GEOLOGY. 



619 



left by the bloody feet of those proud conqiicrors who 

 marched their savage hordes from one end of the earth 



280. Fossil Libellula of the Secondary Epoch. 



to the other, whilst humble tortoises, or a few isolated 

 lizards, separated from us by twenty cataclysms, still 

 display to the astonished naturalist the passing impress 

 of their steps, upon a soil scarcely consolidated in the 

 most ancient times of our globe. And, moreover, who 

 would think we should even find indications of the storms 

 of the primitive epochs of the earth? Rain-dro^is, falling 

 upon the sand, formed impressions upon it which it has 

 preserved by becoming transformed into a solid free- 

 stone ! ^ 



Yet in spite of this marvellous preservation of ancient 



1 These impressiona of rain-drops have been photographed by J. Deane from 

 rocks in Connecticut. They are evidently due to showers falling on sand still 

 moist and soft, which later on became dry, and was transformed into freestone. 

 In other rocks of America, figures of which can be seen in Buckland's work, 

 we find the marks of tortoises' feet and of the footsteps of lizards.— Buokland, 

 Geology and Mineralogy in their Relations to Natural Tlieology. 



