BEITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING. 



309 



opportunity of re-examiniug it, but I have a strong impression tliat the tracks 

 were those of a number of young animals, they were so very uniform in size 

 and shape. 



Some of the foot-prints of the Labyrinthodon are ten inches in length, those 

 of the Ehyncosaurus are from one to two inches. The latter vary a good deal 

 in shape, the toes, three in number* of some of them being straight, while 

 others are curved outwards, like a bird's claw, haK-closed, and then pressed 

 down laterally on a flat surface. The nail, which is very distinct, is broad in 

 proportion to its length, hooked, and sharp at its point, and turned out in the 

 same direction as the toe. When questioned at Oxford as to whether the 

 author had detected any signs of articulations or phalanges, he answered in the 

 negative ; but on re-examining the impressions, he is strongly inclined to think 

 that the latter may be seen, and that they are three in number in the outer 

 toe, but he feared to speak of the others. Most of the footprints terminate 

 somewhat abruptly behind, but one of them is prolonged in that direction, 

 more, however, in the shape of an elongated lieel than of a hinder toe. 



In aU these foot-prints, which, though differing somewhat in form, he re- 

 gards as those of Rhyncosauri. The outer toe is invaribly the longest, the 

 second somewhat shorter, and the third shorter still. But in one of the im- 

 pressions thi-s is not the case, the middle toe being the longest, as in the case 

 of birds, and he is therefore strongly inclined to think that the impressions are 

 really those of a bird ; but the toes are broader in proportion to their length 

 than are those of birds generally, being one inch and five-eighths in length, and 

 five-eighths of an inch in breadth, the two side toes being broader than the 

 middle one. There is another impression which much resembles this, four 

 inches behind it, measuring from the back of the one to tlie front of the other, 

 and he believes both belong to the same animal ; but the second has been 

 somewhat interfered with by the foot-prints of another animal which has crossed 

 it, and he cannot thus speak positively upon the point, but he believes he may 

 affirm that tliese two are single and alternate. 



He has recently learnt from the workmen engaged in this quarry that the 

 same, or similar impressions have been also found in another quarry about a 

 mile distant from this, but he has not yet seen them. 



It may be added that the ripple-marks are very beautifully preserved on 

 some of the slabs, and so are also tlie imprints of rain-drops ; while in many 

 cases the amount of sand deposited by each tide is readily discovered by the 

 thickness of its layers, which lie one on the other, and which, by means of the 

 ripple-marks, show also the direction of the wind, or the currents of water, at 

 the time they were deposited. 



ON TUB GEOGRAPHICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 

 THE DEVONIAN FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 



By W. Pengelly, F.G.S. 



The author stated tliat if we adopt the classification of Professor Sedg-wickf , 

 we have, in the districts under consideration, what, as a matter of convenience, 

 may be called five fossiliferous Devonian areas, namely, a deposit of the age of 

 the " Plymouth group" in each of the districts. South Devon, North Devon, 

 and Cornwall, and one of the " Barnstaple" age in each of the two latter. 



* On a slab of Red Sandstone, in the Manchester Museum, there are footprints which much 

 resemble these, but in which the toes are fowr in nmnber, the side toe, as in the present 

 instance, being the longest, and the other three each shorter than the other. 



t Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc, vol. viii., p. 3—1 J. 



