IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 29 



generally believed that the impressions were made by huge 

 (for their kind) salamander-like creatures, known as laby- 

 rinthodonts, whose remains are found in the same strata. 

 Footprints may aid greatly in determining the atti- 

 tude assumed by extinct animals, and in this way they 

 have been of great service in furnishing proof that many 

 of the Dinosaurs walked erect. The impressions on the 

 sands of the old Connecticut estuary may be said to 

 show this very plainly, but in England and Belgium is 

 evidence still more conclusive, in the shape of tracks 

 ascribed to the Iguanodon. These were made on soft 

 soil into which the feet sank much more deeply than in 

 the Connecticut sands, and the casts made in the natural 

 moulds show the impression of toes very clearly. If the 

 animals had walked flat-footed, as we do, the prints of 

 the toes would have been followed by a long heel mark, 

 but such is not the case; there are the sharply defined 

 marks of the toes and nothing more, showing plainly that 

 the Iguanodons walked, like birds, on the toes alone. 

 More than this, had these Dinosaurs dragged their tails 

 there would have been a continuous furrow between the 

 footprints; but nothing of this sort is to be found; on 

 the contrary, a fine series of tracks, uncovered at 

 Hastings, England, made by several individuals and 

 running for seventy-five feet, shows footprints only. 

 Hence it may be fairly concluded that these great 

 creatures carried their tails clear of the ground, as 

 shown in the pictures of Trachodon, the weight of the 

 tail counterbalancing that of the body. Where crocodil- 

 ians or some of the short-limbed Dinosaurs have crept 

 along there is, as we should expect, a continuous furrow 

 between the imprints of the feet. This is what foot- 

 prints tell us when their message is read aright; when 

 improperly translated they only add to the enormous 

 bulk of our ignorance. 



