ii6 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT. 



enormous bulk of these reptiles, since the correspond- 

 ing bone of the largest existing crocodile scarcely 

 exceeds a foot in length. By calculating the relative 

 proportions of the other bones it was eventually 

 estimated that the Iguanodon was a creature about 

 30 feet in length, with a body as large as that of an 

 elephant ; and that it walked on all four feet like a 

 crocodile. Accordingly, many years ago a restoration 

 of the Iguanodon was set up in the gardens of the 

 Crystal Palace, modelled somewhat after the fashion 

 of a large-bodied and short-tailed crocodile. After 

 Mantell's death other earnest investigators occupied 

 themselves with the structure of the skeleton of this 

 creature, and finally arrived at the unexpected conclu- 

 sion that in many respects more especially as regards 

 the structure of the haunch-bones and limbs the 

 skeleton made a very curious approximation to that of 

 birds, and was quite unlike that of living reptiles. 



As we all know, all things come to those who wait, 

 and the above conclusions were supported by the dis- 

 covery, some few years ago in the Wealden deposits of 

 Belgium, of a number of nearly perfect, although much 

 crushed, skeletons of the Iguanodon. These wonder- 

 ful discoveries have enabled the Belgian naturalists 

 to mount several entire skeletons in the Brussels 

 Museum, in a gallery of which they now stand as the 

 most marvellous restorations of extinct animals of 

 the Secondary epoch yet known in Europe. Fig. 33 

 gives a greatly reduced representation of one of the 

 larger of these skeletons, of which the total length is 



