1856,] BINNEY — FOOT-TRACKS AT TINTWISTLE. 351 



family. This was founded on the supposition that the ark had 

 rested on the high hills above Woodhead. Other parties, who would 

 not so readily admit of this change of all previously received ideas 

 as to the resting-place of the Ark, contended that they were the 

 footprints of people who had lived before the flood. These opinions 

 are introduced for the purpose of showing how great was the re- 

 semblance of some of the specimens to the impressions of a human 

 foot, in the eyes of ordinary people. 



The writer of this notice went over to Tintwistle, and examined 

 the impressions as they lay in the rock, and before they had been at 

 all disturbed. At that time there were five marks visible, and the 

 commencement and termination of the track could not be perceived, 

 owing to the circumstance of its commencing near some old workings, 

 and proceeding up into the hill-side where the rock had not been 

 excavated ; so there were in all probability many more impressions, 

 if the track could have been followed in either direction. However, 

 only one series was met with ; and, from the effect their discovery 

 produced on the workmen, it appears pretty certain that none had 

 been met with there for some time. 



As previously stated, the quarry is in the lowest part of the Mill- 

 stone Grit; certainly 1000 feet down in that deposit, and very near 

 to the Limestone Shale. The strata dipped towards 80° west of 

 south at an angle of 12°. At a depth of about 25 feet in the quarry 

 which is situate on the hill-side opposite to that on which runs the 

 Manchester and Sheffield Railway, a series of five casts taken from 

 as many moulds was met with. They all lay in a straight line, and 

 nearly on the rise and dip of the strata. 



The mould or impression on the western side (No. 1 in the draw- 

 ing*) was nearly oval in shape, turned a little towards the north; 

 the two next (Nos. 2 and 3) somewhat resembled in form marks 

 made on very wet sand by a human foot with a shoe on ; and the 

 two on the eastern side (Nos. 4 and 5) resembled No. 1, with the 

 exception of being rather more circular than that one. 



The long impressions did not part with their casts in the stone so 

 well as the oval and circular ones ; consequently they are not so 

 clean and sharp ; indeed part of the cast still remains in them, the 

 stone having broken. In all, the wet sand of the matrix appears to 

 have partly run into the mould before the cast was taken, and they 

 have more the appearance of having been made under water than on 

 an exposed sandy beach. 



No two of the impressions were exactly alike in shape ; but the 

 bulk of the wet sand which had been displaced out of the holes was 

 the same in each instance, whether the impressions were deep and 

 short, or shallow and long ; and the sand i*emoved was forced up on 

 the western side, and on that side onlyy of every impression ; it being 

 in the former thrown a little more to the south than in the latter ; 

 just as if the force acting on the soft matrix had in each instance 



* This drawing, made to scale, is deposited in the Society's library. It re- 

 presents three of the impressions, now in the Museum of the Manchester Society, 

 and one (No. 1) not preserved. 



