Natural Science News, 



VOL. I ALBION, N. Y., DECEMBER 14, 1895. No. 46 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and items of interest, to the 

 student of any of the various branches ot the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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Fossil Human Footprints. 



BY L. W. HOFFMAN. 



No fossil human footprints have 

 ever been discovered by geologists. 

 Others not only report them but 

 fully believe in them. A case in 

 point was recently brought to 

 the attention of the writer and 

 possesses enough of peculiar inter- 

 est to warrant this communication. 

 At the eastern base of Mt. Eve in 

 Orange County, New York, on a 

 bare surface of Lower Silurian 

 limestone, occur some truly inter- 

 esting rock markings. Owing to 

 their striking resemblance to the 

 footprints of men and animals 

 many persons have accepted them 

 as such, and as such common re- 

 port has carried their fame beyond 

 the immediate vicinity. The ex- 

 posed rock surface, which is thick- 

 ly pitted and grooved 'for two- 

 thirds of its extent, lies in the bed 

 and at the side of a brook, dry in 

 summer, but flowing full in winter, 

 and has a width of forty feet and a 

 length of two hundred. It dips to 

 the northeast, while its long axis 

 lies northeast and southeast. The 

 angle of dip is ten degrees. There 

 is a bank on the east and none on 

 the west, where it is edged by the 

 gravely material of the drift depos- 

 its which once covered the whole 

 rock. The markings consist of 

 smooth depressions of no great 

 depth. Many are circular, but 

 some elongated. Many, instead 

 of being formed of a single depres- 

 sion, have, in addition to the main 

 One, the whole forcibly suggesting 



as a cause the cushion of the foot 

 and the toes of some heavy ani- 

 mal. Others take the exact form of 

 a human foot without the toes. A 

 peculiar thing is noticed. The 

 markings for the most part occur 

 in straight lines, either running 

 the whole length of the exposed 

 rock surface or transversely across 

 it, forming tolerably perfect and 

 even rectangles. The supposed 

 human footprints all lie lengthwise 

 of the current of the stream. In 

 the longitudinal lines the elongat- 

 ed depressions are frequently run 

 together, forming continuous 

 grooves several feet in length, 

 which retain still, however, the 

 traces of separate cavities. Such 

 grooves might be made in wet 

 sand by a bare human foot, moved 

 along with the weight on the heel. 



Now all this is susceptible of 

 easy explanation by the accepted 

 theory of the formation of pot- 

 holes. A slight depression or in- 

 equality catches a pebble and the 

 water moves it about on this spot 

 without having force enough to 

 carry it away. Others are caught 

 in the same way, and eventually 

 the grinding action wears a hole in 

 the rock, varying in depth and 

 shape according to the form of the 

 original depression, and the lorce 

 of the current and the direction of 

 its impact. A number of smaller 

 such holes might be formed near 

 the edge of a large one. and in 

 that case would become incorpor- 

 ated with the main pothole, pro- 

 ducing, if shallow, the semblance 

 of the track of an animal with a 

 cushion foot, and as many toes as 

 there happened to be. A charac- 

 teristic of these reputed animal 

 tracks is a reckless disregard of 

 harmony in the matter of toes. If 

 the depression that caught the first 

 pebble were properly situated and 

 of the right form, a pothole would 

 be formed with a tendency to wear 

 away at its lower edge, and conse- 

 quent!}' it would be elongated. It 

 another smaller one should occur 

 just below it, two would in time 

 run together and would present 

 the appearance of a moccasined 

 human foot. When the partition 

 between the two v, first broken 

 through the pebbles would be 

 spilled out of the upper one and 

 the grinding would go on mainly 

 in the lower, thus accentuating the 

 impression of the he si j,nd increas- 

 ing the deception. Such is the ex- 

 planation of these markings. They 



are in all stages of completion, and 

 many still contain the pebbles that 

 have done and are still doing the 

 work. 



But why this arrangement in 

 regular transverse and longitudinal 

 lines? The key to the solution of 

 this problem lies just over a stone 

 wall that has been built across that 

 portion of the rock long ago va- 

 cated by the stream. Indeed, the 

 stream had only occupied it long 

 enough to strip it of the coating of 

 drift which covered it. and then 

 moved eastward, in obedience to 

 the force of gravity, to its present 

 position. The surface thus laid 

 bare, but not eroded, by the wat- 

 er, presents an interesting sight. 

 It is grooved and scratched in long 

 lines, showing evidence of the ac- 

 tion of the great ice sheet which 

 moved up these slopes, bearing the 

 debris of man)- mountain tops 

 southward. At right angles to 

 these scratches the rock is seamed 

 in lines continuous with the trans- 

 verse lines of potholes on the op- 

 posite side of the wall. The gla- 

 cial scratches are parallel to the 

 longitudinal lines of potholes, and. 

 what is an important coincidence 

 to the direction of the current in 

 the brook. The rest need hardly 

 be said. Some of the pebbles 

 washed out of the drift and rolled 

 along by the waters sought their 

 lines of least resistance, after the 

 lazy habit of inanimate things, and 

 found them in the glacial scratches. 

 Here they were caught and set to 

 work at grinding potholes. The 

 transverse seams caught their 

 share also, and the result is what 

 we see today, a most curious and 

 vivid suggestion of an antediluvian 

 game of fox and geese, participat- 

 ed in by moccasin-shod men and 

 cushion-footed, many-toed beasts. 

 — Popular Science News. 



The Century Plant. 



Some surprise is expressed, oc- 

 casionally, that the Century Plant 

 should die after blooming; but 

 really, all plants of this character 

 die after flowering, Herbaceous 

 plants all die, — strawberry plants 

 die after flowering, — and so do 

 bulbous plants. The flowering 

 portion dies away, and off-sets or 

 suckers continue the plant. Even 

 the pineapple has to go through 

 the same process. It is the suck- 

 ers, and not the old plants, which 

 keep up the race. — Meehan's 

 Monthly for November. 



