Prof. Hitchcock on Ichnolithology, or Fossil Footmarks. 301 



But up to the time of the publication of my Final Report, which 

 contains the fullest account of these footmarks, I am sure that no 

 other person but myself had attempted to examine ihem as a 

 matter of science. 



3. While we must admit that Mr. Moody, Dr. Dwight, and. 

 Mr. Wilson, were original discoverers of the footmarks, much 

 higher credit is due to Dr. Deane. He did not content himself 

 with speaking of them as objects of curiosity, but took measures 

 to bring them under the notice of those whose professional busi- 

 ness it was to examine such objects, and even took casts of 

 them. Nor did his interest in them ever diminish ; and though 

 he modestly styled himself " no geologist," yet such a descrip- 

 tion would by no means apply to him at a subsequent date ; 

 and the Transactions of this Association, as well as the pages of 

 the American Journal of Science, show, that within a few years 

 past, he has actively explored and described several interesting 

 cases of footmarks. And furthermore, I entirely acquit him, and 

 indeed all others, of doing me any intentional injustice in this 

 matter — as I trust they will acquit me of a desire to claim more 

 than is my due. At any rate, the facts, as I understand them, 

 are now before geologists, and to their decision I hope cheerfully 

 to submit. 



From this long and unpleasant digression, I return to the his- 

 tory of Ichnolithology, since the discovery of footmarks in Mas- 

 sachusetts and Connecticut. 



I ought to remark, that although the account of the footmarks 

 of this country was not published as early as that of the Saxon 

 Chirotheria, yet no account of the latter had reached this coun- 

 try till my paper was in press. Their almost simultaneous dis- 

 covery on both continents turned the attention of geologists to 

 the subject, and, as was to be expected, many new cases have 

 since been brought to light. 



In the summer of 1838, tracks of Chirotheria, tortoises, and 

 Saurian reptiles, were discovered in the new red sandstone of 

 Storeton Hill, near Liverpool, in England. Another species of 

 Chirotherium was found near Tarpoly, and in all, five or six 

 species of smaller reptiles occur in the English quarries. In 

 1840, tracks of "amphibious quadrupeds, probably allied to 

 crocodiles, monitors, or other Saurians," were found in a quarry 



Vol. XLvii, No. 2.— July-Sept. 1844. 39 



