280 
ORGANIC REMAINS 
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 comparison. Imagine an animal of the 
lizard tribe, three or four times as large as the 
largest crocodile ; having jaws, with teeth equal 
in size to the incisors of the rhinoceros ; and 
crested with horn : such a creature must have 
been the Iguanodon ! Nor were the inhabitants of 
the waters much less wonderful ; witness the Ple- 
siosaurus, which only required wings to be a flying 
di’agon ; the fishes resembling Silur?\ Balistce, 
&c. &c. 
From what has been advanced it seems obvious, 
that although, fi’om the broken and rolled state of 
the greater proportion of the organic remains of 
the Wealden, it is manifest the large reptiles and 
vegetables have been subject to the action of river 
currents, yet dry land must have existed at no 
very gi’eat distance : some of the vegetables must 
have grown on the borders of a river or lake ; and 
the habits of the recent species of reptiles most 
nearly related to the fossils warrant a similar 
conclusion, since they are well known to frequent 
the rivers and marshy tracts of tropical regions, 
in the sands and banks of which they deposit their 
eggs. Reflecting upon these extraordinary facts, 
may we not enquire with the illustrious Cuvier, 
ichat jieriod was it, and under what circumstajices, 
that turtles and gigantic lizards lived in our cli- 
mate, and were shaded hy forests of jmlnis, and 
arhoresce^it ferns 
The discussion of this subject cannot, however. 
