476 Scientific Intelligence, Sfc. 



stone of Dumfries-shire. Traces of unknown animals have recently 

 been detected in a similar rock, at Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, 

 by M. Lickler. Traces of four species of different animals can be 

 observed. Two footmarks are always found together; one behind 

 about six incbes long, the other before, only half as large. The toes are 

 five. The large toe is situated at a right angle in relation to the others. 

 The two large toes of one pair of feet are directed always from the same 

 side, but the same toes of the following pair are directed in the op- 

 posite way. The animal must, therefore, have ambled. A re- 

 markable feature is, that the pairs of feet follow in a right line: — 

 hence the animals must, when they walked, have raked the earth. 

 Count Munster considers them to have been amphibia ; Weiss, on 

 the contrary, mammiferae ; while Link believes them to have been 

 gigantic sauri, like the chameleon. — (liibliotlteque JJniverselle, 

 1835, vol. ii. 399.) 



The first traces of birds, however, in a similar situation, have 

 been discovered on the banks of the Connecticut river, in Massa- 

 chusetts ; and described by Professor Hitchcock, of Amherst Col- 

 lege. The appearance presented is that of the feet of a bird which 

 had been walking in the mud. The depressions are more or less 

 perfect and deep ; and have been made by an animal with two feet, 

 and usually three toes. In a few instances a fourth, or hind toe, can 

 be observed, not exactly in the rear, but inclining somewhat inward ; 

 and in one instance, the toes all point forward. Sometimes these 

 ternate depressions run into one another, as the toes approach the 

 point of convergence, but they also sometimes stop short of that point, 

 as if the animal had not sunk deep enough to allow the heel to make 

 an impression. Attached to the posterior impression, there is fre- 

 quently an appendage resembling a tuft of hairs or bristles. In all 

 cases, where there are three toes pointing forwards, the middle one 

 is the longest. Mr. Hitchcock found these impressions to correspond 

 closely with those formed by small species of recent grallae, particu- 

 larly snipes. He divides the tracks in the sand-stone into 7 species, 

 under the genus Ornithichnites. 1. Pachydactyli ; O. giganteuS} 

 O. tuberosus ; Leptodactyli ; O. inrjens ; O. diversus ; O. tetra- 

 dactulus ; O. palmatus; O. minimus. — (SUliman's American 

 Journal, xxix. 307.) 



XI. — Nem Minerals. 



Tripliylline, (rpic three and cdrX?/ family), from its consisting of 

 three phosphates.. It is described by Fuchs as being crystalline, 

 cleaving in four directions ; one of the cleavages is vertical to the 

 others. Two of them are parallel with the sides of a rhombic prism 

 of about 132° and 148'. The primary form is a rhombic prism. 

 Colour greenish gray, in some places blueish ; the powder grayish 

 white. In large pieces the lustre is fatty ; in thin portions trans- 

 lucent. Specific gravity, 3(5. Hardness nearly that of apatite ; 

 fuses readily before the blowpipe. With borax fuses into an iron- 

 coloured glass. It is soluble in acids. It consists of phosphoric acid 

 41 -47 ; protoxide of iron 4837 ; oxide of manganese 4-7 ; lithia 



