Robert Harkuess, Esq., 07i Fossil Footprints. 265 



forms whenever he found it desirable. That species havfe 

 disappeared, and bad their places filled by new creations, the 

 history of every geological epoch testifies ; and that those 

 living things, whether plants or animals, which now possess 

 the surface of our globe, were called into being at various 

 periods, is exceedingly probable ; and if we are to judge of 

 the future by the past, — and the unalterable nature of the laws 

 which govern both organic and inorganic substances, justifies 

 this mode of judging, — then we may infer that new forms, 

 both of plants and animals, will at future eras be tenants of 

 the earth which we now call our own. By applying similar 

 principles to the epoch of the trias, we shall find in the por- 

 tion which is represented by the Variegated sandstone, the 

 creation and the probable dying out of species, owing to the 

 operation of those laws which have governed the creation and 

 destruction of organised beings. We have from the surface of 

 the beds of the red sandstone, evidence not only of animals 

 which traversed this substance when in a sandy state, but 

 likewise of the physical conditions, and also of the atmospheric 

 influences which prevailed. The pitted faces of some of the 

 beds tell of the pelting shower, and the nature and direction 

 of these pittings shew from which quarters the storm-driven 

 shower came ; and the rippled markings which are seen on 

 some of the beds, lead us to look backward into the abyss of 

 time, to the wandering wave dancing in the sunbeam, or 

 lashed into billows by the fury of the storm king. The im- 

 pressions on the new red sandstone lead the mind to an epoch 

 so far back in the history of the earth, that we fail to have 

 any adequate idea of the distance of this, so far as the means 

 by which we compute time. Yet, however remote this epoch 

 may be, it is marked by those phenomena and circumstances, 

 which shew that the laws of nature are immutable, and that 

 such causes were in operation as those which prevail at the 

 present time. ^^^^ ''•^■' -- 



The beauty and perfectidfl'itf Wfcifeh these footprints occur, 

 is such, that were it not for the hardness of the stone, we 

 [might be induced to look forwards along the track for the 

 lanimal which produced the impressions of which none of the 

 [solid parts remain, the footprints being its sole relic. Time, 



