ICHNOLOGY. 189 



sions of the hind foot are generally 8 inches in length, and 

 5 inches in width ; near each large footstep, and at a regular 

 distance — about an inch and a half — before it, a smaller print 

 of the fore foot, 4 inches long and 3 inches wide, occurs. The 

 footsteps follow each other in pairs, each pair in the same 

 line, at intervals of about 14 inches from pair to pair. The 

 large as well as the small steps shew the thumb-like outer- 

 most toe alternately on the right and left side, each step 

 making a print of five toes. 



Footprints of corresponding form, but of smaller size, have 

 been discovered in the quarry at Storton Hill, imprinted on 

 thin beds of clay, separated by layers of sandstone. From the 

 lower surface of the sandstone layers the solid casts of each 

 impression project in high relief, and afford models of the 

 feet, toes, and claws of the animals which trod on the clay. 



Similar footprints were first observed in Saxony, at the 

 village of Hessburgh, near Hillburghausen, in several quarries 

 of a grey quartzose sandstone, alternating with beds of red 

 sandstone, and of the same geological age as the sandstones of 

 England that had been trodden by the same strange animal. 

 The German geologist who first described them (1834) pro- 

 posed the name of Clieirotherium (cluir, the hand, therion, 

 beast) for the unknown animal that had left the footprints, 

 in consequence of the resemblance, both of the fore and hind 

 feet, to the impression of a human hand ; and Dr. Kaup 

 conjectured that the animal might be a large species of the 

 opossum kind; but in Didelphys the thumb is on the inner 

 side of the hind-foot. The fossil skulls, jaws, teeth, and a few 

 other bones which have been found in the sandstones exhibit- 

 ing these footprints, and which alone correspond in size with 

 them, belong to labyrinthodont reptiles. 



The impressions of the Cheirothermm resemble those of 

 the footprints of a salamander, in having the short outer toe 

 of the hind foot projecting nearly at a right angle to the line 



