CHAPTER IX 



DINOSAUKS (continued) 



11 Everything in Nature is engaged in writing its own history : the planet 

 and the pebble are attended by their shadows, the rolling rock leaves its 

 furrows on the mountain side, the river its channel in the soil, the animal its 

 bones in the stratum, the fern and the leaf inscribe their modest epitaphs on 

 the coal, the falling drop sculptures its story on the sand and on the stone, 

 not a footstep on the snow or on the ground, but traces in characters more or 

 less enduring the record of its progress." EMERSON. 



WE propose now to give a brief account of a wonderful group 

 of Dinosaurs, first introduced to the scientific world through Dr. 

 Mantell's labours. The first of these monsters is the Iguanodon, 

 the earliest known individual of the " bird-footed " division 

 (Ornithopoda). The history of the gradual reconstruction of its 

 skeleton is an instructive instance of the results that may be 

 obtained by a careful and patient study of fragmentary remains. 

 Through the labours of Dr. Mantell, in the first half of the last 

 century, a considerable knowledge was acquired of the greater 

 part of the skeleton, but certain portions remained a puzzle ; 

 these, however, were eventually explained by Professor Huxley 

 and Mr. Hulke, and a few years ago a series of complete 

 skeletons was most fortunately obtained in Belgium, so that 

 now every part of the huge framework of this monster is 

 known to the palaeontologist. Its history, as a fossil, is most 

 interesting, and furnishes one more example of the marvellous 

 insight into the nature of extinct animals displayed by the 



