72 Impressions of Rain-drops in Strata. 



according to Colonel Rawlinson's interpretation signifies that 

 Nabokodrossor, King of Babylon, built certain cities, &c. 

 This king is the same as the Nebuchadnezzar of Scripture, 

 so that the brick is twenty-four centuries old. 



When the tidal waters densely charged with fine sediment 

 creep gently over a slightly inclined sand or mud bank, they 

 do not disturb the surface, especially when it has been baked 

 hard in the sun, as happens in summer in Nova Scotia ; and 

 the new layer of matter which is thrown down, fills up all 

 superficial indentations, which serving as moulds are pro- 

 tected from further disturbance by the casts thus taken from 

 them. 



Mr Cunningham threw out as a conjecture, that the fine- 

 grained quartzose substance of Storeton Hill, might have re- 

 sulted from blown sand. That such was really its origin, 

 Sir C. Lyell, who has himself examined the quarries on the 

 Mersey, entertains little doubt; for on the sea-shore near 

 Savannah in Georgia, he saw the foot-tracks of raccoons and 

 opossums which had been made in sandy mud at low water, 

 in the course of being gradually filled up with blown sand, 

 clouds of which were swept along by the wind from adjoin- 

 ing cliff^s. This layer of sand when the tide rose again would 

 in its turn be overspread by a new deposit of mud. 



After describing both the impressions and casts of rain 

 occurring in the recent red mud of the Bay of Fundy, the 

 Lectiirer pointed out their close analogy with markings in- 

 scribed on triassic slabs of sandstones in New Jersey, on 

 which alsa ripple-marks, shrinkage-cracks, and foot-prints of 

 birds have been observed. The character of these ancient 

 impressions may sometimes be seen to vary where the rain 

 has fallen obliquely on rippled surfaces, the cavities being 

 deeper on the windward and shallower on the leeward sides 

 of the ridges formed by the ripple. Casts of rain-prints are 

 seen on the lower surface of several sandstone strata. The 

 direction of the rain is usually distinguishable, the longest 

 diameters of the cavities being all parallel, and their deepest 

 ends all on the same side. The markings attributed by Mr 

 Redfield to hail, are deep, irregular in form, and extremely 

 angular in outline ; and the walls are steeper, especially at 



