44 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



as we do, the prints of the toes would have 

 been followed by a long heel mark, but such 

 is not the case ; there are the sharply defined 

 marks of the toes and nothing more, showing 

 plainly that the Iguanodons walked, like birds, 

 on the toes alone. More than this, had these 

 Dinosaurs dragged their tails there would have 

 been a continuous furrow between the foot- 

 prints ; but nothing of this sort is to be found ; 

 on the contrary, a fine series of tracks, uncov- 

 ered at Hastings, England, made by several 

 individuals and running for seventy-five feet, 

 shows footprints only. Hence it may be fairly 

 concluded that these great creatures carried 

 their tails clear of the ground, as shown in the 

 picture of Thespesius, the weight of the tail 

 counterbalancing that of the body. Where 

 crocodilians or some of the short-limbed Di- 

 nosaurs have crept along there is, as we should 

 expect, a continuous furrow between the im- 

 prints of the feet. This is what footprints tell 

 us when their message is read aright; when 

 improperly translated they only add to the 

 enormous bulk of our ignorance. 



Some years ago we were treated to accounts 



