342 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



should all be classed among the reptilia. They appear to me to have all 

 lie-on quadrupeds, which usually walked upon two feet, but were capable 

 of walking upon four feet when necessity required. In proof of this, AVC 

 find tracks, as perfect as if made in plastic wax, which, in the number of 

 toes and phalangeal expansions, agree perfectly with living birds, and yet 

 it is certain that they were made by quadrupeds, from the impressions left 

 by their forward feet. And in other cases, where the animal sunk deep in 

 the mud, they usually dragged their tails, leaving a furrow, or groove> 

 ploughed up in the soft material, of from one-half an inch to an inch in 

 width. This gi-oove is not always found on the surface w r here the foot 

 rested, since, when the weight of the animal caused the feet to sink through 

 the upper and yielding stratum, the tail dragged upon the then immediate sur- 

 face; and the existence of a tail appendage is only evident under the above 

 conditions. That these were quadrupeds, therefore, at this date of the depo- 

 sition of these sandstones, that had hind feet perfectly agreeing with those _ 

 of birds, renders it a matter of great doubt whether there were any birds at 

 this epoch this age of reptiles. If there were, they must have been apter- 

 ous and naked; for it is impossible to suppose that ordinary birds, congre- 

 gating together in such numbers, and pluming themselves, would not pull 

 out some of their feathers. Xo impressions of feathers, however, have 

 been found, although we constantly meet with impressions of the smallest 

 leaves of vegetables, and the tracks and markings of the annelids and in- 

 sects, some of which are so small, that they require the aid of a lens to 

 describe them correctly. 



Mr. F. said " he was aware that men very eminent in science had come to 

 a conclusion different from his own in this matter, and it was not for him to 

 say that they were wrong ; he would only suggest, that so little was known 

 in regard to the subject when they made their examinations, that possibly 

 our first discoverers may have been mistaken. 



"Very few, probably, have any conception of the marvellous perfection of 

 these fossil inscriptions at Turner's Falls, or of the once countless individu- 

 als who have left unmistakable evidence of their existence in what is now 

 the valley of the Connecticut River." 



ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF MAN IN RECENT 

 GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 



Much interest has of late been excited by the discovery of the remains of 

 man, or his works, under conditions which seem to imply an existence of 

 the genus homo during the later geological epochs. In addition to what was 

 brought forward on this subject at the British Association in 1858, by Prof. 

 Owen and Mr. Pengelley, and before the Royal Society by Mr. Homer (see 

 Annual Scien. Dis. 18-19, pp. 324, 326), we herewith furnish our readers with 

 a resume' of all the additional contributions to our knowledge on this subject. 

 (See also Sir Charles Lycll's address before the geological section of the 

 British Association for 18-19, pp. 6, 7, present volume.) Editor. 



At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries (London), June 2, 18-59, Mr. 

 Evans read a paper " On the occurrence of Flint Implements in undisturbed 

 Beds of Gravel, Sand, and Clay (such as are known by Geologists under the 

 name of Drift) in several Localities, both on the Continent and this Country." 

 The first discovery of these implements is due to M. Boucher de Perthes, of 

 Abbeville, who, in the pits in that neighborhood, found flints evidently fash- 



