60 SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
bridge, Hood Martin, and Clifton on Teme, to Stanford. At Martley, 
it exhibited the usual appearance of the new red sandstone of Wor- 
cestershire and the adjacent counties. Then, on proceeding, it was 
frequently micaceous and slaty, and exhibited numerous variations of 
colour, until, without any other important change, it was traced to the 
beautiful building-stone of Stanford, where, in descending order, it is 
succeeded by strata of limestone belonging to the Ludlow Rocks of 
Mr. Murchison. In the quarries of Ombersley, the sandstone is white, 
inclining to green or grey, and much resembles the sandstones of a 
coal formation, though all the surrounding strata have the usual colour 
and appearance of the new red sandstone. In these quarries, vegetable 
remains are very abundant, amongst which may be distinguished cala- 
mites, the fossils generally resembling coal plants. Stems or boughs, 
apparently of coniferee, are cut across in working the quarry. ‘The 
wood is in part converted into coal, and in part preserves indistinctly 
its vascular structure. The stems contain a considerable quantity of 
oxide of iron, and around them the stone is rendered ferruginous. 
Mr. Yates left the decision of the question—whether these sandstones 
belonged or not to the keuper, to those geologists who had studied that 
formation on the Continent: he was himself inclined to decide in the 
affirmative. Mr. Yates then stated his opinion, that the whole of the 
new red sandstone of England must either have been part of the bed 
and estuary of a river, or, if a marine deposit, have been formed so 
near the dry land as to be under the influence of currents sweeping 
along the shore. The portions he had described must have been, he 
considered, the margin of such river or sea, the Silurian Rocks having 
formed its banks. Mr. Yates concluded by exhibiting a specimen from 
Brockhill Quarry, in the parish of Shelsley Beauchamp. A trap-dyke 
passes there vertically through the slates and fine sandstones of the 
Silurian System, and converts them into a substance not distinguishable 
from the trap, except by stratification; a phenomenon which Mr. 
Yates had also observed in the Duchy of Nassau. The specimen,— 
part of these altered stratified rocks,—was further remarkable, as 
exhibiting in the coatings of its sides brilliant crystals of chabasie. 
Tue Rev. Mr. CLarke requested permission to read two letters 
which he had received from Professor Hitchcock of Amherst, Massa- 
chusetts, on the subject of foot impressions, supposed to be those of 
birds, on a rock which the Professor refers to the new red sandstone. 
The first, dated March 1, 1837, states, that in the examination of some 
new localities, the author had extended the number of species, recog- 
nizable by the footmarks, from seven to twenty-one, some of which are 
very remarkable, and approximate to a sauroid type. One of these foot- 
marks is fourteen inches long; has a heel larger than that of a man, and 
a fourth toe coming out at right angles near its extremity. The length 
of the step is four feet. Professor Hitchcock adds, that he has found 
on the greywacke of Hudson River what he thinks the footmarks of a 
marsupial quadruped, or of a quadruped that moved forward by leaps. 
They are not, however, so distinct as the marks on the new red sand- 
