FOOTMARKS IN THE SANDSTONES OF CUMMINGSTONE 113 
dilian in their mode of implantation and some other respects. The 
coracoid, on the other hand, is lacertilian or dinosaurian ;1 and, finally, 
if one may safely judge from the few remains which have hitherto 
presented themselves, the bones of the feet were neither crocodilian 
nor dinosaurian nor lacertilian. 
I am at a loss to find an exact parallel for this peculiar combina- 
tion of characters in any group of recent or fossil Repéilia. Among 
the Tertiary and recent Reptiles I know of nothing at all like it ; and 
all the mesozoic Crocodilia with whose dermal armour that of Sva- 
gonolepis exhibits such a close resemblance, present no important 
divergence from the typical crocodilian structure of the coracoid, 
while their slender feet have undergone the opposite modification to 
that which appears to have taken place in Stagonolepis. The Ena- 
fiosaurta and Pterodactylia afford us no terms of comparison; and 
from the Dzxosauria, with which Sztagonolepis presents one or two 
similarities, it is broadly separated by the especially crocodilian cha- 
racters of its scutes and sacrum. These characters equally separate 
it from all the Triassic and Permian Refézlia which have hitherto 
been described. What little we know, at present, of the laws by 
which the distribution of life in past time was governed, does not 
seem to me to enable us to deduce from the existing data any con- 
clusion as to the precise age during which the Elgin Reptile lived. 
Such a combination of characters as it presents would, I apprehend, 
be in perfect keeping with the known Reptilian Fauna of any epoch 
from the Wealden downwards. 
Footprints (Pl. XIV. [Plate 6] figs. 4 and §)—I have intention- 
ally deferred to the end of my communication the description of 
the footmarks which have been observed upon the sandstones of 
Cummingstone, because, although they are certainly the tracks of 
Reptiles, there is, strictly speaking, no proof whatsoever that they 
were produced by the particular Reptile Stagonolepis, no fragment 
of which has been detected in the Cummingstone quarries. It is 
desirable therefore that the footmarks should be considered quite 
independently, though it may be instructive to inquire what positive 
and negative evidence there is in favour of thinking them to be the 
work of Stagonolepis. 
Although a considerable series of these tracks has passed under 
my inspection, I have only seen two footmarks which are so clear 
and distinct as to satisfy my mind that they fairly represented the 
figure of the foot. The two impressions in question form part of a 
continuous track, evidently made by the same animal, and exhibiting 
1 See the Note p. 117. 
VOL. II I 
