DINOSAURS. 91 



the teeth were of no particular interest, and that, without doubt, 

 they either belonged to some large fish, or were the teeth of a 

 mammal, and derived from some superficial deposit of the 

 "glacial drift," then called Diluvium. 



There was one man, however, who foresaw the importance of I 

 Mantell's discovery, and that was Dr. Wollaston. This dis- 

 tinguished philosopher, though not a naturalist, supported the 

 .doctor's idea that the teeth belonged to an unknown herbivorous 

 reptile, and encouraged him to continue his researches. 



As if to add to the difficulty of solving the enigma, certain 

 bones of the fore limb, discovered soon after in the same quarry 

 and forwarded to Paris, were declared to belong to a species of 

 hippopotamus ! Another very curious bone of which we shall 

 speak presently was declared to be the lesser horn of a 

 rhinoceros ! The famous Dr. Buckland even went so far as to 

 warn Dr. Mantell not to publish it forth that these bones and 

 teeth had been found in the Tilgate Forest strata. To him it 

 seemed incredible that such remains could have been obtained 

 from beds older than the superficial drift deposits of the district. 

 We must bear in mind that in those days palaeontology, or the 

 knowledge of the world's former inhabitants, was a new science 

 still in its infancy, and the idea of mammals having existed so far 

 back as the Cretaceous period must have appeared incredible. 



However, the workmen in the quarry were stimulated by 

 suitable rewards, and at length the doctor's efforts resulted 

 in the discovery of teeth which displayed the curious serrated 

 edges, and the entire form of the unused crown. Having 

 forwarded specimens and drawings of these to Paris, Dr. Mantell 

 went to London, and ransacked all the drawers in the Hunterian 

 Museum that contained jaws and teeth of reptiles, but without 

 finding any that threw light on this subject. Fortunately, Mr. 

 Samuel Stuchbury, then a young man, was present, and proposed 

 to show him the skeleton of an Iguana, which he had himself 

 prepared from a specimen that had long been immersed in spirits. 



