84 Dr. Duncan on the Foot-marks of Animals 



Art. XI. — Account of the Tracks of Foot-Marks of Animals 

 found impressed in Sandstone in the Quarry of Corncockle 

 Muir, Dumfries-shire ;* by the Rev. Henry Duncan, D. D. 

 Minister at Ruthwell. Cominunicaled by the Author. 



The sandstone quarry of Corncockle Muir is situated be- 

 tween the rivers Annan and the Kinnel, about a mile and a 

 half above their confluence, and not quite tiiree miles from 

 Loehmaben. It is near the top of a low round-backed hill, 

 which stretches about half a mile in a westerly direction, 

 almost in the line of the rivers. 



The sandstone of which the quarry is composed is like 

 most other sandstone in the county, of a reddish brown col- 

 or, and is believed to be what is called in Britain the new 

 red sandstone. Its texture is friable, and its strata of very 

 unequal thickness. It lies in the direction of the greater 

 part of the sandstone of the district, which is from west 

 north-west to east south-east, with its dip southerly, inclining 

 at an angle of 38.° 



The remarkable phenomenon I am about to describe, as 

 existing in this quarry, is that of numerous impressions, fre- 

 quently distinct and well-defined, of the foot-prints of quad- 

 rupeds, which have been found by the workmen on the sur- 

 face of certain strata, when the superincumbent layers have 

 been removed in the process of quarrying. This fact, so ex- 

 traordinary, and I believe unique, has not hitherto been no- 

 ticed in any scientific work, though it is fifteen or sixteen 

 years since the discovery was first made. It is not easy to 

 convey an accurate idea of the nature of these impressions 

 in words ; but out of a considerable variety which have been 

 observed, differing in magnitude from the size of a hare's 

 paw to that of the hoof of a pony, I shall give some account 

 of one remarkable track impressed on a slab, formerly in the 

 possession of Mr. Carruthers of Dormont, (who procured 

 it from the quarry some years ago,) and now forming part 

 of the wall of a summer-house in the garden belonging to 

 the manse of Ruthwell. On this slab, which is five feet two 



* The Editor has been indebted to Dr. Duncan for this abridgement of his ve- 

 ry interesting and valuable paper, which was read at the Royal Society of Ed' 

 inburgh on the eighth of January last, and which will appear in vol. xi. parti, 

 of their Transactions, now in the press. 



