LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



97 



father of gods and men, that the fiat went forth 

 " As his home is so dear to him, he shall never 

 go out of it." This was rather shocking at first ; 

 but our philosophical tortoise bowed to the decree, 

 observing, that he much preferred carrying his 

 house about with him to being a fixture, where 

 he might be condemned to disturbance by the 

 quarrels of his neighbors. 



But why did Apelles paint his image under the 

 feet of Aphrodite ?* Why did Phidias make the 

 delicate foot of his chryselephantine statue rest 

 upon this sedentary emblem If 



* Tardigrada, herbigrada, domiporta et sanguine cassa, 

 Sub pedibus Veneris Cous quam pinxit Apelles. 



This must have been a different picture from that of the 

 celebrated Venus Anadyomene by the same hand, which 

 was, probably, in the splendid collection of Augustus be- 

 fore he transferred the masterpiece to the temple dedicated 

 by him to Julius Caesar. Ovid notices a painting which 

 may well pass for it, in his description of the finest works 

 in that magnificent palace. Trist. ii., 527, 528. 

 t In the temple of Venus Urania. 



As a hint to ladies to be quiet, and stay at 

 home excellent things in woman. 



Upon my word, sir ! 



The idea, madam, I assure you, is not mine. 

 You read Latin with the ease of a Roman matron. 

 No 1 Then ask your husband, son, or brother, te 

 do the following into English : 



Alma Venus quaenam haec facies, quid denotat ilia 

 Tesludo molli qua_m pede, Diva, premis ? 



Me sic effinxit Phidias, sexumque referri 

 FEemineum nostra jussit ab effigie. 



Quodque manere domi et tacitas decet esse puellas, 

 Supposuit pedibus talia signa meis. 



The women wore wooden images of the reptile 

 to denote their silence and domesticity, as Lais 

 knew to her cost, when the Thessalian matrons 

 assassinated her with such ornaments. Over- 

 zealous worshippers were they of the celestial Ve- 

 nus, the good, the retiring, the personification of all 

 that is amiable, beautiful, and modest. 



So stands the statue that enchants the world. 



FEW of those who stand near some quarry in our 

 inland counties, surrounded by all the beauties of 

 British scenery, hill, and valley, down and field, 

 luxuriant with woods, carpeted with herbage, or 

 waving with corn, bestow a thought on the char- 

 acter of the rock beneath. It occurs not to many, 

 that where the grass now grows and the cattle low 

 the waves once flowed ; and that the ripple-mark 

 may still be seen on what was once the ribbed sea 

 sand. 



To those who are unacquainted with geology, 

 it is startling to be told that the solid slab of stone 

 so marked, when last exposed thousands of years 

 ago, was part of the sandy shore over which the 

 animated beings, now blotted from the book of 

 life, wended their way, leaving, in many cases, 

 the traces of their steps, just before some great 

 convulsion of our planet changed the whole ap- 

 pearance of the surface, but spared these unmis- 

 takable records to tell the tale. 



No one with any powers of generalization can 

 long study the system of animated nature without 

 being satisfied that he must search among the 

 wrecks of bygone ages for those forms which are 

 required to make it complete, and that in the fossil 

 fauna he will find the lost links of the broken chain. 



Among the ichnolites, or fossil foot-prints, 

 which have attracted so much attention of late 

 years, those announced by Dr. Ogier Ward, as 

 proving the existence of a small four-footed ani- 

 mal at the period of the deposition of the new red 

 sandstone near Shrewsbury, were brought under 

 the notice of the British Association at Birming- 

 ham. They most nearly resembled those figured 

 in the paper on the new red sandstone of War- 

 wickshire, by Sir Roderick Murchison and Mr. 

 Strickland,* but differed in exhibiting more distinct 

 indications of the terminal claws, and less distinc- 

 tive impressions of the connecting web ; the inner- 

 most toe was less, and there was an impression 

 always at a distance from the fore-toes, like a 

 * Geol, Trans. Second Series, vol. v., pi. xxviii. 



hind-toe pointing backwards, the point of which 

 only seemed to have touched the ground, remind- 

 ing the observer of such an impression as might 

 have been made by a wading bird, and of the 

 ornithichnites discovered by Dr. Hitchcock in the 

 Connecticut new red sandstone, which have beeu 

 referred to the grallatorial tribe of birds. 



The American fossil footsteps were found at five 

 places near the banks of the river, within a distance 

 of thirty miles, at various depths beneath the su*- 

 rounding surface, in quarries of laminated flag- 

 stones. The inclination of the stone is from 5 to 

 30 ; and there is evidence to warrant the conclu- 

 sion, that the tracks were impressed before the 

 strata were so inclined. Many of these tracks, 

 clearly showing that they belonged to different 

 individuals and species, cross each other ; and the 

 footmarks are not unfrequently crowded together, 

 reminding one of the impressions left by the feet 

 of ducks, geese, and other birds, on the muddy 

 shore of the stream or pond frequented by them. 

 These footprints are referred by Professor Hitch- 

 cock to seven species at least, if not genera, of 

 very long-legged wading birds, varying in size 

 from that of a snipe to dimensions twice as great 

 as those of an ostrich. The steps are seen ia 

 regular succession on a continuous track, as of an 

 animal walking or running, the right and left foot 

 always occupying their proper places. At Mount 

 Thorn, near Northampton, were discovered four 

 nearly parallel tracks of a gigantic animal whose 

 foot was fifteen inches long, exclusive of the largest 

 claw, which was two inches in length. The toes 

 were broad and thick, and in one track appeared 

 a regular succession of six of these steps, four feet 

 distant from each other. The distance in other 

 tracks varied from four to six feet. Another foot- 

 mark extended to the length of from fifteen to 

 sixteen inches, without reckoning a remarkable 

 appendage extending backwards eight or nine 

 inches from the heel. The impressions of this 

 appendage present traces similar to what may be 



