HS Geological Society: Nat. Hist. Soc. of Liverpool 



olivine, amygdaloid, greenstone, wacke, and trap tuif ; and they fre- 

 quently contain fragments of limestone, flinty slate, slate-clay, bitu- 

 minous shale, sandstone, and coal. They appear to have been pro- 

 duced while the associated sedimentary strata were horizontal, and 

 to have undergone with them the same disturbing movements*. 



An account of Footsteps of the Chirotheriumf , and other unknown 

 animals lately discovered in the quarries of Storeton Hill, in the pen- 

 insula of Wirrall, between the Mersey and the Dee, communicated 

 by the Natural History Society of liiverpool, and illustrated with 

 drawings by John Cunningham, Esq., was then read. 



In the early part of last June, there were discovered in the Store- 

 ton quarries, on the under surface of several large slabs of sandstone, 

 highly reUeved casts of what the workmen believed to have been human 

 hands ; and the circumstance having been made known to the Na- 

 tural History Society of Liverpool, a committee was appointed, who 

 drew up the report communicated to this Society. 



The peninsula of Wirrall consists of new red sandstone ; and to- 

 wards the northern extremity, the formation may be separated into 

 three principal divisions. The lowest is composed of beds, slightly 

 inclined towards the east, of red or variegated sandstone, occasionally 

 abounding with pebbles partly derived from the coal-measures ; and 

 in the bottom strata either angular or little water- worn. Seams of 

 marl are very rare in this division, the argillaceous matter being con- 

 fined to nodules or concretions of clay of the same colour as the 

 sandstone. 



The middle division consists of white or yellow sandstone, in some 

 places argillaceous, and frequently containing round concretions of 

 clay, and pebbles. The strata are separated by seams of white or 

 mottled clay, occasionally almost imperceptible, but sometimes se- 

 veral inches thick. 



The uppermost division is formed of red or variegated sandstone, 

 inclosing also nodules of clay and pebbles of quartz ; and it abounds 

 with strata of red marl. 



The Storeton quarries are situated in the middle division ; and the 

 casts which have hitherto been noticed, occurred on the under sur- 

 face of three beds of sandstone, about two feet thick each. The 

 strata incline 8° to the north-east, but they are traversed by several 

 faults, which range in the strike of the beds. The authors of the re- 



* For further particulars, see Mackenzie on the Ochils, Mem. Wern. 

 Soc, vol. ii. p. 1 ; Fleming on Scales in the Old Red Sandstone of Fife- 

 shire, Edinb. Journ. Nat. and Geograph. Science, Feb. 1831 ; and on 

 the Mineralogy of the Neighbourhood of St. Andrews, Mem. Wern. Soc, 

 vol. ii. p. 145 ; also Neill's Daubuisson, p. 215. 



t This name was first applied provisionally by Professor Kaup, to si- 

 milar casts discovered, towards the end of 1834, in the sandstone quarries 

 at Hesseberg, near Hildburghausen. See Dr. F. R. L. Sickler's Letter to 

 Blumenbach, 1834 ; also. Die Piastik der Urwelt im Werrathale bei 

 Hildburghausen, with plates by C. Kepler, and an introduction by Dr. 

 Sickler, 1st part, 1836 ; and Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, 1836. 



