Dr. Deane on the Discovery of Fossil Footmarks. 385 



that in a paper he was about to publish in this Journal, he should 

 " not fail to acknowledge his indebtedness to me for the first dis- 

 covery." The performance of this pledge consisted in the re- 

 mark, that " his attention was first called to the suhjecf^ by me, 

 but no mention whatever was made of my relations to the dis- 

 covery. 



Had the facts in connexion with this discovery been duly ac- 

 credited, the necessity of appearing upon these pages to vindicate 

 my claims, and to recover a field too inconsiderately surrendered, 

 would happily have been obviated. I look upon a controversy, 

 as this will doubtless seem to be, with unmitigated aversion. To 

 Mr. H. I am conscious of no unkindness. I am bound by many 

 obligations to him ; and he will understand that my motives are 

 not to assail his reputation, but to sustain my own. This recla- 

 mation therefore, must be ascribed to the prerogative of self-de- 

 fence, which will be justified by additional facts and particulars. 



The grand results of the researches of Mr. H. were published 

 in his Final Report to the Legislature of Massachusetts, which 

 professedly embodied all facts related to the subject, up to the 

 time of its publication in 1841, yet no allusions are made to the 

 foregoing correspondence ; every fact associated with my labors 

 being omitted. The only mention of me in this voluminous es- 

 say, is in the description of the original slabs, as having been 

 ^'■pointed ouf^ by me to him, and in dedicating a particular varie- 

 ty to my name as a testimony of respect for having ^^ first called 

 his attention''^ to the subject of fossil footmarks. I felt the cold- 

 ness of these ambiguous compliments, for in his conclusions from 

 the facts, and elsewhere in this learned work, its author was 

 compelled by controlling necessity, to adopt facts, opinions and 

 arguments which were emphatically expressed to him ere his 

 scepticism had been dispelled ; yet I did not complain. 



My explorations about the year 1841 were crowned with the 

 discovery of several varieties of bipedal, quadrupedal and vege- 

 table impressions of peculiar beauty and value, which I presented 

 to Mr. H., as has been my invariable custom with every new va- 

 riety, that the collection in Amherst College might be complete. 

 In alluding to my repeated remittances, he wrote, " if you do 

 not stop discovering new specimens, my forthcoming paper will 

 be as long as the article on footmarks in my Final Report." Now 

 this paper, read before the Association of American Geologists, 



