Ornithichiology . 339 



picions, that I may have been deceived. I too, at first, was entirely 

 sceptical ; for in former geological excursions, I had so often found 

 that the reputed foot marks of animals, were but the result of aque- 

 ous or some other alluvial agency, or of human skill, that I would 

 scarcely turn out of ray path to see an example ;* but I soon per- 

 ceived that here was something entirely different. Yet had I found 

 only a single specimen, however distinct, I should still have disbeliev- 

 ed. Or had I found the tracks at the quarries, sometimes a depres- 

 sion, and sometimes rising above the surface, I might have styled 

 them concretions. Or had I found little or no correspondence be- 

 tween the impressions, and no regular succession of steps, I should 

 have attempted to account for them in some other way, or have left 

 them unexplained. But when 1 found that in all these respects, 

 there was no room for scepticism, when I saw that the right and left 

 foot could be clearly distinguished, when I could hardly distinguish 



* Encouraged bj^the facts that have been detailed, and led to hope for success 

 from several very glowingdescriptions that 1 had received of foot marks upon stone 

 in Rhode Island, I was led recently to perform a journe)^ of two hundred and fifty 

 miles, for their examination. They occur about two miles north of the village of 

 Wickford, on the road to Providence; and every person of M'hom I enquired, 

 within twenty miles of the spot, seemed to be acquainted with the impressions 

 there, under the name of "the Devil's Track." But I saw no evidence of any 

 agency there, except that of water. And it seemed to me that the only reason 

 ■why every one does not impute the eifects to water, is the difficulty of conceiving 

 how a stream could have ever flowed in that spot for a long time, as it must have 

 done, to produce the excavations; for it is near the top of a ridge of gneiss rock, 

 passing into mica slate ; and no excavation exists that could have formed the bed 

 of the stream. But the geologist is not surprised to find marks of powerful aque- 

 ous agency any where on the earth's surface, even 'though he cannot explain its 

 modus operandi. I could not explain it satisfactorily in this instance ; for the di- 

 rection of the current seems to have been from N. E. to S. W. or the contrary, and 

 I know of no other marks of aqueous agency in New England, (except existing 

 streams,) where the waters moved in either of these directions; but that the ex- 

 cavations called tracks, were the result of running water, I can have little doubt. 

 They extend for several rods in the direction in which the rocks run, and imag- 

 ination has made some of them resemble the foot of a man, others of a dog, and 

 others of an animal with a hoof. I saw but one or two that had much resem- 

 blance.to any of these, and in some instances, they were a foot or two in length, 

 and generally from one to four inches deep. But if you found one of them resem- 

 bling the foot of an animal or a man, you could not find any corresponding im- 

 pressions in any direction to show a succession of steps. I might proceed much 

 further with this description, and present sketches of some of these excavations; 

 but I judge it unnecessary, as similar ones may be seen wherever water has been 

 running for years with violence over rocks. Yet from the strong impression that 

 exists on the public mind, as to the mysterious if not supernatural manner in 

 which these excavations were made, I should not think it strange if several gen- 

 erations should pass away, before the delusion vanishes. 



