NATURE'S HIEROGLYPHICS. 147 



One extremely interesting specimen in the Amherst collection hears 

 in all about fifty impressions, most of them made either by the same 

 animal walking back and forth along the beach or by several of approx- 

 imately the same size. In one of his journeys the creature slows down 

 as shown by the fact that the tail begins to drag, whereas it had been 



Footprints of a Small Quadrupedal Reptile, Slegomus, whose restoration is shown. 



held out stiffly behind to counterbalance the weight of the body. Then 

 the animal stops and comes down on all fours impressing the little 

 hands and long heels, then, having satisfied its purpose, it rises again 

 to its hind feet, touching one hand and the tail tip once more to the 

 ground in regaining its balance, and then goes on its way. This 

 single slab gives us thus a knowledge of the creature's size, proportions, 

 gait, resting posture, feeding habits, for the little hand with its nail- 

 like claws could never have been used for grasping prey, and finally 

 of the texture of the skin on the soles of the feet with creases between 

 the joints, like those of the human fingers, and tiny granulations, like 



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Restoration of Slegomus, a Distant Ally of the Modern Crocodilfs but with 



High Stilted Limbs. 



mustard seed covering the entire surface. Footprints of this character 

 are very common and indicate dinosaurs of rather light build, ranging 

 in size from three and a half to seven feet. 



One of the most remarkable of all of the footprints measures twenty 

 inches in length, with four toes directed forward bearing broad rounded 

 claws. The foot was bear-like, in that the entire sole and heel rested 

 upon the ground and bore around its margin a broad web-like flange 

 of skin, the probable function of which was to prevent the creature 



