1854.] BECKLES — WEALDEN FOOT-TRACKS. 461 



Series of Footprints No. 3. 



The locality next in importance occurs to the west of Tower 

 No. 49. On an area not so large as either of the former, twenty-five 

 impressions were disposed in three tracks ; one track of eight im- 

 pressions pointed obliquely to the beach ; a second of twelve emerged 

 from the beach, and passed in the direction of the sea ; and a third 

 of five marks, lying between these two, pointed in the direction of 

 the beach ; all of these impressions, and the stride in two of the 

 tracks, show a correspondence to the line of prints cc in PI, XIX. fig. 1 ; 

 but the third track was characterized by the wide space of 3 feet 

 6 inches*. All of the impressions were yielding fast to ceaseless 

 tidal attrition, but were sufficiently distinct to be convincing when I 

 last saw them. 



Series of Footprints No. 4. 



Plate XIX. fig. 2. shows four impressions from the west of 

 Galley Hill, reduced to a scale of \\h. of an inch to a foot. The coin- 

 cidence of a long heel in one of the marks (a character correspond- 

 ing better to lizards) and the singular approximation of the four 

 impressions suggest that these footprints had been produced either 

 by a four-footed animal, or by a biped having a breadth of body that 

 enabled it to step at a great distance from the line of direction ; but 

 the two smaller impressions are on the same side, and the axis of the 

 fore-foot is not parallel to that of the hind-foot. The absence also 

 of certain other essential quadrupedal characters proves that these 

 tracks were bipedal, and that they must have been produced by two 

 individuals. 



Had these impressions been the first and only series that I had 

 seen, I must have regarded them with much suspicion. Their enor- 

 mous proportions, the prolongation backwards of the heel of only 

 one specimen, which has all the appearance of being a distinct 

 character, and a roughness of outline resulting from unequal abra- 

 sion, seemed to divest these marks of all true organic pretensions ; 

 fortunately, however, two good casts in my collection came from this 

 spot, and the larger specimen corresponds in size and relative propor- 

 tions to two of these marks. 



In the same locality four or five disconnected footprints occur, but 

 too widely separated to be illustrated by a single diagram. 



At Bulverhithe, where I have obtained many casts, a few impres- 



Ostrich, yet the superficial measure of this gigantic foot could not have been one- 

 third of that of the stupendous Wealden biped. 



* The distance between impressions of the intermediate size seems to range from 

 19 inches to 24 in some tracks, and from 42 inches to 46 in others ; while in the 

 case of larger impressions, it appears to be uniformly from 42 inches to 46 inclies. 

 The shorter intervals were produced, perhaps, by the ordinary pace of the smaller 

 animal, while the longer show jjrobaldy the stride of the same individual wluMi it 

 walked fast, and the stride of the larger animal when it walked at a moderate 

 pace. The legs of the adult or larger animal, supposing it to have been a biped, 

 were probably 9 or 10 feet long. 



