245 
sand; and the habit of swallowing large quantities of earth and 
sand, which we observe in many recent worms, may explain the 
presence of the large portion of sand, now indurated to stone, which 
occupies the interior of the impression of the skin. Since many casts 
are found upon the same slab, these worms must have been very 
numerous at the bottom of the sea, when the sandstone was in pro- 
cess of formation. Similar impressions of Annelids on the Cam- 
brian rocks are figured by Mr. Murchison in Pl. 27 of his great 
work on the Silurian System. 
ICHNOLOGY. 
About twelve years ago we witnessed the creation of a new de- 
partment in geological investigations, viz. the science of Ichnology, 
founded on the evidence of footsteps made by the feet of animals 
upon the ancient strata of the earth ; this new method commenced 
with the recognition of the footmarks of reptiles on the New Red 
Sandstone near Dumfries, and not long after (1834) was followed 
by most curious and unexpected discoveries in Saxony and Ame- 
rica. The Chirotherium of Hessberg and Ornithichnites of Con- 
necticut were among its early results. Our own country has during 
the last two years been abundantly productive of similar appearances 
in many localities. - 
In recent excavations for making a dock at Pembray, near 
Llanelly, in Pembrokeshire, tracks of deer and of large oxen have 
been found on clay subjacent to a bed of peat, the lower peat being 
moulded into the footsteps ; similar impressions were also found upon 
the upper surface of the peat beneath a bed of silt, and bones both of 
deer and oxen in the peat itself. Footmarks of deer have been also 
noticed in Mr. Talbot’s excavations for a harbour near Margam bur- 
rows on the east of Neath. 
Near Liverpool Mr. Cunningham has successfully continued his 
researches begun in 1838, respecting the footsteps of Chirotherium 
and other animals in the New Red Sandstone at Storeton Hill, on 
the west side of the Mersey. These footsteps occur on five con- 
secutive beds of clay in the same quarry, the clay beds are very 
thin, and having received the impressions of the feet, afforded a 
series of moulds in which casts were taken by the succeeding depo- 
sits of sand, now converted into sandstone. The casts of the feet 
