FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME 37 



discovery of footmarks, resembling those of land tortoises, on the 

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

 at Corncockle Muir in Dumfriesshire, of which an interesting 

 account was published by the Eev. Dr. Duncan. Eegular tracks, 

 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 by the quarry- 

 men, along the lines of their stratification. In one instance there 

 were found twenty-four consecutive impressions, 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 the impressions of each fore paw. In 1853, 

 Sir William Jardine published a splendid folio work in which he 

 fully described these footprints ; it was illustrated by full-sized 

 lithographs coloured after Nature. 1 



The footprints occur in the Dumfriesshire Sandstones, in 

 different patches, in several localities, but are best seen either 

 where naturally exposed in the valleys of the Esk, the Nith, and 

 the Annan, or in the quarries in those districts where they are 

 worked for building material. One of those areas, of considerable 

 extent, fills up the bottom of nearly all the upper basin of the 

 Annan Valley above the ridge at Dormont Eocks. The beds 

 are about two hundred feet thick, and present even surfaces. It 

 is a curious fact, observed by the author of the above-mentioned 

 book, that all the footprints are impressed as if the animal had 

 walked from west to east. As a rule the creature seems to have 

 walked in a straight line, but sometimes the tracks turn and wind 

 in different directions. The paces are generally even and unin- 

 terrupted, seldom diverging much aside, showing little stoppage 

 for food, or for a scuffle with a neighbour, which sometimes 

 1 Iclmology of Annandak (Edinburgh, 1853 ; folio). 



