Robert Harkness, Esq., on Fossil Footprtnls. 249 



It is now about twenty-six years since T)r Duncan of 

 Ruth well first brought fossil footprints under the notice of 

 geologists. These, when first discovered, were so unique, 

 that Dr Buckland, to whom the subject was first intimated, 

 was disposed to consider these footmarks as either fossil 

 shells partially decomposed, or clay concretions. After in- 

 specting casts forwarded him by Dr Duncan, he arrived at 

 the conclusion that these impressions were veritable foot- 

 prints left by animals which existed at the epoch when the 

 red sandstone of Dumfriesshire was being deposited ; this 

 being the formation in which these footsteps are found. 

 After the discovery of impressions in the sandstone of Corn- 

 cockle Muir, Dumfriesshire, the attention of geologists be- 

 came directed to this subject ; and in a short while other 

 districts were found to afford fossil tracks. Amongst these 

 the new red sandstone of Hildburghausen, in Saxony, fur- 

 nished specimens of Batrachian forms ; similar tracks were 

 also obtained at Stourton quarry, on the south side of the 

 Mersey, opposite Liverpool, and at Lynne also, in Cheshire. 

 Afterwards the same county afforded this form of step, in 

 conjunction with the impressions of Saurians and Tortoises, 

 at Weston Point. Warwickshire and Staffordshire also were 

 found to contain fossil footprints in their new red sandstone. 

 A deposit of a similar age, although of a somewhat different 

 nature, in America, was met with, having its beds impressed 

 •with the footprints of birds as well as reptiles. For a con- 

 siderable time the new red sandstone was reo^arded as the 

 (only formation from which these impressions were obtained, 

 rbut they are now procured from the lower portion of the 

 |coal -measures in America; and in this country the Devonian 

 budstone at Elgin shews fossil footsteps, and recently even 

 ^he Potsdam sandstone, which appears to occupy a position 

 [equivalent to the Llandeilo flags, the base of the Silurian, 

 [has, in Canada, made us acquainted with the existence of 

 reptile footprints at a period which is about the earliest 

 •om which we possess evidence of the existence of organised 

 ►eings. With the exception of the impressions caused by 

 >irds found in America, the whole of the footprints are of 

 luch a nature as to indicate a relation to reptiles ; and 



