iNVESflGATlON OF FAUNA AND FLORA OF TKIAS OF BRITISH ISLES. 225 



from Hildburghausen, very similar, in both of which the curved digit is 

 still the outer one. It is therefore clear that it represents the fifth or 

 outer digit, and for the purposes of this report Avill be described as such. 



At the base of each digit there appeai-s to be a pad or cushion, often 

 merging into that of the next digit ; that at the base of the fifth digit is 

 larger than the others and quite separate from them, and it forms the 

 posterior outer margin of the print ; but on the inner side the margin 

 of the print is very slightly marked, sometimes not at all, between the 

 pad at the base of the first digit and that of the fifth. 



Occasionally the fifth digit is not curved, and is only slightly divergent 

 from the other digits. Two prints from Grimsill, Salop, show this 

 peculiarity : one is in the Ludlow Museum and the other at Shrewsbury. 



A short distance in front of the prints just described indications are 

 found of the presence of a smaller foot. The print is frequently very 

 slight, but is sometimes very clearly defined, and its axis coincides with 

 that of the larger print. 



It consists of five short divergent digits, the fifth being nearly at right 

 angles with the third ; there is no clear indication of an ungual termina- 

 tion ; the print is rather broader than long, and varies from a third to 

 half the size of larger print, which we may consider as that of the pes, 

 and the smaller as the manus. There are pads at the base of the digits 

 which coalesce and form the posterior margin of the print. 



The weight of the body was principally borne by the pes, as, although pre- 

 senting a much larger surface than the manus, it made a deeper impression. 



Both pes and manus seem to have been almost digitigrade, the distal 

 extremities only of the metatarsals and metacarpals reaching the ground : 

 these being represented by the pads at the base of the digits. 



Traces of a Caudal Appendage. 



No certain traces of a tail have been seen associated with these foot- 

 prints. In the British Museum there is a slab of prints from Storeton,' 

 R. 730, on which is a long tapering mark, with rows of scales on the 

 thicker part and terminating in some indistinct rod-like markings. 

 This, it has been suggested, may indicate the presence of a tail. Very 

 similar markings are present on a large slab from Lymm, in the Warwick 

 Museum. In neither case does the marking in question occupy the 

 position in regard to the footprints that might have been expected, and it 

 is possible the marks in question may have had a vegetable origin. 

 Undoubted tail-marks have been observed, but they were not associated 

 with the Cheirotherium footprints. As will be seen later, a small print 

 bearing some resemblance to the Cheirotherium does show the presence of 

 a tail, and there is a very clear track of a tail associated with some 

 webbed footprints on a slab at Warwick. 



Traces of the Integument. 



Professor W. C. Williamson - recorded and figured a print from 

 Daresbury, a few miles from Runcorn, which showed the presence of 

 small scales covering the sole of the foot. He says : — ' Many of them (tha 

 scales) run across the foot in oblique lines, thus leaving no doubt they 



' Described and tigured in Geolojij of Country around Liverpool, Append., 

 p. 300. 



- ' Cheirotherium I'ootprint from the Bate of the Keuper Sand&tone, Dare&bnry, 

 by Professor "\V. C. Williamson, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xsiii. 1867, p, 36. 

 1903. q 



