TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 779 
The Boulder-drift of the North, 
‘The Boulder-drift of the northern plain is deposited on a floor of solid rocks, 
which sinks rapidly from 160 feet on the south-west at Ballawhane to 298 feet 
below high-water mark on the north-east at the Point of Ayre. It is no less than 
450 feet in thickness, when the cliffs and hills of the plain are taken into account. 
It contains the usual marine shells. Inland the drift occurs to a height of more 
than 600 feet above the sea. The distribution of the Foxdale granite boulders 
proves that the glaciation was from north to south. 
The Prehistoric Strata, 
With regard to the prehistoric river terraces, and alluvia, and the peat-beds 
which are considerable in the north, I will only add that the discovery of the 
great Irish Elk in the peat near St. John’s, and in the forest on the shore-line near 
Strandhall, proves that the island was united to Ireland or Britain in the pre- 
historic age, 
2. Observations on some of the Footprints from the Trias in the 
Neighbourhood of Liverpool. By H, C, Brastey, 
The footprints generally known as those of the Cheirotherium or Cheirosaurus 
have been the subject of much speculation and some study for a long time past, 
but unfortunately without any very certain result; their general character is, 
however, so well known that I hardly need refer to them. Besides this large and 
rather singular form we have a great number and variety of smaller footprints. 
A number of quite distinct forms may be traced, indicating that the fauna was 
rich both in individuals and in species. A slab in University College, on which 
about ninety-five footprints are shown ou an area of about three square feet, 
illustrates this. The footprints are generally found in relief as natural casts in 
sandstone of prints made in the underlying marl or clay where the wet mud 
has taken the impression and afterwards been covered with sand, They occur 
most plentifully along certain beds, but this is because only at those places were 
the conditions favourable for their presentation. The author particularly draws 
attention to the fact that the prints indicate animals of terrestrial and not marine 
habits; for, although in older accounts webbed feet are described and figured, his 
own observations point to these being of very rare occurrence. This would 
necessitate the existence of dry land in the neighbourhood, and must be taken 
into account in any attempt to understand the formation of the Keuper. They 
are found at intervals from just above the conglomerates at the base to the lower part 
of the Keuper marls, the highest beds of the Keuper exposed. They have not been 
found in the Bunter in this district. The Liverpool Free Museum has lately acquired 
a slab from Storeton which shows some interesting forms; one, the largest about 
two inches long, is possibly of a chelonian, In the less perfect examples it is 
represented by an oval pad and four projecting points slightly removed from it on 
one side, but in more perfect examples it is seen that these are connected by toes 
with the pad, and that the projecting points are portions of strong curved claws. 
On the slab it is difficult to trace a regular series, but from measurements taken at 
the quarry from portions of the same bed the author found that the feet had a 
stride of about nine inches, whilst the width of the track—that is, between the 
line of impressions of the right foot and those of the left—was eight inches, 
indicating a broad-bodied animal. Another footprint well shown on the slab is 
much smaller, being about three-quarters of an inch long, and consists of three 
toes of nearly equal length—the middle one being the longest—and a very small 
toe on one side projecting from what appears to be the palmar portion of the foot. 
The three longer toes lie very closely together, and quite parallel, and often the 
rint shows no division between them, and each terminates in a short sharp claw. 
this is the form described to the Geological Section by Mr. O, W. Jeffs at the 
Oxford.méeting.! They are, perhaps, better shown on a slab from the same bed of 
1 Brit. Assoc. Report, 1894, p. 658. 
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