274 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 85. 



The stride of the elephant which made the 

 tracks here represented was about five feet 

 eight inches, and the straddle three feet five 

 inches, measuring from outside to outside. 



Tracks of man (so called), or mylodon (?) 



The long and curved tracks, which have 

 excited the greatest degree of interest from 

 their supposed human origin, extend in several 



sions, although some of the tracks show a 

 more abrupt depression at the supposed heel 

 than at the other end. 



In order to explain the great size of the 

 tracks on the theory of their human origin, 

 and, further, to explain a peculiarity in the form 

 of some of them, it has been asserted that 

 sandals were worn. This peculiarity consists 

 in a flat, tabular surface or border, extending, 

 like a terrace, from an inch to two or three 



l l 1 i ) 



^ 



i i i 



lu leel. 

 Fig. 1. — Tracks of the elephant. 



different directions, but generally in straight 

 direct lines. The longest series has forty- 

 four tracks, and is a hundred and twelve feet 

 long. 



Another set of tracks is the most distinct 

 of all, and is upon the upper layer of silt or 

 clay, two feet above the general level of the 

 quarry floor. A rubbing upon paper twent}'- 

 seven feet long, covers twelve tracks of this 

 series, and shows the general form and the 

 exact sequence and position of these tracks. 

 The imprint on the paper being formed by 

 rubbing with a graphite pad, it gives a more 

 accurate idea of the shape of the tracks than 

 an} 7 drawing made with hard, sharp outlines ; 

 for none of the outlines are sharply marked, 

 but the depression gradually shades off into 

 the generally plane surface. For this reason 

 it is not easy to state definitely the exact size 



inches wide along the inner margin of the 

 track. This is thought by some to be the 

 impress of the sandal. The tracks having this 

 peculiarity are shown of full size in figs. 1 to 

 5, attached to the memoir of Dr. Harkness. 

 While he is fully confident that these are the 

 imprints of sandals, he points out a very sig- 

 nificant fact, — "that the impression is upon 

 the same plane in each of the diagrams, and 

 that there is no indication of toe or pad or arch 

 in any of them " (p. 7). 



A critical examination of these tracks hav- 

 ing the partial border of a flat surface, showed 

 that this flat margin marks a parting or divid- 

 ing plane in the sediments along which the 

 claj'-like layers separated ; such portions, ap- 

 parently, as were not crushed and broken 

 through, being lifted off as the foot of the 

 animal was raised and carried forward. 



.jfiSj ^) 



1 I 1 I 1 1 1 I I I I 



1U feet. 



Fig. 2. — Tracks resembling the imprint or human feet. 



{From the plan by Gibbes.) 



of these tracks. They ma} 7 be said to be 

 generally from nineteen to twenty-one inches 

 in length, and from six to nine inches in 

 breadth. The form is curved, not greatly un- 

 like the inner curve of the human foot. The 

 amount of depression is irregular and trough- 

 like, deepest at the centre, as it* the greatest 

 pressure was exerted there ; in this respect dif- 

 fering decidedly from the impress of a human 

 foot, being without the heel and toe depres- 



The fact that it occurs irregularly, sometimes 

 on one side of the track for a short distance, 

 and sometimes on the other, and irregularly at 

 the end, and is sometimes entirely absent, goes 

 to show that it was not produced by a flat, 

 rigid surface. Besides, we cannot conceive 

 of a flat sandal, such as would be required to 

 make &Jlat imprint, permitting the central part 

 of the track to be so greatly depressed. And 

 in walking with sandals, the toe in leaving the 



