178 Ornithichnites of the Connecticut River Sandstones. 
these singular impressions, on the part of those enjoying the 
greatest and best deserved reputation in paleontology and com- 
parative anatomy. ‘This is not surprising when we reflect on the 
important bearing which the facts if admitted would have on our 
preconceived notions of the fauna of this comparatively ancient 
geological era. But we believe the evidence on which these 
inferences rest has never been fully presented to any mind com- 
petent to judge of the facts, without resulting in the most thor- 
ough conviction of their correctness. 
The letter from Dr. Owen will be read with peculiar interest, 
as containing in a most desirable form, the first information which 
it has been in our power to present of that most interesting dis- 
covery—the existence of the immense Dinornis Nove Zelan- 
die, so valuable in bearing out and confirming the views of Prof. 
Hitchcock in relation to the authors of the fossil impressions in 
the Connecticut sandstones. 
Letter of Dr. Deane to Dr. Mantell. 
Dear Sir,—With this letter you will receive through Prof. Sil- 
liman of Yale College, a box of fossil footmarks derived from 
the New Red Sandstone of the Connecticut, a considerable riv- 
er intersecting this State. ‘These beautiful fossils, indicating a 
high grade of animal existence in a period of the earth so im- 
mensely remote, may well be regarded among the wonders of 
paleontological science. Prior to the year 1834 the traces of ex- 
tinct birds so low down in the geological series, were altogether 
unknown, and even now that the accumulated evidence of the 
fact is so overwhelming, the assumption that they are such, is 
received with grave circumspection. 'That the footsteps of Con- 
necticut River are, however, the authentic traces of extinct birds, 
is confirmed by the undeviating comparisons they bear to living 
nature. In the year just mentioned my attention was attracted 
to these splendid relics, so boldly displaying the essential charac- 
ters of foot-prints of living birds, that I could not hesitate con- 
cerning their origin, although no effort of the mind could com- 
prehend the period of their antiquity. The impressions were 
perfectly defined, succeeding each other in the determinate order 
of living birds, and being aware that footsteps of animals upon 
rocks were unknown, or at least controverted occurrences, I 
communicated the discovery to Prof. Silliman of Yale College, 
and to Prof. Hitchcock of Amherst College, then geologist to the 
