84 METEOROLOGY. 



proceeded to the spot. Here after waiting a short time they saw the 

 creature in question at a little distance. They describe it as being about 

 15 feet high. One of tlie men proposed to go nearer and shoot, but his 

 companion was so exceedingly terrified, that they were satisfied with 

 merely looking at it, when, soon after the bird monster took the alarm 

 and strode oti' up tlie hill side. 



The acuteness of Professor Owen's reasoning upon the osteology 

 of this animal will be apparent to all, when they revert to his announce- 

 ment after inspecting the lirst fragment of bone which he obtained, only 

 (3 inches long, "that it belonged to a large struthious bird of a heavier 

 and more sluggish species than the Ostrich." It enabled him, scanty as 

 the sources of information were, to draw the outline of the whole skel- 

 eton, which was subsequently seen to be an exceedingly close approxi- 

 mation to the true form, as shewn by the bones themselves when after- 

 wards they had been collected and applied togetlier. To arrive at the 

 structure of an entire animal from a single bone or from the fragment of 

 one, requires the comparative anatomist to have vast experience, in all 

 the phases of organic forms, and a powerfully comprehensive mind. It 

 was the great intellect of Cuvier which invented this method, and very 

 few have succeeded him who have practised it so successfully as Owen. 



The discovery of this strangely formed bird, throws a world of light 

 upon some obscure impressions or footmarks left in the red sandstone 

 of Connecticut, and upon which Professor Hitchcock hazarded an opin- 

 ion, when first discovered, that they were the tracks of a gigantic bird. 

 It was then objected, that the size of the footsteps, 15 inches, and the 

 stride, or space from one mark to the other, was so enormous that no 

 l)ird then known, either recent or fossil, could have produced them ; and 

 by many geologists they were referred to, as the traces left by some of 

 the great Saurians. Prol'essor Owen however admits that these foot- 

 marks were impressed by .>^ome gigantic bird, whose fossil skeleton will 

 some day be disinterred, and fh-st, probably in Connecticut •, and awards 

 merited honor to Dr. Hitchcock for possessing the moral courage to a- 

 vow and sustain an honest opinion before an incredulous scientific world. 



MKTEOUOI.OGY, NO. V. 



BY PROF. JACOBS, OF PENNSYLVANIA rOI.I.KOE. 

 INDIAN SUMMER. 



1. Dcfinitinn and grnrral character. 



The season, to which, by common consent, the appellation of "In- 

 dian SumnK'r'' has been applied, is one of peculiar interest lo the peas- 



