12 
duced while the associated sedimentary strata were horizontal, and 
to have undergone with them the same disturbing movements*. 
An account of Footsteps of the Chirotheriumf, and other unknown 
animals lately discovered in the quarries of Storeton Hill, in the pen- 
insula of Wirrall, between the Mersey and the Dee, communicated 
by the Natural History Society of Liverpool, and illustrated with 
drawings by John Cunningham, Esq., was then read. 
In the early part of last June, there were discovered in the Store- 
ton quarries, on the under surface of several large slabs of sandstone, 
highly relieved casts of what the workmen believed to have been human 
hands; and the circumstance having been made known to the Na- 
tural History Society of Liverpool, a committee was appointed, who 
drew up the report communicated to this Society. 
The peninsula of Wirrall consists of new red sandstone; and to- 
wards the northern extremity, the formation may be separated into 
three principal divisions. The lowest is composed of beds, slightly 
inclined towards the east, of red or variegated sandstone, occasionally 
abounding with pebbles partly derived from the coal-measures ; and 
in the bottom strata either angular or little water-worn. Seams of 
marl are very rare in this division, the argillaceous matter being con- 
fined to nodules or concretions of clay of the same colour as the 
sandstone. 
The middle division consists of white or yellow sandstone, in some 
places argillaceous, and frequently containing round concretions of 
clay, and pebbles. ‘The strata are separated by seams of white or 
mottled clay, occasionally almost imperceptible, but sometimes se- 
veral inches thick. 
The uppermost division is formed of red or variegated sandstone, 
inclosing also nodules of clay and pebbles of quartz ; and it abounds 
with strata of red marl. 
The Storeton quarries are situated in the middle division; and the 
casts which have hitherto been noticed, occurred on the under sur- 
face of three beds of sandstone, about two feet thick each. The 
strata incline 8° to the north-east, but they are traversed by several 
faults, which range in the strike of the beds. The authors of the re- 
port are of opinion, that each of the thin seams of clay in which the 
sandstone casts were moulded, formed successively a dry surface, 
over which the Chirotherium and other animals walked, leaving im- 
pressions of their footsteps; and that each layer was submerged by 
* For further particulars, see Mackenzie on the Ochils, Mem. Wern. 
Soc., vol. il. p. 1; Fleming on Scales in the Old Red Sandstone of Fife- 
shire, Edinb. Journ. Nat. and Geograph. Science, Feb. 1831; and on 
the Mineralogy of the Neighbourhood of St. Andrews, Mem. Wern. Soc., 
vol. ii. p. 145; also Neill’s Daubuisson, p. 215. 
+ This name was first applied provisionally by Professor Kaup, to si- 
milar casts discovered, towards the end of 1834, in the sandstone quarries 
at Hesseberg, near Hildburghausen. See Dr. F.R.L. Siekler’s Letter to 
Blumenbach, 1834; also, Die Plastik der Urwelt im Werrathale bei 
Hildburghausen, with plates by C. Kepler, and an introduction by Dr. 
Siekler, 1st part, 1836; and Dr. Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise, 1836... 
