42 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



six of a lesser species. It was quarried near 

 Middletown, in 1778, and for sixty years did 

 duty as a flagstone, fortunately with the face 

 downwards. When taken up for repairs the 

 tracks were discovered, and later on the slab, 

 which measures three by five feet, was trans- 

 ferred to the museum of Amherst College. 



There is an interesting parallel between the 

 history of footprints in England and America, 

 for they were noticed at about the same time, 

 1830, in both countries; in each case the tracks 

 were in rocks of Triassic age, and, in both in- 

 stances, the animals that made them have 

 never been found. In England, however, the 

 tracks first found were those ascribed to tor- 

 toises, though a little later Dinosaur footprints 

 were discovered in the same locality. Oddly 

 enough these numerous tracks all run one 

 way, from west to east, as if the animals were 

 migrating, or were pursuing some well-known 

 and customary route to their feeding grounds. 



For some reason Triassic rocks are particu- 

 larly rich in footprints ; for from strata of this 

 same age in the Rhine Valley come those cu- 

 rious examples so like the mark of a stubby 



