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coal, which have for some time past been exhibited in the office of W. 
Lorenz, Esq., Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad 
Company, were placed in his care for critical examination by those inter- 
ested in such discoveries, previous to being presented by Mr. Lorenz, on 
my behalf, to the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. 
These foot-marks might easily be mistaken by people in general for those 
made by a small bird, on account of the three toes on the front and one at 
the back part of the foot with the joints and curved nails or claws, which 
are distinctly shown by their deeper indentations on the stone. The 
cushion-like ball of the foot aids the deception ; but the regular alternation 
of front and hind, right and left feet, each on their own line, as made by 
four-footed animals of the kind, dispels the idea of a biped. 
These foot-prints were found on the 15th of June, 1876, at Ellangowan 
colliery, owned and operated by the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and 
Iron Company, situated in E. Mahanoy Township, Schuylkill Co., Pa., 
about midway between Mahanoy City and Shenandoah, in a small valley 
diverging from the Mahanoy valley proper. In this valley a split of the 
mammoth seam occurs which can best be explained by the mining en- 
gineers of the C. & I. Co., who have access to the maps and mines with 
all their secrets, splittings and ramifications, together with all the pecu- 
liarities, depth and thickness of rock and coal seams at that point. 
Inquiry, at the time, of the bosses of the colliery, elicited the bare in- 
formation that the rocks amongst which the specimen was found, had been 
taken from the shaft while it was being sunk and overlaid the mammoth ; 
but they could give nothing definite as to depth below the surface, or posi- 
tion. My own impression is, that it was taken from the upper and most 
shelly or shale-like portion of this stratum of slate ; this opinion being based 
upon the fact that the most noticeable peculiarities exist mainly in its upper 
portion. Of these peculiarities, the frequent occurrence of nodules of 
hematitic iron and occasional ripple marks are the most prominent. In 
fact, it was by the observation of these characteristics that I was led to 
search among the rocks lying around, that the footmarks were found, and, 
if not destroyed by the burning of the breaker last fall, the other portions 
of the same rock still remain there. The piece bearing the marks was 
much larger than it now is and was trimmed down for convenience in Car- 
riage, though the foot-marks were all preserved and all I cared for. 
It had been lying under the eaves of a shed, subjected to the dripping of 
water therefrom for several years, and close to the path leading around the 
shed, and by which path the mules were driven when used at the breaker. 
Only a portion of one foot was first visible, but by carefully removing thin 
films or scales of slate, the others were brought out. So cautiously did I 
work, that the impressions on the upper scales were destroyed, because too 
thin, and the danger of injuring those on the body of the stone. The fear 
of injury was so strong, that I only felt sure of my prize when it was 
safely deposited in my room at the hotel. Habitual search for fossils when 
about a rock bank of a coal mine, or where slates and shales present any in- 
