304 FOSSIL FOOT-PRINTS [CHAP. XXXVII. 



meant that the Oregon territory must extend as far 

 north as the 45th degree of latitude. 



This ambition of the people of the West to pos 

 sess Oregon, is at least no new idea, for I happened 

 to purchase at Louisville an old guide-book describing 

 the Falls of the Ohio and the city, in which, when 

 speaking of commercial matters, the colonization and 

 annexation of Oregon was set forth as the means of 

 &quot; opening a direct trade with China.&quot; I observed 

 to one of the citizens, that it was satisfactory to see 

 that none of the upper, or even of the middle classes, 

 were taking any part at Greensburg in this agita 

 tion. He shook his head, and said, &quot; Very true ; 

 but these meetings are most mischievous, for you 

 must bear in mind, that your nobody in England is 

 our everybody in America.&quot; 



I had determined to visit Greensburg, on my way 

 from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, that I might ex 

 amine into the evidence of the reality of certain fos 

 sil foot-prints of a reptile said to have been found 

 in strata of the ancient coal-formation, and of which 

 Dr. King, of Greensburg, had published an account 

 in 1844. The genuineness of these foot-marks was 

 a point on which many doubts were still entertained, 

 both in Europe and America, and I had been re 

 quested by several geological friends not to return 

 without having made up my mind on a fact which, 

 if confirmed, was of the highest theoretical im 

 portance. Up to this period, no unequivocal proofs 

 had been detected of the fossil remains of vertebrated 

 animals more highly organised than fishes, in strata 

 of such antiquity as the carboniferous rocks, and the 



