This patch is completely covered with tracks . . . 



PREHISTORIC GAME TRACKS 



By J. E. McILWAIN 



Of more than unusual interest are 

 the old prehistoric "bird tracks" of the 

 Connecticut Valley to either active 

 sportsmen or students of natural his- 

 tory, and to give some of our sports- 

 men friends outside the "Valley" some 

 idea what these signs of game, of what 

 is called the "Triassic Period," are like 

 I have enclosed a photo or two. Just 

 outside the city of Holyoke, Mass., be- 

 tween the Old Road and the New State 

 Road to North Hampton, there is a 

 patch about 50x100 feet which has been 

 cleared of all surface earth by parties 

 interested in geology, and which is 

 now protected by the State. This patch 

 is completely covered with well-defined 

 tracks, such as my photo shows, and 

 most of which will measure 12 to 14 

 inches in the longest parts, and 8 to 



10 inches wide, while in depth they are 

 from 1 to 2^2 inches. 



Queer stories are told by those not 

 learned in geology as to how the tracks 

 were made. You will hear from one 

 that they were made during a volcanic 

 eruption of those times and the big ani- 

 mal-like birds were running across the 

 red-hot lava stone ; while some other 

 neophyte will tell you that the tracks 

 were made in the soft mud, then frozen 

 in the glacial period that followed, and 

 afterwards turned to stone by nature's 

 mysterious process. How they were 

 made does not worry the geologist. He 

 knows they were made either in the 

 Triassic or Jurassic periods, but whether 

 by bird, reptile or animal is the ques- 

 tion. But it was quite generally con- 

 ceded by the discoverer, Prof. Edward 



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