256 



Tracks of Animals in Variegated Sandstone. 



looking for foot-prints here, nor recognized these when accident- 

 ally found, as such. 



A. 



The form of these foot-reliefs, which resemble those of Hild- 

 burghansen in no other respect than the mode of their occurrence, 

 is very peculiar, being two-toed, and more like horse-shoes than 

 feet. I sought in vain for any regular arrangement or the con- 

 tinuous course of anyone individual; all the tracks stood singly, 

 as in the above plate A, in as much disorder as if there had been 

 a large tumultuous assemblage of animals there. For this reason, 

 the forms of individual casts are often not expressed entire, and 

 all are not alike, some being rounded behind, (2, 3, 7 and 8,) and 

 others more angular, (1, 4 and 5 ;) sometimes we observe on the 

 hind part a little irregular prominence, (5 and 6.) These varia- 

 tions may have arisen, in part, though hardly all of them, from 

 the inequality of the soft ground, from the impression and di- 

 rection of the foot, &c. The irregular position speaks rather 

 for two-footed than four-footed animals. Some slabs are covered 

 with little round bosses of the same size with the foot-casts ; 

 these, however, occur only on the under surface of the layers rest- 

 ing on the clay. Could the clay, in a certain state of softness, 

 have hardened on the feet so as to make their prints obscure ? 



