62 ~ PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. I. 



FOOTPRINTS OF QUADRUPEDS ON TRIASSIC SANDSTONE.' 

 Window recess between c and d, and upright case e. The 

 Ichnolites (as petrified footprints are scientifically termed) to 

 which I would first call the visitor's attention, are those on 

 the larger slab of sandstone, from near Storton, that is placed 

 in the window recess, between c and d, and the two from 

 Hildburghausen, in Saxony, that are deposited in an upright 

 wall case at e. 



About twenty years since, much interest was excited by the 

 discovery of footmarks, resembling those of land tortoises, on 

 the exposed surfaces of slabs of Triassic sandstone, in a quarry 

 at Corncockle Muir in Dumfriesshire, of which an interesting 

 account was published by the Rev. Dr. Duncan. Regular 

 tracks of footprints, indicating the slow progression of a small 

 four-footed animal over the surface, while the stone was in the 

 state of moist sand, were traced on the blocks of sandstone 

 when separated in the lines of stratification by the quarrymen. 

 In one instance there were twenty-four consecutive impres- 

 sions, forming a track with six distinct repetitions of the 

 marks of each foot, the front feet differing from the hind feet ; 

 the appearance of five claws was discernible on each fore paw. 

 These foot-tracks most nearly resemble those made by land 

 tortoises of a moderate size. Another discovery of footprints 

 was soon afterwards made in strata of the same geological age 

 at Hildburghausen, in Saxony ; but these were evidently of 

 very large unknown quadrupeds, in which the fore paws were 

 much smaller than the hind ones. Subsequently, similar 

 fossil tracks were observed on slabs of triassic sandstone in the 

 quarries at Storton, near Liverpool. These foot-tracks are on 

 the face of each successive stratum of sandstone, the cor- 



1 The following notice of the specimens is given in the British 

 Museum Catalogue: 



" The slabs of sandstone on the north wall of this Room, with the 

 supposed tracks of an unknown animal called Chirotherium, are, that 

 on the left, from the quarries of Hildburghausen in Saxony ; and that in 

 the centre, from those of Storton Hill, near Liverpool, (the latter pre- 

 sented by J. Tomkinson, Esq.) On the right hand are placed slabs 

 from the same New Red Sandstone formation, with equally enigmatical 

 imprests of various dimensions, called Ornithichnites, being very like 

 footmarks of birds : they occur in the sandstone beds near Greenfield, 

 Massachusetts, at a cataract in the Connecticut river, known by the 

 name of Turner's Falls." 



