246 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



laterally compressed condyles, having a very wide 

 popliteal space between them ; the anterior or 

 patellar aspect is smooth, and but little depressed. 

 The transverse diameter of the bone at the con- 

 dyles is 6h inches; the upper and fractured end of 

 the shaft is o\ inches in diameter in the same 

 direction. The proximal extremity, or head of 

 the bone, is somewhat compressed, and its cha- 

 racters are concealed by adherent firestone; it is 

 7 inches wide in the transverse and longest dia- 

 meter. This portion of the bone is one foot in 

 length ; the transverse diameter of the inferior and 

 fractured end is 4 inches ; and as the correspond- 

 ing part of the shaft of the distal portion is 

 3j inches, it is obvious that the lost intervening 

 piece of bone must have gradually diminished 

 in circumference 2\ inches, from above down- 

 wards. The shaft in the transverse diameter 

 measures 4 inches; in the antero-posterior, only 

 o inches. But the most remarkable character of 

 this bone is the relatively enormous size of the 

 medullary cavity, which is 3 inches by 2; the 

 walls of the bony cylinder at the fractured part 

 being only half an inch thick. I have not been 

 able to procure a fragment for microscopical exa- 

 mination, by which its reptilian or mammalian 

 affinitymight be determined : but for the courtesy 



