86 Lymm. 



crocodiles, and lizards. Prints no doubt occur also in 

 many other parts of the neighbouring country, though the 

 flatness of the surface prevents their being readily dis- 

 covered. It is necessary, of course, that portions of the 

 rock should be removed, as in the case of the Lymm and 

 Storeton quarries. The usual length of the footmarks is six 

 or eight inches, and the usual breadth four or five inches, 

 with an interval between each pair of impressions of about 

 fourteen inches. The true impression is of course that 

 one which is sunk in the sandstone ; the duplicate found 

 in relief, and often exhibited as the footprint, being the 

 cast made by the settling into it of the next deposit of 

 the tenacious mud. At Storeton such was the consistency 

 of the mud when the Labyrinthodons walked upon it, 

 that not only are the impressions of the feet preserved, 

 but those of the extremities of the toes ! How won- 

 derful that ages after the creatures have dropped out of 

 being, and their very bones are difficult to meet with, 

 their ancient presence here should be certified by a thing 

 apparently so insignificant as the footsteps ! Yet it is 

 evidence, as Dr Buckland long ago remarked, with which 

 mankind is gratified and contented in every condition of 

 society, and in every kind of inquiry. "The thief is 

 identified by the impression which his shoe has left on 

 the scene of his depredations. The American savage 

 not only identifies the elk and the bison by the mark of 

 their hoofs, but ascertains the time that has elapsed since 

 the animal has passed. From the camel's track upon 



