Dr Duncan on Foot-marks of Animals, Sfc, 305 



But as most of the places are elevated high above the sea, 

 their mean temperature must be all increased ; so that the for- 

 mula will err in defect. 



Art. XIV. — Account of the Tracts of Foot-Marks of Ani- 

 mals found impressed in Sandstone in the Quarry of Corn- 

 cockle Muir, Dumfries-shire.* By the Reverend Henry 

 Duncan, D. D. Minister at Ruth well. Communicated by 

 the Author. 



The sandstone quarry of Corncockle Muir is situated be- 

 tween the rivers Annan and the Kinnell, about a mile and a 

 half above their confluence, and not quite three miles from 

 Lochmaben. It is near the top of a low round-backed hill, 

 which stretches about half a mile in a westerly direction, almost 

 in the line of the rivers. 



The sandstone of which the quarry is composed is, like 

 most other sandstone in the county, of a reddish brown co- 

 lour, and is believed to be what is called in Britain the new red 

 sandstone. Its texture is friable, and its strata of very une- 

 qual thickness. It lies in the direction of the greater part of 

 the sandstone of the district, which is from west north-west to 

 east south-east, with its dip southerly, inclining at an angle of 

 38°. 



The remarkable phenomenon I am about to describe, as ex- 

 isting in this quarry, is that of numerous impressions, fre- 

 quently distinct and well-defined, of the foot-prints of qua- 

 drupeds, which have been found by the workmen on the sur- 

 face of certain strata, when the superincumbent layers have 

 been removed in the process of quarrying. This fact, so ex- 

 traordinary, and I believe unique, has not hitherto been no- 

 ticed in any scientific work, though it is fifteen or sixteen years 

 since the discovery was first made. It is not easy to convey 

 an accurate idea of the nature of these impressions in words ; 

 but out of a considerable variety which have been observed, 



• The Editor has been indebted to Dr Duncan for this abridgement of 

 his very interesting and valuable paper, which was read at the Koyal So- 

 ciety of Edinburgh on the 8th of January last, and which will appear in 

 vol. xi. part i. of their Transactions, now in the press. 



