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quadrupedal impressions in the red sandstone rocks ; these were 

 afterwards ascertained to be the tracks of a tortoise, named Tes- 

 tudo Duncani. In 1834, at Hildberghausen, in Saxony, foot- 

 prints were discovered in this formation, which first led to the 

 establishment of the genus Cheirotherium by Dr. Kaup, from 

 their striking resemblance to the human hand. At this time 

 Count de Munster and M. Link were of the opinion that they 

 were made by a Batrachian animal. In 1838, at Stourton Hill, 

 near Liverpool, England, similar impressions were found ; a 

 cast or two of these is in the Cabinet of the Society. In 1841, 

 President Hitchcock discovered, in the Connecticut Sandstone, 

 quadrupedal impressions, to which he gave the name of Sauroid- 

 ichnites ; he afterwards described these in Vol. III. of the 

 " Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," 

 under the genus Anisopus ; the plates of which seem to show that 

 they are allied to Cheirotherium. In 1844, Dr. Alfred T. King 

 discovered in the coal formation at Greensburg, Westmoreland 

 County, Pennsylvania, a series of fossil footprints of a reptile 

 allied to Cheirotherium ; his descriptions are in the Proceedings 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, for 1844, 

 and in Silliman's Journal for 1845. In the same year. Dr. Deane, 

 who long before had seen Ornithichnites, noticed quadrupedal 

 impressions in the Connecticut sandstone ; they are described in 

 Silliman's Journal for 1845. In 1847, Prof. Von Dechen dis- 

 covered in the coal formation of the Saarbruck district, remains 

 which Dr. Goldfuss described as Archegosaurus Declieni^ adding 

 afterwards A. medius and A. minor, of which the first, the larger, 

 was about three and a half feet long. This genus was a Lahyrin- 

 thodont, rather than a Crocodilian. In 1849, Isaac Lea, Esq., 

 discovered at Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where the Schuylkill 

 breaks through the Sharp mountain, a double row of impressions, 

 bearing some analogy to the European Cheirotherium ; these 

 were called by him Sauropus prinicBvus^ and were said by him 

 and Mr. Lyell, to be from a formation equivalent to the old red 

 sandstone of Europe, while Prof. Rogers has maintained that it 

 belongs to the lower series of the coal formation. The Sauropus 

 was a Saurian reptile, with a tail. 



Saurian bones and teeth were found in the New Red Sand- 



