554 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect V. 



those made by the paws or pats of land-tortoises. Entire 

 tracks of these imprints, indicating the slow progression of a 

 four-footed animal, appear on some of the slabs. On one block 

 of sandstone there were twenty-four consecutive impressions 

 of feet, forming a regular track, with six distinct repeti- 

 tions of the marks of each foot, the fore-feet differing from 

 the hind-feet ; the appearance of five claws was discernible 

 in each fore-paw. The observations on the ripple-marks 

 on sandstone (ante, p. 372) render it unnecessary to explain 

 the preservation of imprints of this nature. Similar 

 appearances have since been observed on the sandstone in 

 the Stourton quarries near Liverpool, and in several places 

 in Germany : but no bones of tortoises have been dis- 

 covered in these strata. 



A discovery of a like nature was made soon afterwards in 

 the New Red sandstone near Hildburghausen, in Saxony. 

 Numerous imprints of the feet of some large quadrupeds, 

 having the fore-paws much smaller than the hinder, were 

 observed on the exposed surfaces of some slabs of rippled 

 sandstone : and recently, similar footsteps have been found 

 in the quarries at Stourton. These imprints are on the 

 face of each successive layer of stone, and on some of the 

 slabs, not only are there foot-prints of various kinds of 

 animals that walked over the stone when it was in the 

 state of soft sand, but also the impressions of rain-drops. 

 Some of the recently exposed surfaces present a blistered 

 or warty appearance, being covered either with little 

 hemispherical eminences, or with depressions; and these, 

 upon an accurate investigation of the phenomenon, prove to 

 have been the effect of rain, which fell while the surface was 

 soft and impressible. On many of the slabs the forms of 

 the rain-drops and of the foot-prints, appear in relief, 

 being casts of the surface upon which the impressions 

 were made ; while on the clay, corresponding hollows are 

 apparent (Lign. 126.). 



