i” Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. 17 
and in consequence of this high estimate of its value, there were 
bs y of the citizens strongly disposed to prevent the slab. eins 
, Meet away from the city. 
“LT know of no rock wary that. margin, of a’ soft na pi 
nature, that seemed to be in a process of Piheeny ; but the 
opinion was. well grounded ther 
“© the two human feet ha 
: ile on ret aa wher it maaan 
pe mud. yee 
ie “T never saw or aaah of any imprint of human feats along 
‘ there or any where else, save on this rock; but I recollect-of re- 
‘marking in many of the steps of the supait rock along near to 
the same place from which this slab had been taken out, the nu- 
% merous imprints of turkey, deer, and buffalo feet.* TI often looked 
to find human imprinted feet, but was unsuccessful.” 
. These extracts fully eitplain the circumstances under which 
the slab. was originally obtained by Mr. Rapp. When that gen- 
a tleman, in the year 1824, sold the New Harmony estate, to my 
father, the slab also came into my father’s hands, and ultimately 
: into the possession of the late Mr. William Maclure. After’his 
decease, it was presented to me by his executors, and is now pre- 
served i in ry museum of iets i natural | aes ane We 
» 
te 
The stabs itself i isa ponderons mass of solid silid tiobetane, Poet 
ing upwatds of a ton... xh fossils had been observed in 
the vicinity of its otiginal location, yet until lately: no 
had been discovered on the specimen itself, In preparing to re- 
move it, however, from Mr. Maclure’s residence to my laboratory, 
observing a horizontal tal fissure whieh extended | entirely across s the 
rock, I split off by the ai 
two or-three inches thick, from its inferior surface. This nse 
tion, besides materially facilitatir , disclosed, as 
' Thad hoped it would, some familiar fossil shells ; and I subse- 
quently discovered a good many more by sedecitig the detached 
ae ee Oe 
a 
* Those unacquainted with the science of geology, frequently mistake for fossil 
foot-prints, what are in fact moulds of shells, or merely casual appearances. On 
‘the table-mounds in Iowa, a rock contains numerous impressions of a species of 
7 crus, which when partially weather-worn, so clo osely resembles the print 
V s to be continu ually mistaken for it by the uninitiated. Hitchcock, 
iby a ttle regarding fossil footsteps, undertook a journey of seyeral hun- 
ired miles—to find nothing but accidental markings on the rock. : 
Vol. XLUI, No. 1,—April—June, 1842. aS 
* 
