ROOM III. THE MAIDSTONE IGUAXODON. 305 



immediate subsoil of the district, and form a bed of from 

 ten to twenty feet thick above the regular strata of the 

 quarry. This chasm had evidently been a watercourse before 

 the deposition of the drift, for the face of the rock on each 

 side bore unequivocal marks of the long-continued action of 

 currents. 



/ The mass of limestone in which the Iguanodon was im- 

 bedded, was situated on the left of the fissure, and near the 

 upper part of the section. 1 



The intelligent reader will remark that the geological 

 position of the Maidstone Iguanodon, forms a striking ex- 

 ception to the circumstances under which all the remains of 

 this terrestrial reptile hitherto described were obtained j for 

 while in the "VVealden deposits the bones were associated 

 with fluviatile and terrestrial exuviae only, this specimen was 

 imbedded in a marine stratum, and marine shells were at- 

 tached to the femur. This fact, however, in no wise affects 

 the validity of the arguments previously advanced as to 

 the fluviatile origin of the Wealden Formation. It merely 

 shows that part of the delta of the ancient river had sub- 

 sided, and was covered by the ocean that deposited the 

 greensand strata, whilst the Country of the Iguanodon still 

 remained above the waters ; so that the carcass of one of 

 these reptiles was drifted out to sea, and became ingulfed 

 in the deposits then in progress ; in like manner as at 

 the present day, remains of land quadrupeds may not only 

 be imbedded in the deltas of rivers, but also in the depths of 

 the ocean. 



There are two bones missing in the specimen, and which, 

 I fear, are irretrievably lost. One is the ungual bone repre- 

 sented at fig. 5. It was narrower, and more convex and 

 elongated, than the ungual that remains near the metatarsal 

 fig. 4. This bone was 3J inches long : its proximal end was 

 H inch in transverse diameter, and 1J in the vertical; the 

 distal end was f inch wide. 



The other missing bone was a remarkably abbreviated 

 phalangeal, imbedded near the former. Its dimensions were 

 as follow : Antero- 



1 See " Medals of Creation," p. 431, for an account of the molluskite, 

 discovered in the Maidstone Iguanodon quarry, by Mr. Bensted. 



x 



