38 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



accompanied them. They appear more as the tracks of animals 

 passing at once across some tide-receded estuary, in pursuit of 

 some well-known and favourite grounds which were periodically 

 sought after for some particular purpose. But it must be borne in 

 mind that the impressions figured in this important work are not- 

 all similar in shape, and were probably due to different animals. 

 They often show the effects of a peculiar pushing-back motion, 

 which may be noticed in living tortoises. Dean Buckland, who 

 was interested in these impressions, caused a living tortoise to 

 walk on soft sand, clay, and paste, and found a fairly close 

 correspondence between the tracks thus made and those of 

 Corncockle Muir. 



In 1831, Mr. Poulett-Scrope, an English geologist, described 

 some small tracks made by a crustacean on a rock of the Jurassic 

 period, known as the Forest Marble. 



Some years previous to 1856, a series of strange impressions 

 was found in a quarry in the lowest part of the Millstone Grit 

 formation at Ehodes Wood, near Tintwhistle, Cheshire. The 

 proprietor, Mr. Ehodes, was much struck with them, from the 

 fact that they bore a resemblance to the marks of a human foot. 

 The workmen also were struck with the resemblance, and, when 

 they first showed him the impressions, remarked, "Master, 

 some one has been here before us ! " For several weeks the 

 quarry was visited by many hundreds of people from Glossop 

 and the surrounding neighbourhood. The common opinion was 

 that the tracks were the footprints of some of Noah's family ! 

 This strange idea seems to have been founded on another equally 

 strange, viz. that the Ark had rested on some neighbouring hills. 

 But to return to the tracks ; the distance between the impres- 

 sions was two feet ten inches, and several of the impressions 

 were thirteen inches long. Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins saw them, 



