ROOM I. ORNITHICHNITES. 69 



Fig. 1 to 1, directed from below upwards, is a track consisting of six 

 large footsteps. 



2 to 2, from above downwards ; a track of four footprints, dis- 



posed almost in a right line, and very far apart. 



3 to 3, a track of five footprints, from above downwards, of a large, 



heavy bird, like fig. 1. 



4 to 4, from above downwards, four footprints like fig. 2, disposed 



in a nearly straight track, and far apart. 

 5, a track of five heavy footprints, directed obliquely up- 

 wards. 



6 to 6, five footprints of a large bird, in a track from below up- 

 wards. 

 7, a series of five delicate footprints. 



8 to 8, a track of eleven very small footprints, disposed in zigzag, 



and extending obliquely from the right extremity to the 

 upper edge of the slab. 



9 to 9, a track of four large and distant footprints, passing 



obliquely across the stone from left to right. 



This description will suffice to convey a general idea of the 

 nature of these extraordinary remains. 



A few shapeless fragments of bones are the only vestiges 

 of the skeletons of any animals, with the exception of fishes, 

 that have been found in the strata which have furnished the 

 slabs of Ornithichnites ; but some coprolites have been dis- 

 covered, which, from a chemical analysis, are supposed to have 

 belonged to omnivorous birds. The enormous size of some 

 of the foot-marks are calculated to excite much surprise. I 

 have in my possession (through the kindness of Dr. Deane) 

 imprints that prove the size of the foot in one species to have 

 been fifteen inches in length, and ten inches in width, exclu- 

 sively of the hind claw, which is two inches long. The foot- 

 prints of this bird, when in a consecutive series of five or six, 

 are from four to five feet apart, which must have been the 

 length of the stride of the bird : the longest stride was pro- 

 bably made by the animal when running ; the shortest, when 

 walking at a moderate pace. These footsteps indicate pro- 

 portions so far exceeding those of all known living bipeds, 

 for the foot of the African Ostrich is but ten inches long, 

 that geologists hesitated to adopt the opinions of the 

 American naturalist, in the absence of any relics of the 

 osseous structure of the supposed birds, although sanctioned 

 by the high authority of Dr. Buckland, who, from the first, 

 concurred in the views of Professor Hitchcock ; and I can- 

 didly confess my incredulity, until a series of specimens sent 

 to me by Dr. Deane, accompanied with a graphic description 

 of the circumstances connected with their position in the 



