Mr. Thomas G. Clemson, (whose skilful analyses have several times appeared in this Journal,) has analyzed a copper ore from Flemmington, N. J. and finds it to consist of copper .540, iron .134, insoluble matter .082, sulphur .244-1000.

In concluding our citations from this important volume, we take the liberty to remark, that a spirit of courtesy and forbearance towards those who may differ from us, or who perchance may have committed errors to which all are liable, and from which few are exempt, forms, in our view, a bright ornament of scientific and literary labor. We regret to see any indications of an opposite spirit, in a city not less distinguished for courtesy, than for science, and whose very name rebukes every thing unamiable. The present volume, excellent as it is, contains an article which proves that the most acute may err, and that it is better frankly to retract an error once committed, than to attempt its perpetuation in the face of decisive evidence. We confess also, that we have great reverence for the ancient maxim, nil de mortuis nisi bonum.

ART. XXIV.-Notice of the discovery of the remains of the Iguanodon in the Lower Green Sand Formation of the South-east of England. Communicated for this Journal, by GIDEON MANTELL, Esq. F. R. S. LL. D., &c. &c. of Brighton, England.

MAIDSTONE One of the most beautiful and important towns in the county of Kent,.is situated on the banks of the river Medway, about thirty five miles S. E. of London. The immediate subsoil of the district is a rich diluvial loam, in which bones and teeth of the horse, deer, and elephant have been discovered. This loam overlies and conceals extensive beds of limestone and sandstone; but in many places the loam has been removed, and quarries opened for extracting the stone which is principally employed in architecture and for road-making; the calcareous varieties being converted into lime.This arenaceous limestone is well known in England by the provincial term of "Kentish Rag." In a quarry of this kind, situated at a short distance to the south-west of the town, some laborers employed in extracting the stone, observed numerous fragments of bones in the ruins of a large mass which they had just blasted to

pieces, and upon this fact being made known to the proprietor of the quarry, Mr. Binsted, that gentleman directed all the portions to be collected together and carefully preserved, and finally succeeded in replacing the greater part of the block. He then proceeded to chisel away the surrounding stone, until he had exposed those bones which were superficially situated. The story of the discovery of the bones of an antediluvian giant quickly spread abroad, and an imperfect notice of the circumstance found its way into the London papers; curiosity was thus awakened, and many of the gentry of the neighborhood flocked to Mr. Binsted's house to see this so called "homo diluvi testis;" but among his numerous visiters, Mr. Binsted could find no one capable of giving him any satisfactory explanation of the nature of these remains, or probable conjecture as to the kind of animal to which they belonged. He therefore addressed a letter to Mr. Mantell of Brighton, (late of Castle Place, Lewes,) and informed that gentleman of such particulars as an intelligent person, unacquainted with comparative anatomy, could communicate. When the specimen was still further cleared, Mr. Mantell visited Maidstone, and proceeded to a scientific investigation of these interesting remains.

They consist of the greater number of the bones of the posterior portion of the skeleton of a reptile of enormous magnitude, distributed without any order or regularity in the stone, scarcely any two of them being in juxta-position: they are much broken and splintered, but are not water-worn. The stone in which they are imbedded is an arenaceous limestone, that abounds in the usual marine shells of the lower green sand strata, namely, Trigonia, Turritella, Gervilliæ, Ammonites, teeth of fishes, &c. The following bones. were sufficiently developed at the time of Mr. Mantell's visit to admit of being determined; and there were many others that were only partially exposed, but which may hereafter be brought to light.

Two femurs or thigh-bones: one so entire as to show both extremities, and also indications of a process or lesser trochanter, situated on the tibial aspect of the shaft of the bone. Length thirty three inches.

A tilia, about thirty inches long.

Fragment of a fibula, lying near the tibia.

Several metatarsal or phalangeal bones.

Two unguical or claw-bones, somewhat of a flattened form, and resembling those of a land tortoise. The largest is four inches in length, and two and a half inches wide at the base.

Fragments of large flat bones, which may probably belong to the pelvis.

Vertebræ both caudal and lumbar; these are of the usual fossil saurian type, having both faces slightly depressed. The largest vertebræ are very greatly flattened by compression.

Numerous portions of ribs; one possesses a double termination like that of the fifth rib of the crocodile.

A portion of one tooth, and the impression of another, decidedly of the Iguanodon.

One bone, twenty eight inches long, similar to that figured on the clavicle of the Iguanodon, in the Geology of the south-east of England, Plate IV. figs. 1, 2; a portion of another bone of the same kind is also partially exposed.

With the exception of the unguical bones, all those above enumerated resemble those of the Iguanodon, which have been dug up in Tilgate Forest; and the circumstance of the teeth being imbedded with the bones, serves to confirm the inferences that have been deduced from the previous discoveries of detached portions of the skeleton. It is not a little remarkable that no traces of the jaws of the Iguanodon have been observed; sooner or later, however, as M. Cuvier remarked in a letter to Mr. Mantell, "il est impossible qu'on ne trouve pas un jour, une partie du squellette rèunie â des portions de machoires portant des dents."

Mr. Mantell estimates the probable length of the individual whose remains are above described, at about seventy five feet.

POSTSCRIPT.

TO THE EDITOR.-Dear Sir--As none of the specimens are figured to which I alluded in my late communications, I enclose a few sketches in outline. The caudal vertebræ, briefly described in Geol. Suss. p. 333, are probably of the Hylæosaurus, you will at once be struck with the enormous height and size of the spinous processes, and

length of the chevron bones; Fig. 1, represents these six caudal vertebræ in connexion, and having three chevron bones, from the end of which, as they lie in the drawing, to the top of the spinous processes, is twenty seven inches. The original must have had a very upright and thin tail, enormously high in a vertical direction, and as the vertebræ, when in place, could have but little intervertebral substance, the spinous processes must have almost touched each other, and the tail have admitted of motion only laterally. I know of no reptile with such enormous spinous processes.

Fig. 2, represents one of the four enormous caudal vetebræ of the Iguanodon, one fourth the size of the original, of which I have an interesting specimen consisting of four caudal vertebræ with one chevron bone; the largest vertebra is twenty four inches in circumference: these vertebræ belonged about the middle of the tail of the Iguanodon if the vertebræ in this part were eight inches in diameter, what would they have been when invested with their muscles and integuments, and we may well exclaim-what a monster!

Fig. 3. This represents the thigh bone of the Iguanodon, which is very peculiar; the two processes or trochanters are most remarkable: do we know any thing like them? The cleft between the