Sept. 6, 1883] 



NATURE 



443 



Iguanodon probably was shaped, excepting for the long 

 huge tail, which, as Professor Owen long ago pointed out, 

 is shaped like that of a crocodile, being a powerful swip- 

 ing organ, somewhat like a duck. In accordance with 

 the birdlike modification of the pelvis a large mass of 

 the viscera were post-acetabular in position, as in a greater 

 degree in birds, thus tending to aid the long tail to erect 

 the head and fore part of the body by depressing the 

 hinder region of the spinal column on the acetabular axis 

 as a fulcrum. Like the head the body was very much 

 compressed laterally, so that its transverse section was 

 somewhat as represented in the diagram, X. The neck of 

 the Iguanodon was comparatively slender, and is found 

 to be capable of very free movements. The necks of the 

 fossilised specimens are found to be twisted without dis- 

 location into most varied attitudes. The skin, as already 

 mentioned, was in /. Mantelli and /. Bemissartensis 

 smooth or covered only with epidermic scales. 



Several observers have concluded from the examination 

 of the footprints that a slight web was present between 

 the toes. Judging from observations made on the croco- 

 dile and Ambl>rhynchus of the Galapagos Islands, the 

 animal when in the water, in which it spent a considerable 

 part of its time, when swimming slowly, used for the 

 purpose both its fore and hind limbs and tail, but when 

 going fast fixed its fore limbs close beside its body and 

 drove itself along with its hind limbs and tail only. 



M. Dollo suggests that one of the principal advantages 

 gained by the Iguanoions by their erect posture on land 

 was their being enabled thereby to discern at great dis- 

 tances amongst the vegetation the large carnivorous 

 animals of their age to which as herbivora they must have 

 farmed a prey. Possibly when attacked they seized their 

 aggressor in their short arms and made use of their thumb 

 spurs as diggers. 



M. Dollo is in every way to be congratulated on the 

 rjsults of his investigations, sj far as they have yet gone, 

 and his final monograph may be looked forward to as a 

 work of the utmost value and interest, but with the com- 

 pletion of the Iguanodons the working up of the Bemis- 

 sart find will be anything but exhausted. With the 

 Dinosaurians were found crocodiles and turtles, and a 

 vast quantity of fishes, of which piles upon piles of speci- 

 mens await his energies in the future. He has already 

 discovered two most interesting new genera of crocodiles, 

 and an equally interesting new genus of Chelonians 

 amongst this material. Every naturalist who has an 

 opportunity should certainly find his way to Brussels to 

 see the skeleton here figured. It is proposed in process 

 of time, when the Iguanodon skeletons are all prepared 

 from the matrix and mounted as far as necessary, to 

 build a new museum of natural history at Brussels in the 

 Pare Leopold, formerly the zoological garden, and in this 

 museum to construct a special gallery to contain all the 

 Bernissart fossils, a rotunda of twenty-five metres in 

 di imeter. 



H. N. Moseley 



THE JAVA UPHEAVAL 



HP HE details which have reached us during the past 

 A week of the terrible seismical manifestation at Java 

 prove it to be one of the most disastrous on record ; 

 probibly, moreover, it is the greatest phenomenon in 

 ph)sical geography which has occurred during at least 

 the historical period, in the same space of time. The 

 accompanying sketch-map will afford some idea of the 

 extent and nature of the change which has taken place, 

 ani the character of the sea bed and the land in the 

 region affected. Next week we shall attempt to show 

 what light science can shed on the occurrence ; meantime 

 we shall content ourselves with gathering together the 

 facts that have come to hand. 



The volcanic Island of Krakatoa lies about the middle 

 of the north part of the passage between Java a .d 

 Sumatra, a passage which has formed an important com- 

 mercial route. The strait is about seventy miles long 

 and sixty broad at the south-west end, narrowing 1 1 

 thirteen miles at the nort-east end. The island, 

 seven miles long by five broad, lay about thirty miles 

 from the coast of Java, and northwards the strait 

 contracts like a funnel, the two coasts in that direc- 

 tion approaching very near to each other. A few 

 weeks ago, as we intimated at the time, the volcano 

 on the island began to manifest renewed activity. The 

 whole region is volcanic, Java itself having at least 

 sixteen active volcanoes, while many others can only be 

 regarded as quiescent, not extinct. Various parts of the 

 island have been frequently devastated by volcanic out- 

 burts, one of the most disastrous of these having pro- 

 ceeded from a volcano which was regarded as having 

 been long extinct. The present outburst in Krakatoa 

 seems to have reached a crisis on the night of August 

 26. The detonations were heard as far as Soerakarta, 

 and ashes fell at Cheribon, about 250 miles east- 

 wards on the north coast of Java. The whole 

 sky over western Java was darkened with ashes, 

 and when investigation became possible it was found 

 that the most widespread disaster had occurred. The 

 greater part of the district of North Bantam has been 

 destroyed, partly by the ashes which fell, and partly by an 

 enormous wave generated by the widespread volcanic 

 disturbance in the bed of the strait. The town of Anjcr 

 and other towns on the coast have been overwhelmed an I 

 swept away, and the loss of life is estimated at 100,000 

 The Island of Krakatoa itself, estimated to contain eight 

 thousand million cubic yards of material, seems to have 

 been shattered and sunk beneath the waters, while sixteen 

 volcanic craters have appeared above the sea between 

 the site of that island and Sibisi Island, where the 

 sea is comparatively shallow. The Soengepan Volcano 

 has split into five, ani it is stated that an extensive plain 

 of "volcanic stone" has been formed in the sea near 

 Lampong, Sumatra, probably at a part of the coast dotted 

 with small islands. A vessel near the site of the eruption 

 had its deck covered with ashes iS inches deep, and 

 passed masses of pumice stone 7 feet in depth. The 

 wave reached the coast of Java on the morning of the 

 27th, and, 30 metres high, swept the coast between 

 Merak and Tjiringin, totally destroying Anjer, Merak, 

 and Tjiringin. Five miles of the coast of Sumatra seem 

 to have been swept by the wave, and many lives lost. 

 At Taujong Priok, fifty-eight miles distant from Krakatoa, 

 a sea seven feet and a half higher than the ordinary highest 

 level suddenly rushed in and overwhelmed the place. 

 Immediately afterwards it as suddenly sank ten feet 

 and a half below the high- water mark, the effect being 

 most destructive. We shall probably hear more of this 

 wave, as doubtless it was a branch of it which made its 

 way across the Pacific, and that with such rapidity that 

 on the 27th it reached San Francisco Harbour, and con- 

 tinued to come in at intervals of twenty minutes, rising to 

 a height of one foot for several days. The great wave 

 generated on May 10, 1877, by the earthquake at Iquique, 

 on the coast of Peru, spread over the Pacific as far north 

 as the Sandwich Islands, and south to New Zealand and 

 Australia; while that at Arica, on August 13-14, 1869, 

 extended right across the Pacific to Yokohama (Nature, 

 vol. i. p. 54). It is misleading to speak of such waves as 

 tidal ; they are evidently due to powerful, extensive, and 

 sudden disturbances of the ocean bed, and are frequently 

 felt in the Pacific when no earthquake has been ex- 

 perienced anywhere, though doubtless due to commotions 

 somewhere in the depths of ocean. So far these are all 

 the facts that are known in connection with this last 

 stupendous outburst of volcanic energy. It has altered 

 the entire physical geography of the region and the con- 



