ Chester Square, Pimlico, London, December, 1845. 
Pees ee 
Mineralogy and Geology. O76 
‘Kent, and are in the collection of Mr. Bowerbank: it is possible that 
the large bones discovered in the same quarry, and referred to birds, 
may also belong to flying reptiles. This subject cannot fail to interest 
your geologists. When the interpretation of apparently indisputable 
characters by such high. authority proves to be erroneous, it should 
inculcate the necessity of the utmost caution in our explanation of phe- 
nomena which must be regarded as far more equivocal. Should all 
the Ornitholites of our secondary strata be put to flight by some new 
maaan your Ornithichnites will, I fear, be in jeopardy. 
am, gentlemen, your respectful servant, 
IDEON ALGERNON MANTELL. 
. Bones of the Iguanodon and other colossal reptiles recently 
oad in the Isle of Wight, England.—Brook Point in the Isle of 
Wight, must be known to our readers as a celebrated locality of the 
fluviatile deposits called Wealden, being described both in ‘ The 
Wonders of Geology” and in “The Medals of Creation,” by Dr. Man- 
tell. A recent examination of this spot has led to some highly inter- 
esting discoveries, which have formed the subject of a communication 
lately laid by Dr. Mantell before the Geological. Society of London, 
and which we trust will be published at length in the Transactions of 
that learned body. The occurrence of fossil trees along the strand at 
Brook Point, was first observed by the late Mr. Webster; and it is well 
known that water-worn fossil bones of reptiles have often been col- 
lected along the coast. The large fossil fresh-water muscle shells 
(Unio valdensis) described by Dr. M. in a former number of this 
Journal, are from the same place. The fossil trees that occur at Brook 
Point are imbedded in a sandy argillaceous rock, which forms the low- 
ermost strata of the cliff: the stems and trunks visible beneath the 
sea weeds at low water, have been exposed in consequence of the 
removal of the deposit in which they were imbedded, by the action of 
the waves. The bark of these trees is in the state of lignite; the 
woody fibre is calcareous and permeated with veins of pyrites ; conif- 
erous structure is visible under the microscrope. With the trees are 
found bones of the Iguanodon, Cetiosaurus, Streptospondylus, Megalo- 
saurus, and other colossal reptiles, and the Uniones above alluded to. 
From various data specified in the memoir, Dr. Mantell conceives that 
this collocation has taken place in consequence of the trees having 
originally formed a “ raft,” like those of our Mississippi, which drifted 
down the river of the country of the Iguanodon, entangling in its 
course the limbs of reptiles floating in the water, and the muscle shells 
in the sand or silt of the delta. Among the specimens recently col- 
lected by Dr. M., are the thigh-bone of an Iguanodon three feet four 
