314 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



The most perfect femur, or thigh-bone, collected 

 in the Isle of Wight, was dug out piecemeal from 

 a fallen mass of the cliff in Brook Bay : it evi- 

 dently belonged to an aged individual, and though 

 squeezed and somewhat distorted by pressure 

 while softened by long immersion in the clay in 

 which it was imbedded, well displays the pecu- 

 liar characters of this part of the skeleton of 

 the Iguanodon. It is 3 feet 4 inches in length. 

 The figure in lign. 26 is a representation of this 

 specimen, as it would appear if uncompressed. 

 The femur of the Iguanodon is so remarkable, 

 that even fragments may readily be distinguished ; 

 and as portions of this bone are not unfrequently 

 to be met with in the clay cliffs or on the shore, I 

 subjoin the following description. 



The head is hemispherical, and projects in- 

 wards ; a laterally flattened process, or trochanter 

 {lign. 26, a), forms the external boundary of the 

 neck of the bone, from which it is separated by 

 a deep and very narrow vertical fissure. The 

 shaft is sub-quadrangular ; a slightly elevated 

 ridge, produced by the union of two broad, flat, 

 longitudinal surfaces, extends down the middle of 

 the anterior face, and diverging towards the inner 

 condyle, gradually disappears. The shaft termi- 

 nates below in two large rounded, and laterally 



