O rnithichnology . 339 



4 



picions, that I may have been deceived. I too, at firsts was entirely- 

 sceptical ; for in former geological excursions, I had so often found 

 that the reputed foot marks of animals, were but the result of aque- 

 ous or some other alluvial agency, or of human skill, that I would 

 scarcely turn out of my path to see an example ;* but I soon per- 

 ceived that here was something entirely different. Yet had I found 

 only a single specimen, however distinct, I should still have disbeliev- 

 ed. Or had I found the tracks at the quarries, sometimes a depres- 

 sion, and sometimes rising above the surface, I might have styled 

 them concretions. Or had I found little or no correspondence be- 

 tween the impressions, and no regular succession of steps, I should 

 have attempted to account for them in some other way, or have left 

 them unexplained. But when 1 found that in all these respects, 

 there was no room for scepticism, when I saw that the right and left 

 foot could be clearly distinguished, when I coul d hardly distinguis h 



♦ Encouraged by the facts that have been detailed, and led to hope for success 

 from several very glowing descriptions that 1 had received of foot marks upon stone 

 in Rhode Island, f was led recently to perform a journey of two hundred and fifty 

 miles, for their examination. They occur about two miles north of the village of 

 Wickford, on the road to Providence; and every person of whom I enquired, 

 within twenty miles of the spot, seemed to be acquainted with the impressions 

 there, under the name of "the Devil's Track." But I saw no evidence of any 

 agen^v there, except that of water. And it seemed to me that the only reason 

 why every one does not impute the effects to water, is the difficulty pf conceiving 

 how a stream could have ever flowed in that spot for a long time, as it must have 

 done, to- produce the excavations; for it is near the top of a ridge "^ S^^^^^ /'f;' 

 passing into mica slate ; and no excavation exists that could have formed he bed 

 of the stream. But the geologist is not surprised to 6nd marks of powerful aque- 

 ous agency anv where on the earth's surface, even though he cannot ^-xplainits 

 modus operandi. I could not explain it satisfactorily .in this instance ; for the di- 

 rection of the current seems to have been from N. E. to S. W. or the ^^^'^^'^'^^ 

 I know of no other marks of aqueous agency in New England, («"?' "'f"/ 

 streams,) where the waters moved in either of these direcnons; but haUhe ex 

 cavations called tracks, were the result of running water I <=«" ^-^^J'"^^ f^f j.' 

 They extend for several rods in the direction in which the ^-^^'^^'^f'^^l^^ 

 ination has made some of them resemble the foot of ^ ^^'l' f .^/^.f,^ f^se" 

 others of an animal with a hoof. I saw ,n. -- ^J^^^.^f J ' , Z,,^, 

 blance to any of these, and in some '^^fZl'^^.^^^lllTou, of them resem- 

 and generally from one to four inches d ep- B"// >;™ - eorresponding im- 

 bling the foot of an animal or a man, you <^°"'d n^^ t^'^ Ji . ^ '^ „^,,h 

 pressionsin any direction to «^7 --f^cVe' ftme on\^ 



further with this description, ^'^^^P^'^'^' !:'.'' ^eeu wherever water has been 

 but I judge it unnecessary, as s.^^lar ones ma^ be seen wh^^^^^^ .^^^^^^.^^ ^^^ 



running for years with violence over rock supernatural manner in 



exists on the public mind, as to the -J^ '-;4,„, ,, f,,,„^e if several gen- 

 which these excavations were made, I shoum noi 

 erations should pass away, before the delusion vanishes. 



