304 



M. Pictet has come to different conclusions from Jaeger and 

 Owen. He is of the opinion that the Labyrinthodon is a Saurian 

 rather than a Batradiian ; and he grounds his opinion more 

 particularly on the scuta or scales, which exist in the former and 

 not in the latter; furthermore, the teeth of the Labyrinthodon 

 more resemble those of the Saurians, in their form, than they do 

 those of the Batrachians. 



The size of the tracks varies from four to twelve inches in 

 length ; the head, of which the cast is exhibited, is much larger 

 than any of those described by Owen, and must have belonged 

 to an animal at least twelve feet long. The European Cheiro- 

 therium had five toes on each foot, one of which was turned in 

 like the human thumb ; the hind foot was three or four times 

 larger than the fore foot. There is no evidence of the animal 

 having had a tail. The impressions are in a single series, each 

 fore and hind foot being near together and alternately of the 

 right and left, side. The animal appears to have been made in a 

 clumsy manner, swinging the legs outward in a circular direc- 

 tion, like the course of a scythe. At Hildberghausen, the larger 

 impressions of the hind foot were about eight inches long and 

 five wide. One was twelve inches long. Near each large step, 

 and at a regular distance of one and a half inches before it, is a 

 smaller print of a fore foot, four inches long and three inches 

 wide ; from pair to pair the distance is about fourteen inches ; 

 though differing in size, the fore and hind feet are nearly similar 

 in form. These footmarks are partly concave, and partly in 

 relief. 



In the American Cheirotherium of Dr. King, there is a double 

 row of tracks, and in each row they occur in pairs ; each pair 

 consists of a hind and fore foot, each being at nearly equal dis- 

 tances from the next pair ; in each parallel row the toes turn the 

 one set to the right, the other to the left. In the American fossil, 

 the posterior footprint is not even twice as large as the anterior, 

 and the fore foot has only four toes ; one toe stands out in each 

 foot like a thumb, turned alternately to the right and left. The 

 American Cheirotherium was evidently, as Mr. Lyell says, a 

 broader animal, and belonged to a distinct genus from that of the 

 triassic age of Europe. 



