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FOOT-PRINTS OP A REPTILE. 



Art. XXIX. — Note on the Foot-prints of a Reptile from the 

 Coal Formation of Cape Breton. 

 Since the publication of my memoir on the " Air-Breathers of 

 the Coal Period," my friend Richard Brown, Esq., of Sydney, 

 Cape Breton, has favoured me with a photograph of a series of 

 footprints from the Sydney Coal-field. They occur in a bed of 

 rippled sandstone, and are sufficiently distinct to render it certain 

 that they indicate the existence of a reptile as yet unknown to us 

 by other remains. 



The slab exhibits with some distinctness three foot-prints of the 

 right side, and less distinct traces of the left feet. The feet are 

 short and broad, the fore foot as large as the hind foot, the toes 

 short, broad and deeply impressed in the sand. Four toes are 

 distinctly marked in both fore and hind feet, and there are uncer- 

 tain traces of a fifth. The stride is considerably greater than the 

 breadth of the body. The toes are somewhat turned inward. 

 The figure is reduced one fourth, so that the animal must 

 have been rather larger than Dendrerpeton Acadianum, with 

 shorter toes and broader body. 



These foot-prints are quite different in form from those previous- 

 ly found by Sir W. E. Logan, Dr. Harding, and the writer. 

 They more nearly resemble those figured by Br. King and Mr. 

 Lea from the carboniferous of Pennsylvania ; and may have been 

 produced by an animal generically related to that which has left 



