334 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



also be drawn, from the undulated surfaces of the 

 sandstones, and from the fossil trees. In the 

 former we have proof, that when the land of 

 reptiles existed, the water was rippled by the 

 breezes, which then, as now, varied in intensity 

 and direction in a brief space of time ; by the 

 latter, that in certain situations the wind blew 

 from a particular quarter for a great part of the 

 year, and that the mean annual temperature was 

 as variable as in modern times. From what has 

 been advanced, it must not, however, be supposed, 

 that the country of the Iguanodon occupied the 

 site of the south-east of England ; and that the 

 animals and terrestrial plants of the Wealden, 

 lived and died near the spot where their relics 

 are entombed. For with the exception of the 

 shells and crustaceans, which probably inhabited 

 the delta, all the fossil remains bear marks of 

 having been transported from a great distance. 

 But though three-fourths of the bones we 

 discover have been broken and rolled,- — the teeth 

 detached from their sockets, — the vertebras and 

 bones of the extremities, with but very few ex- 

 ceptions, disjointed, and scattered here and there, 

 — the stems and branches of the trees torn to 

 pieces, and deprived of their foliage--— there is no* 

 intermixture of sea-shells, nor of beach or shingle ; 



