OF TILGATE FOREST. 
315 
Irom this table it ap])ears, tliat a comparison of 
seven diflerent parts of the skeleton, give to the 
Iguanodon an average length of 70 feet, which is 
equal to fourteen times that of the Iguana.* It is 
not, of course, pretended that such a calculation 
can afford more than a very distant ap})roximation 
to the truth ; yet it may he confidently affirmed, 
that a reptile, which required a thigh bone larger 
than that of the largest elephant to sup})ort it, 
could not be of less colossal dimensions. In truth, 
I believe that its magnitude is here under-rated ; 
for, like Frankenstein, I was struck with astonish- 
ment at the enormous monster which mv inves- 
tigations had, as it were, called into existence, and 
was more anxious to reduce its j)ro})ortions, than 
to exaggerate them. If the conclusions above ad- 
vanced, be admitted to be legitimate deductions 
from the facts which the fossil remains before us 
appear to have established, we can scarcely err in 
assuming, that the living Iguanodon bore consider- 
able resemblance in form to the Iguana of the 
present day ; and if we attempt its restoration, by 
investins: it with muscles and integuments, still 
keeping the recent animal as the standard of com- 
parison, the following admeasurements will be ob- 
tained : — 
* Should subsequent discoveries prove that the original more nearly 
corresponded in the length of the tail with the crocodilian family than 
with the lizards, its total length would, of course, be much less than is 
here inferred; and from the form of some of the fossil carpal and 7;^^- 
laiigcal bones, it appears highly probable that the original animal was 
more bulky in proportion to its length than the existing lacertm. 
