PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 48 9 



ently of the same species, crossing the ctone in different directions ; and several 

 casts of the feet of a reptile are also visible. 



The rock consists of a member of the New Red Sandstone series ; and it is a 

 fact worthy of notice, that the only other impressions of this same animal 

 that have hitherto been discovered exist also in the New Red Sandstone of 

 Hilburghausen, in Saxony, and, what is remarkable, they are accompanied by 

 the footmarks, apparently, of the same reptile which has left its traces in the 

 stone at Storton-hill. The slab bearing these footmarks is now in the British 

 Museum, and a particular account of them has been given by Prof. Buckland, in 

 his Bridgewater Treatise. They were first noticed by Prof. Kaup, who gave 

 the animal which made them the name Ckirotherium, which we shall retain, and 

 he placed it among the Marsupialia. In this specimen the footmarks are only 

 sixteen inches distant from each other, while in that before the Society they are 

 twenty-two inches, showing a great difference in the size of the two animals. 



This animal, of which we have no remains but the impressions of its feet, 

 appears to have belonged to the order Marsupialia. The hind feet bear a 

 stronger resemblance to those of the animals of this family than to any other ; and, 

 indeed, they look somewhat like enlarged models of one of the species — Didelphis 

 Virginiana. In some respects the animal seems to have been allied to the 

 Opossums, though in others it appears to have approximated to the Kangaroos, 

 especially in shape. This is deducible from the disproportionate size of the feet. 

 The hind feet are large and strong, and show that the back part of the animal 

 was very large and heavy ; while the comparatively small size of the fore feet 

 seems to indicate that the head, neck, and chest were small and light — or, in 

 other words, the animal appears to have been of a conical shape, and in this 

 respect approximating to the Kangaroo tribe, although differing widely from it in 

 the structure of its hind feet, which, as we have already stated, bear a resem- 

 blance to those of Didelphis (the Opossum). There are, also, two other points of 

 difference deducible from the footmarks of this animal, namely, that its fore legs 

 were long and slender, and that it had no tail for leaping. The first of these 

 appears from the fact that the length of the step of the fore feet is exactly that of 

 the hind feet — to wit, twenty-two inches — which is as large as the step of a 

 Cow ; and the fact of the absence of a leaping tail is shown by the non-occurrence 

 of any mark on the stone which could indicate its presence, and which would 

 probably have been the case if it had existed. In both these respects the animal 

 has differed from the Kangaroo. There are many strong points of difference 

 between the characters of Ckirotherium and those of the other genera of the order 

 Marsupialia ; so that taking all the circumstances in connexion, it may perhaps 

 have occupied a place between the genera Didelphis and Kangurus — resembling 

 the former in the structure of its hind feet, and the latter in the shape of its 



