192 



SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



none of the Old World. It was the Megalosaurus $f Amer 

 ica. 



Another of the gigantic reptiles which carried on a war 

 of extermination upon the fields destined to be ensan 

 guined by the battles of Trenton 

 and Brandywine was the Hadro- 

 saur (Iladrosaurus Foulki, Leidy). 

 The visitor to the museum of the 

 Academy of Sciences of Philadel 

 phia can not fail to be impressed by 

 the skeleton of one of these mon 

 sters mounted in the attitude of 

 browsing from a cycadeous tree. 

 This piece of work is by the emi 

 nent restorer of extinct animals, B. 

 Waterhouse Hawkins, Esq., of Lon 

 don, to whose courtesy I am indebt 

 ed for the photographic view which 

 adorns the opposite page (Fig. 76). 

 Fig. 75. Tooth of an ancient The Hadrosaur attained the leno-th 



Hew Jersey Saurian (Lcelaps . 



aquihmgttis), showing two of thirty feet. The femur or thio-h- 



successors beneath. . 



bone was sometimes five feet in 



length, exceeding by more than a foot the maximum 

 length of the femur of the Iguanodon of England, the 

 largest of the hitherto known land reptiles. The fore 

 limbs were less than half the length of tke hind limbs. 

 The form of the feet and toes shows that they were poorly 

 adapted for swimming. In its habitual attitude it rested, 

 like the kangaroo, upon its enormous hind limbs and tail. 

 With its supple anterior extremities it reached upward to 

 the foliage of the tree destined to afford it food, and drew 

 the branches down within the reach of the grinding jaws. 

 Not unlikely this land-monster walked at times upon its 

 hind feet, while the ponderous tail dragged behind. 



