Dr. Deane on the Discovery of Fossil Footmarks. 387 



myself," the manner and matter of this publication, filled me 

 with vexation and astonishment. I supplied Mr. H. for that 

 paper alone no less than three or four new varieties of these im- 

 pressions, and since the publication of his Final Report, he has 

 with perhaps a few exceptions derived from me, as I believe, his 

 new varieties of sandstone fossils. 



Antecedent to the delivery of this identical address, no other 

 notice was taken of my correspondence or of my labors in this 

 geological field ; but from the force of circumstances, its author 

 has at this late time of day, detailed some additional and impor- 

 tant parts of the historical evidence, applying to it however, an 

 exclusive interpretation. With singular zeal to mete out a fair 

 equivalent of justice to the original observer, it is not a little 

 unaccountable that he was so tardy in the performance of the act. 

 The specimen of Mr. Moody was purchased in 1839, and although 

 the Final Report and other able treatises appeared subsequently, 

 still the paramount claims of Mr. M. have ever been overlooked.* 

 In the year 1842, I remitted to Dr. Mantell of England, a small 

 but very fine collection of footmarks, with a private communica- 

 tion detailing the obvious meaning of these fossils and incident- 

 ally alluding to my relation to the discovery.f The greatest scep- 

 ticism then existed in England, as to the inferences drawn from 

 this discovery, and it was therefore an unexpected compliment to 

 me that my communication was presented by Dr. M. to the no- 

 tice of the London Geological Society, and that this gentleman 

 afterwards wrote to me in reference to its reception, " it can- 

 not fail, sir, to be gratifying to you, to know that your brief but 

 lucid description, illustrated by the highly interesting suit of spe- 

 cimens, has placed this important subject before the geologists of 

 England in a most clear and satisfactory point of view, and that 

 the thanks of the Society were warmly and unanimously expressed 

 for so valuable a communication." Mr. Murchison, the president, 



* I am utterly unable to comprehend the claim of Dr. Dwight, resting solely on 

 the fact of having purchased the specimen of Mr. Moody. With respect to the 

 claims of the other gentlemen I have no remark to offer. 



t At the instance of the senior editor of this Journal, through whom the com- 

 munication was made. Always entertaining a firm belief in the ornithological 

 origin of these impressions, Prof. Silliman was solicitous to dispel the incredulity 

 of certain English geologists, through the instrumentality of perfect specimens, 

 when such might be obtained. It was the more gratifying to comply with his 

 wishes, inasmuch as they harmonized with my own. 



