2()4 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



Col. Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, to whom Schoolcraft wrote 

 concerning the footprints, differed with him and regarded them as 

 artificial, but his reasons therefor were not sufficient to convince 

 Schoolcraft. 



The matter was brought up again by David Dale Owen in 1842 

 in an article entitled Regarding Human Footprints in Solid Lime- 

 stone, which appeared in the American Journal of Science of that 

 date. Owen hen 1 described the appearance of the tracks, and quoted 

 the opinions of Maelure, Troost, Say, and Lesueur to the effect that 

 they were of artificial origin. The English paleontologist, Mautell, 

 was, however, inclined to the opinion of Schoolcraft. Owen himself 

 regarded the tracks as artificial for essentially the same reasons as 

 those advanced by Benton, to the effect that, first, the footprints were 

 not continuous, but isolated; second, this was but a solitary instance 

 of human footprints in solid limestone; third, he could not conceive of 

 the sudden consolidation of compact limestone after having received, 

 while in a plastic state, such impressions; and, last, because of the age, 

 nature, and position of the rock, and because no human remains had 

 hitherto been discovered in any similar formation. He regarded them 

 as having been carved by aborigines with stone implements. In this 

 he was doubtless correct. 



Of interest at this time, as bearing upon the subject of faulting and 

 displacement, is a paper in the American Journal of Science by D. H. 

 Barnes, containing a geological section of the Canaan Mountains in 

 Connecticut, together with observations on the soils 

 oA r iuitin| ge f822 ns °f tne region. In the explanation of his section, 

 beginning at the bottom, the beds are described as 

 (L) clay loam with bowlders; (2) transition limestone; (3) white quartz, 

 grading on one side into limestone and on the other into clay slate; 

 (4) slate; (5) graywacke slate. The strata then repeat themselves in 

 the same order, the graywacke slate forming the summit of the knob. 

 The entire formation is described as appearing "to have been broken 

 off from the primitive tract on the east of it, and to have sunken 

 down about one thousand feet perpendicularly.' 1 Regarding the beds 

 and their associations on Hancock Mountain, he concluded that the 

 strata on the top of the mountains might be considered as origin- 

 ally parts of the same bed now at the base of Canaan Mountain, 

 whence they had ''been disrupted by some mighty force," 1 the eastern 

 part remaining firm, while the western settled down to its present 

 position. Referring to Maclure's map, he found that the two forma- 

 tions discussed "butt against each other in a line nearly straight for 

 more than 300 miles." This he accounted for by supposing "that 

 some mighty convulsion has rent asunder the continent from the St. 

 Lawrence to the ocean, 11 though what this force may have been he 



