226 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



rapid growth of vegetable matter. This animal must 

 have been very abundant near the spot where its 

 remains have been met with ; it has not, however, as 

 yet, furnished sufficient material to enable us to com- 

 plete, even in imagination, its singular figure. It was 

 accompanied by another monster, also of large size, 

 and adapted to move about on land with its body 

 high above the ground, but concerning whose general 

 appearance we know even less than in the case of 

 the Iguanodon. 



These animals may be considered with great 

 reason as the true representative in time of some 

 of the gigantic vegetable feeding quadrupeds of more 

 recent geological periods; and if this is the correct 

 view, it becomes probable that more nearly allied 

 species belonging to the class Mammalia were really 

 absent. Even in that case, however, it is necessary 

 to bear in mind, that, although absent in these la- 

 titudes, and in our European area, they may still 

 have been abundant in other districts, and in tracts 

 of land existing under different conditions. 



The delta which had so long been in course of 

 formation, and on which so thick a bed of sandy 

 detritus had been deposited, was at length concluded 

 by a considerable bed of clay which covered up the 

 sand. The land so long above the water again sunk 

 far beneath its level, and the great ancient continent 

 or polynesia was obliterated during a long time, 

 deep sea deposits being formed in the same tract, 

 and extending with great uniformity over an area of 

 many thousand square miles. 



