[MATTHEW] NEW GENUS OF BATRACHIAN FOOTPRINTS 79 



each step, and when the foot was raised, made a curved trace on the 

 surface. It probably corresponded to the thumb-like fifth toe of the 

 Labyrintihod.onts, and to the detached outer toe of the footprint figured 

 by Sir C. Lyall. 



The fore foot is as broad as the hind foot, but much shorter, and 

 shows four strongly marked toes with more obscure impressions of a 

 fifth. 



All the toes of both foct are broad in front, and seem to have had 

 claws, but not of great length, except in the case of the detached 

 toe of the hind foot, alove leforrcd to. There is no indication of a 

 membrane connecting the toes. 



The prints of the 'hind and fore faot of eacih side are in line, and 

 the distance between the right and left lines, say 5^ inches, indicates 

 a broad body in comparison with the length of the legs. 



The impression of the hind foot is cither a little way behind that 

 of the fore foot, or the impressions are equidistant, indicating a walking 

 gait, varying somewhat in the length of stride. 



There are no indications of a tail, and in general the body was 

 carried clear of the ground, but in one place it has been dragged along 

 the surface, leaving longitudinal furrows, probably indicating that the 

 abdomen was clothed with bony scales, as was generally the case in the 

 Labyrinthodonts of the Carboniferous. On another slab there seems to 

 have been a soft place where the legs of the animal have sunk deeply 

 in the mud, and it would appear to have mired, extracting itself with 

 some difficulty, and leaving deep marks of the Ijody and legs. 



These footprints must have been on a subeerial surfac?, probLil)ly 

 left dry by the recession of the tide, and rain must have fallen shortly 

 before the animal passed over it, as indicated by the pitted appearance 

 of the slabs. The trunk of the creature may have liccn three feet in 

 length. Its tail, if it had any such appendage, must have been short, 

 or carried in the air without touching the ground. Its legs were stroùg 

 and bore the body well above the surface when walking. The only 

 knowTi Carboniferous Batrachian of Nova Scotia which could have made 

 these impressions is Baplietes planiceps, Owen, discovered by the author 

 in the coal-field of Pictou. 



The principal distinctive character of the present specianens, is 

 the peculiar appendage of the hind foot, and from this we may give the 

 provisional name Saur opus nnguifer to those footprints, until the 

 animal which produced them shall be known to us by its bones. 



One of the slabs in the rooms of the Survey show a number of less 

 distinct footprints of an animal which may have been two-thirds of the 

 size of that above described, though possibly of the same species. 



