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sand before the flow of the tide, as well as by the recent footsteps 

 of birds in the red mud of the Bay of Fundy, which if submerged 

 would realize a complete analogy to the fossil footsteps through 

 many successive laminte of deposit*. He also believes with Pro- 

 fessor Hitchcock, that the strata in question had been elevated and 

 tilted since their original deposition, and he connected these move- . 

 ments with the evolution of trappean rocks, which in some places 

 invade the Oinithichnite beds. In regard to the age of these beds no 

 decisive opinion has yet been expressed, though they are referred 

 to one of the older secondary rocks. However this point may be 

 determined, and I will presently allude to it, the great question re- 

 mained to be settled ; how induce us to believe that the largest of 

 these footmarks were made by birds ? Is it not unsafe to call in 

 the presence of creatures of such high organization when researches 

 all over the world have taught us that in rocks of far less anti- 

 quity no traces of the bone of a bird or mammal have been found? 

 May not the impressions after all be those of some singular Sauroid 

 animal with trifid feet, of which we have no links in existing nature ? 

 Looking to such a possible explanation, and reflecting on the 

 striking interference with the opinion heretofore very generally 

 received, that a succession from lower to higher orders of creatures 

 was invariably evidenced in ascending from lower to higher depo- 

 sits, I candidly confess, that nearly up to the present moment, de- 

 spite of the clear and faithful descriptions of the facts, I have clung 

 to the idea, that the markings would not eventually be referred to 

 the action of birds. My scruples as a geologist have, however, I 

 confess, been much shaken, if not entirely removed, by a discovery in 

 natural history, which I do not hesitate in characterizing as one of 

 the most remarkable of modern times. 



From the examination, in 1839, of a single fragment of a bone 

 brought from New Zealand, Professor Owen, though at first startled 

 by its enormous size, at length pronounced it to belong to a gigantic 

 form of the lowest organized bird, analogous to the diminutive 

 Apteryx of the same island, in which the lungs approach more 

 closely than in any other bird to the structure of those in reptiles. 

 To this monstrous winged animal he assigned the name of Dinornis, 

 and many of its bones, in a very perfect condition, having been sub- 

 sequently found in New Zealand and deposited in the museum of 

 the College of Surgeons, his opinion has been completely confirmedf . 

 When it is known that the tibia of this bird is so huge that the 

 femur of the Irish giant is of pigmy dimensions when compared with 



* A striking explanation of appearances, respecting which we were at 

 first equally incredulous when pointed out on the surface of the Red Sand- 

 stone of England as fossil rain-drops, is given by Mr. Lyell in the actual 

 formation of similar markings produced by rain on the mud of the shores 

 of Long Island. 



t The inhabitants of New Zealand believe that the Dinornis was in ex- ' 

 istence with their progenitors. On this point, however, doubts may still be 

 entertained, as we know that in many uncivilized countries, where the bones 

 of extinct quadrupeds occur, the natives connect them with their ancestors. 



