196 



ANCIENT CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 



ference ; enormous claws and toe bones have also been discovered. 

 Mr. Mantell, in his interesting work, the " Fossils of Tilgate Forest," 

 justly observes, " Were this thigh bone clothed with muscles and in- 

 teguments of suitable proportions, where is the living animal that 

 could rival this extremity of a lizard of the primitive ages of the 

 world ?" 



Mr. Mantell concludes his " Illustrations of the Geology of Sus- 

 sex" with the following interesting observations : — 



" We cannot leave this subject without offering a few general re- 

 marks on tlie probable condition of the country, through which the 

 waters flowed that deposited the strata of Tilgate Forest, and on the 

 nature of its animal and vegetable productions. Whether it were an 

 island or a continent, may not be determined ; but that it was diver- 

 sified by hill and valley, and enjoyed a climate of a higher tempera- 

 ture than any part of modern Europe, is more than probable. Sev- 

 eral kinds of fei-ns appear to have constituted the immediate veget- 

 able clothing of the soil: the elegant Hymenopteris psilotoides, 

 which probably never attained a greater height than three or four 

 feet, and the beautiful Pecopteris reticulata, of still lesser growth, 

 being abundant every where. It is easy to conceive what would be 

 the appearance of the valleys and plains covered with these plants, 

 fiom that presented by modern tracts, where the common ferns so 

 generally prevail. But the loftier vegetables were so entirely dis- 

 tinct from any that are now known to exist in European countries, 

 that we seek in vain for any thing at all analogous without the trop- 

 ics. The forests of Clathraricd and Endogenitce, (the plants of 

 which, like some of the recent arborescent ferns, probably attained 

 a height of thirty or forty feet,) must have borne a much greater re- 

 semblance to those of tropical regions, than to any that now occur in 

 temperate climates. That the soil was of a sandy nature on the 

 hills, and less elevated parts of the country, and argillaceous in the 

 plains and marshes, may be inferred from the vegetable remains, 

 and from the nature of the substances in which they are enclosed. 

 Sand and clay every where prevail in the Hastings' strata ; nor is it 

 unworthy of remark, that the recent vegetables to which the fossil 

 plants bear the greatest analogy, affect soils of this description. If 

 We attempt to portray the animals of this ancient country, our des- 

 cription will possess more of the character of a romance than of a 

 legitimate deduction from established facts. Turtles, of various 

 kinds, must have been seen on the banks of its rivers or lakes, and 

 groups of enormous crocodiles basking in the fens and shallows." 



" The gigantic Megalosaurus, and yet more gigantic Iguunodon, 

 to whom the groves of palms and arborescent ferns would be mere 

 beds of reeds, must have been of such prodigious magnitude, that 

 the existing animal creation presents us with no fit objects of compa- 

 rison. Imagine an animal of the lizard tribe, three or four times as 

 large as the largest crocodile, having jaws, with teeth equal in size 



