FOOTPRINT BEDS AT TURNER S FALLS. 503 



plants ; and more resemble some of the thin shale beds of 

 our coal measures, as they would be altered by the near 

 contact of trap, than any of the beds which the upper 

 new red sandstone exhibits in England. The lower 

 new red, in the county of Durham, in its fish bed and in 

 some other parts of its thickness, exhibits dark-coloured 

 shales, which, when altered by heat, might assume the 

 dark and micaceous aspect of the beds near Turner s 

 Falls. It is among these beds, inclined at an angle 

 sometimes as high as 80, that the bird-tracks and the 

 footprints of small reptiles occur ; and in this and a few 

 other places along the river, where the same beds have 

 been observed, Mr Marsh has obtained his most valu 

 able specimens. Among the fragments thrown aside 

 along the foot of the bank, we found many fragments of 

 footprints of all sizes, and, in the living rock, saw others 

 remaining still untouched. 



Returning by Greenfield from the falls, we descended 

 by railway to Springfield, and found excellent accom 

 modation at an hotel much frequented by travellers in 

 summer, which is known by the name of the Mansion- 

 house. 



March 28. I parted this morning from Professor 

 Rogers, who returned to Boston, while I took the train 

 to Albany. The river Hudson was now open from 

 that city to New York, and I wished to see something of 

 its boasted beauties before I embarked for Europe. 



The Westfield river, coming from the north-west, 

 through the Green Mountains, falls into the Connecticut 

 below the town of Springfield. Up the almost continu 

 ous gorge through which this river flows, the railway 

 ascends from Springfield towards Albany. The line dis 

 plays many engineering difficulties overcome, and much 

 very costly excavation, but it presents also scenery at 

 once striking, varied, and agreeably picturesque. After 

 a few miles of new red-sandstone rocks, granite, mica- 



