262 Robert Harkness, Esq., 6n Fossil Footprints. 



tion than the beds which in Dumfriesshire furnish impres- 

 sions, we may conclude that at the former the animals were 

 of a newer creation, and also that many species which had in- 

 habited the Variegated sandstone shore in the latter locality 

 had ceased to exist prior to the creation of some of the rep- 

 tiles which have left their tracks on the beds at Weston 

 Point. The footprints which have been obtained from the 

 white sandstone of Stourton and Lynne differ likewise from 

 those of Wester Point ; and as these beds indicate an affinity 

 to the Keuper we may infer that in them we have also evi- 

 dence of a creation of species of reptiles appertaining to the 

 base of the trias, subsequent to that which called into exist- 

 ence the reptiles which impressed the Weston Point deposits ; 

 and from these localities in the Variegated sandstone, viz., 

 Dumfriesshire, Weston Point in Cheshire, and Stourton in the 

 same county, we derive information which leads to the con- 

 clusion that three epochs of creation prevailed during the de- 

 position of the Variegated sandstone. 



The creation and destruction of species, are matters which 

 are involved in considerable obscurity. The present forms 

 of organisation which occur, are, in some cases of extension, 

 geographical distributions, and in others are in a great mea- 

 sure local. In the former case, forms appear to have been 

 transported from one country to another, by means of which 

 we have at present no evidence. In the continents of Europe 

 and America, we have species of vegetables common to both, 

 and yet we have no means of ascertaining how this came to 

 take place, except by conjecture, which would lead us to 

 conclude that at a period anterior to the mammalia which 

 now abound on both continents being called into existence, 

 the two continents were connected together, but were severed 

 before the animal forms of the present time were created. 

 For if this had not been the case, it would be difficult to con- 

 ceive why we should not have a resemblance in animal as 

 well as vegetable species. This conjecture as to the reason 

 why in Europe and America we have some forms of vege- 

 tables similar in species, is supported by the fact, that, at an 

 epoch slightly anterior to our own, the fauna of Europe, 

 Asia, and America, possessed several species common to 



