22 Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. 
may be inferred from the following communication from a gen- 
tleman now residing here, to whom I am indebted for many val- 
uable additions to my geological cabinet, and who visited and 
critically examined the specimen sixteen years ago, in company 
with several distinguished naturalists : 
“In reply to your inquiries regarding the now famous lime- 
Stone slab with its human foot-prints, I have to say, that in the 
year 1826, I visited and examined it repeatedly and minutely, 
and have a perfectly distinct recollection of its appearance at that 
time. I then compared the foot-prints with my own, placing my 
naked foot on the impressions. ‘They corresponded very accu- 
rately both in outline and in the depressions, answering to the 
principal muscles of the foot and toes, except that the toes were 
somewhat more widely spread than mine. Mr. Maclure, Dr. 
Troost, Mr. Say and Mr. Lesueur, then residents of Harmony, 
examined the rock at the same time. They all agreed in opinion 
as to the artificial origin of the tracks, with good reason, I think ; 
for the task seems to me more easy than the fabrication of many 
of our native vases and other antiquities. ~ RNA a ie 
“T can say with confidence that there is no perceptible differ- 
ence between the appearance of the tracks now and in 1826, - 
when I first saw them ; and I find that others who were then in 
the habit, like myself, of seeing the specimen daily, coincide with 
me in this opinion. ~~ Samven Botton.” 
Though Messrs. Maclure, Say, Troost, and Lesueur, appear thus 
to have agreed as to the artificial origin of these foot-prints, yet 
among the various writers who have broached the subject, others 
have expressed a very different opinion. 
Mr. Schoolcraft, in the article already referred to, and which 
first introduced the matter to the scientific world, expresses his 
unqualified conviction that they are true fossils—the actual im- 
pressions of human feet made in the rock at some remote period, 
when it was soft enough to receive them. Here is his description 
of the foot-prints, and of the rock containing them, together with 
his reasons for the dbove opinion : , 
be The prints are those of a man standing erect, with his heels 
drawn in and his toes turned outward, which is the most natural 
position. The distance between the heels, by accurate meas-_ 
urement, is six and one fourth inches, and between the toes 
‘thirteen and a half inches; but it will be perceived that these, 
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