l^viiL TO THE READER. 



on wood, and in the limited space at Mr Adams' command, 

 their truth is such that I can safely recommend them to 

 the palaeontologist. In the accompanying descriptions, and 

 in my statements of geologic fact in general, it will, I hope, 

 be seen that I have not exaggerated the peculiar features 

 on which I have founded, nor rendered truth partial in 

 order to make it serve a purpose. Where I have reasoned 

 and inferred, the reader will of course be able to judge 

 for himself whether the argument be sound or the deduction 

 just ; and to weigh, where I have merely speculated, the 

 probability of the speculation : but as, in at least some of my 

 statements of fact, he might lie more at my mercy, I have 

 striven in every instance to make these adequately repre- 

 sentative of the actualities to which they refer. And so, if 

 it be ultimately found that on some occasions I have misled 

 others, it will, I hope, be also seen to be only in cases in 

 which I have been mistaken myself. The first or popular 

 title of my work, " Foot-prints of the Creator," I owe to Dr 

 Hetherington, the well-known historian of the Church of 

 Scotland. My other various obligations to my friends, lite- 

 rary and scientific, the reader will find acknowledged in the 

 body of the volume, as the occasion occurs of availing my- 

 self of either the information communicated, or the organ- 

 ism, recent or extinct, lent me or given. 



