THE NEW KED SANDSTONE SYSTEM. 



715 



of Science, in January, 1836, by Professor Hitchcock, brought before the attention of 

 European savans some very distinct tracks in the red sandstone of the Connecticut 

 valley, first observed by Dr. Deane of Greenfield, who immediately noticed their 

 similarity to the impressions left on the muddy banks of the river by the living aquatic 

 birds common to the locality. Subsequent examinations discovered similar foot-marks in 

 several quarries in the same valley, and other parts of Massachusetts, and several 

 specimens are now in the British Museum, the most remarkable of which is a slab, eight 

 feet by six, which exhibits traces of various sizes, belonging to different individuals. 

 Subjoined is a representation of this slab that which arrested the attention of Dr. 

 Deane, at Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. 



All these footmarks are referred to that class 

 of birds called Waders ; and while some are 

 very small, others are of enormous size, in- 

 dicating proportions equal nearly to twice the 

 magnitude of the ostrich. In one species, 

 Ornithichnites giganteus, the imprint of the 

 foot measures fifteen inches in length, and ten 

 inches in width, excluding the hind claw, 

 which is two inches long. The distance of the 

 impressions from each other vary from four to 

 six feet. The former may be taken as the 

 length of the stride of the bird when walking 

 at an ordinary pace, and the latter when pro- 

 ceeding more swiftly. These dimensions, so far 

 surpassing those belonging to any known birds, 

 led many geologists to conceive that some mis- 

 take had been made respecting the nature of the 

 impressions, till convinced by an actual inspec- 

 tion of the specimens transmitted to Europe, and 

 by the discovery of the bones of the Dinornis, 

 fearfully great bird, in New Zealand, an indi- 

 vidual much larger than the existing ostrich. 



But a still more remarkable feature of the 

 new red sandstone formation is the preserv- 

 ation, in connection with foot-prints, of very 

 distinct impressions of rain drops upon the 

 strata, as represented upon the preceding 

 page. Dr. Deane discovered a stratum con- 

 taining, in all, more than one hundred marks 

 of the feet of four or five species of birds, the 

 whole surface having also been pitted with the 

 marks of a shower of rain. The same obser- 



Portlon of a slab of new red sandstone from Turner's Falls, yation has been made in the Storeton quarry, 

 Massachusetts, with irapri, large 



Liyerpool? where tracks of the Chiro . 



therium are found. " The under surface of two strata, at the depth of thirty-two or 

 thirty-five feet from the top of the quarry, presents a remarkably blistered or watery 

 appearance, being densely covered by minute hemispheres of the same substance as the 

 sandstone. These projections are casts in relief of indentations in the upper surface of a 

 thin subjacent bed of clay, and owing, in Mr. Cunningham's opinion, to drops of rain." The 

 impressions are sometimes perfect hemispheres, indicating a vertical fall of rain ; but in 



