148 QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



lar depression^ which depressions are arranged in the sandstone !i3( 

 opposite to each other as the tracks are 5 making- it appear that 

 the animal's hind feet did not touch the ground when he was too ,,:. 

 deep, but that he sat on his haunches, and the nature of the de-( 

 pression makes it seem that one part of the hind leg was evidently 

 folded under the other. These marks were very curious, and 

 opened a new field for inquiry. Numerous bird tracks were alsoi 

 found along with the tracks of quadrupeds ; the papillae of the in-( 

 teguments are perfectly preserved. 



Prof. Silliman then exhibited Dr. Owen's fac simile plates ofl 

 the fossil birds found at New^-Zealand, the thigh bone reaching 

 from a man's knee to his shoulder. 



Prof. Rogers then exhibited a map of the coal beds and inter 

 mediate layers of Pennsylvania, wdiere Dr. King found the fossil 

 foot marks. He described the great Pittsburg coal basin as bein 

 a seam of coal 10 to 14 feet thick, and occupying an area of 14,008 

 square miles — twice as large as Massachusetts — and of a very pure 

 coal. The basin or seam in which the foot tracks were found by 

 Dr. King stretches south to Alabama, west to Ohio, and north to 

 Lake Erie; and occupies an area of 63,000 square miles — largei 

 than all England and Scotland. It is 150 feet below the seam ol 

 Pittsburg coal — there being eight good working seams of coal iq 

 Pennsylvania below that- x)f the Pittsburg ; and only one go 

 working seam above it. 



Prof. Rogers also said that all these foot tracks found in th|^ 

 region except one, were said by Dr. King to be in relief; and i) 

 so they could not belong to any animal. He believed them to ht 

 made by reptiles ; it was was the place to look for Batracian ani^ 

 mals ; he did not expect to find the tracks of winged, air-breathing 

 animals ; and if they proved to be so, it would be indeed a disctW 

 very in the history of the populating of our globe that would posses? 

 the highest interest. The subject should be inquired into at once 

 Mr. Haldeman stated that one of the New-York State Geologisb 

 had suggested that these apparent foot tracks in the carboniferou* 

 series might be marine plants. 



Prof. Silliman said this idea was abandoned soon after it ww 

 first promulgated. 



THIRD DAY. 



Dr. Barrett read a brief paper on the evidences of congelatlor 

 in the new red sandstone of Middletown and Chatham. He hac 

 long seen evidences of solar heat exhibited in the red sandstone— 

 by the cracks showing the baking process, and the temperature 

 the earth at that time ; and he had looked a long time for evidences 

 of cold or freezing. He had at last found evidences of trianglei 



