MEMOIR 



The object of the following memoir is to illustrate the sandstone footprints 

 of Connecticut River. The broad range of animal organization suggested by these 

 expressive vestiges, and the remote geological antiquity of the formation in which 

 they occur, are considerations that invest them with an extraordinary degree of 

 scientific interest. Prior to their discovery the sandstone rock was considered 

 to be quite barren of the indications of animal life ; but, in place of its former 

 insignificance, it is now known to be exceedingly rich in the evidences of organic 

 existence. 



Literary History of the Footprints. — The earliest written descriptions of the foot- 

 prints were communicated by the author to several gentlemen of scientific emi- 

 nence, in the year 1835. In these original accounts the impressions were described 

 as belonging to birds, and the probable manner of their occurrence explained. 

 The first published account appeared in the Journal of Arts and Sciences for 

 1836, from the pen of Dr. Hitchcock. Other occasional papers by this gentleman 

 were subsequently communicated through the same channel. A more complete 

 treatise was published by Dr. Hitchcock, in his Final Report to the Legislature 

 of Massachusetts, in 1842, and another in the third volume of the Transactions 

 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Several papers were also pre- 

 sented by him to the American Association for the Advancement of Science at 

 the annual sessions of that body. 



Single papers, descriptive of sandstone footprints, have been communicated to 

 the public by several gentlemen. By William C. Redfield, Esq. (Am. Jour, of 

 Sci. vol. 34, p. 134) ; by Dr. John C. Warren (pamphlet) ; by Dr. Alfred T. King 

 (Proc. Acad, of Nat. Sci.) ; by Isaac Lea, Esq., several illustrated papers upon foot- 



