Cork Cuvierian Society. 



cided foot-impressions, evidently the track of one animal ; they are 

 very regular, about 4\ inches in advance of each other, and over 

 3 inches apart laterally. Two or three of these feet show three toes 

 in front and one strong linear impression pointing directly backwards, 

 which caused some persons to think them at first the marks of a bird ; 

 but they are not the walk of a biped, as a bird, with alternate steps ; 

 and therefore it was said the bird was in the act of jumping forwards, 

 bringing both feet to the ground at once and nearly in a line. He, 

 Dr. Haines, thought them the track of a quadruped, that is, a four- 

 footed creature, and probably a reptile ; but it was not easy to recon- 

 cile the markings to any known mode of progression, and therefore 

 he made a second examination, when he discovered that there are the 

 impressions of another pair of feet between each of the former, which 

 satisfies every difficulty and proves the creature to have been qua- 

 drupedal. Those additional foot-prints, which Dr. Haines has just 

 discovered, are comparatively indistinct, so much so as to have been 

 at first entirely passed over by every one looking at the stone ; but 

 now, on being pointed out, they are equally convincing, when taken 

 in relation with the other marks, to all who examine them. 



The condition of the slab now is, that we have twenty-six impres- 

 sions instead of fourteen ; fourteen large, about 1 inch in length each, 

 and half an inch wide ; twelve smaller casts, nearly half an inch long, 

 giving the idea of the impression of one central toe only. These 

 smaller marks incline inwards towards each other, and also lie an inch 

 and a half in advance, and a little within the line of the larger feet. 

 In the original mould the right feet, both small and large, are con- 

 stantly slightly in front of the line of advance of the feet of the left 

 side. The distance of the large impressions before the smaller ones 

 by the progress of the animal is about 2\ inches. 



It seems clear then that this four-footed creature had two smaller 

 fore-feet and two larger hind-feet ; that in the alternate bringing up 

 of the feet as it walked, the hind-foot approached the fore-foot perhaps 

 pretty closely, as we must make allowance for those portions of the 

 feet not fully impressed in the mould. It would be quite possible to 

 calculate the length of the body and length of limbs from the data of 

 these foot-tracks ; and from the high relief of the casts of the hinder 

 feet and their width apart, the body must have been wide and heavy, 

 in relation to its other dimensions. To convey a short sketch of foot- 

 prints, Dr. Haines stated that about twenty-six years since was the 

 date of their earliest notice ; first in the New Red Sandstone, as already 

 mentioned ; then in older rocks which are called the Coal-measures, 

 in Bavaria, in America, and now in Ireland, for the Millstone-grit is 

 of the lowest part of that series ; since then they have been discovered 

 so low down and remote in age as the Upper Devonian sandstones in 

 Morayshire ; and still more remote in time, in a sandstone at the base 

 of the Silurian rocks in Canada* ; thus proving an antiquity for the 

 vertebrated division of animals as far back as almost the first traces 

 of created being. 



* With regard to the Canadian foot-tracks, these have been referred by 

 Professor Owen, in a paper lately read before the Geological Society, to 

 Crustaceans. — Ed. 



