NOTES AND QUERIES. 



315 



Stereognatlms ooliticus, Chakleswokth, sp., Great Oolite, Stonesfield, 

 described by Owen in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. (1857), vol. xiii. p. 

 1, pi. i. 



Sus antiquus, Owen, Red Crag, Eamsliolt, Suffolk ; Quart. J ourn. Geol. 



Soc, (1856), vol. xii. p. 223, fig. 11. 

 Sus palcEochcerus, Owen, Bed Crag, Sutton, Suffolk ; Quart. Journ. Geol. 



Soc. (1856), vol. xii. p. 223, fig. 10. 

 Tapirus priscus, Owen, Red Crag, Sutton, Suffolk ; Quart. Journ. Geol. 



Soc. (1856), vol. xii. p. 233, fig. viii. viii.a. ix. 

 Triconodon mordax, Owen, Purbeck, Durdlestone Bay, Dorset ; 4 Palaeon- 

 tology,' 2nd ed. p. 351. 

 Zipldus, Owen, Red Crag, Felixstow {D'wplodon, Gervais), Suffolk; Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. (1856), vol. xii. p. 228, fig. 24. 

 It would be very desirable to make this list as complete as possible, and 

 notices from our readers of any omissions would oblige. — S. J. Mackie. 



Footprints in the Cambrian (?) Slates. — The readers of the ' Geo- 

 logist' will no doubt remember the announcement by Mr. John Taylor, in 

 the 'Geologist' for September, 1862, of his discovery of what he regarded 

 as reptilian footprints in the Manx Cambrians at Dalby, near Peel, and 

 the controversy to which that discovery gave rise. Without attempting 

 to review that controversy in detail, I may say that while Mr. Taylor 

 himself asserted the ichnolitical character of the imprints he discovered, in 

 other quarters the most diverse opinions were expressed respecting them. 

 Some thought that they might be specimens of some gigantic species of 

 lingula ; others denied their organic origin altogether, and regarded them 

 as nodules, which are found occasionally occurring with a certain degree of 

 regularity ; others again, and these were by far the more numerous class, 

 declined to express any decided opinion respecting them, the character 

 and amount of the evidence produced by Mr. Taylor not being, in their 

 judgment, such as would warrant the forming a definite opinion on a sub- 

 ject of such great difficulty. And so, with a general feeling that this dis- 

 covery did possess a certain amount of palseontological value, and yet with 

 a conviction equally general that it was almost impossible either to fix the 

 amount of that value or make any practical use of it, this discovery of 

 footprints in the Cambrian Slates of the Isle of Man has remained in 

 abeyance for nearly a year, waiting till more satisfactory evidence should 

 turn up in other quarters in the Isle of Man or elsewhere. This evidence 

 I am now able to furnish, and that, too, in such abundance and of such a 

 description, that I believe it is now quite possible to arrive at a perfectly 

 satisfactory conclusion respecting the real nature and palseontological value 

 of these much-disputed " footprints." Having recently come to reside at 

 Laxey, and knowing that at several points along the neighbouring coast 

 the rocks furnish the most decisive proofs of a shallow- water origin, I set 

 myself to examine carefully these localities, in order to see whether they 

 would furnish that further evidence which I believed necessary to the 

 satisfactory settlement of the question respecting the nature of the supposed 

 footprints. My search has at length proved eminently successful. One of 

 these localities, Laxey Bay, yields these "footprints" in great abundance. 

 This bay, one of great width but of inconsiderable depth, is backed through- 

 out almost the whole of its extent by tall precipitous cliffs, rising out of 

 the water at an extremely high angle to a height of from 80 to 200 feet. 

 Some of these cliffs at the north end of the bay, and contiguous to the old 

 village of Laxey, have been quarried for building purposes, but not to any 

 great extent, and almost the whole of the picturesque scene remains in its 

 natural condition, untouched by human hand, and overgrown with golden 

 gorse and tufts of waving ferns. 



