Hubert Harkness, Esq., on Fossil Footprints. 253 



tlie quicksands of our modern shores. And in the clayey 

 deposits we find the action of quiet water, such as at the 

 present time causes the muddy silt which occurs scattered in 

 patches along a sandy coast. Such conditions and such re- 

 sults now prevail between tidal levels ; and such conditions 

 and such results have prevailed, under similar circumstances, 

 along the ancient shores of the sea, long prior to anything to 

 which our ideas can attach when we talk of antiquity — con- 

 ditions which appear to be almost contemporaneous with the 

 existence of animal life. 



Concerning the animals which have produced these ich- 

 nolite tracks, they seem to have been not only of different 

 forms, but likewise to have been of various natures, accor- 

 ding as they existed during the periods when the trias was 

 being deposited. Those impressions which first attracted 

 attention have been assigned by Professor Owen to Che- 

 Ionia, and, from the equal size of the pairs of feet he refers 

 these footprints to Testudiniee, rather than to Trionicidea?, 

 the other two forms of tortoises which might have been 

 supposed to produce impressions. These steps, which occur in 

 great abundance in the quarry of Corncockle Muir, Dumfries- 

 shire, have been distinguished by the name of Testudo Dun- 

 cani ; but as the generic appellation is used to designate the 

 existing forms of land-tortoises, Sir William Jardine has sub- 

 stituted in its place the name Chelichnus. The same locality 

 which furnishes the impressions of the C. Duncani^ also 

 afix)rds another form somewhat allied to this species; but 

 the steps being of much more gigantic proportions, this form 

 has been termed 0. giganteus by Sir William Jardine, and 

 its specific characters afe such as at once to separate it from 

 the small species. Other reptilian forms of footprints are 

 obtained from this quarry : there is, however, considerable 

 difficulty in making out the relation which these form of steps 

 bear to existing families ; but in other parts of Dumfries- 

 shire there occur associated with the impressions of the 

 Chelichnus tracks of both Lacertian and Batrachian animals, 

 and these appear to occupy a position similar to those which 

 are found at Corncockle Muir. 



These Lacertian and Batrachian impressions from the 

 trias of Dumfriesshire differ in some respects from those 



