ElilTlSII ASSOCIATION MEETING. 
309 
opportunity of rc-cxamining il, but I have a strong impression tliat the tracks 
were those ol' a number of young animals, tiicy were so very uniform in size 
and siini)e. 
Some of tiie foot-prints of tlie Lal)yriutlioclou are ten inehes in lengtli, those 
of the Rhyncosaurus arc 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 arc curved outwards, like a bird's claw, halt'-closcd, and then pi-essed 
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 tiie toe. When questioned at Oxford as to whether the 
author had detected any sigus of artieidalious or phalanges, he answered in the 
negative ; but on re-examiiiing the impressions, he is strongly inclined to think 
that tiie 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 termuiatc 
somewhat abruptly behind, but one of them is prolonged iu that direction, 
more, however, in the shape of an elongated heel than of a hinder toe. 
In all these foot-prints, which, though dill'ering somewhat in form, he re- 
gards as those of llhyucosauri. The outer toe is invaribly the longest, the 
second somewhat shorter, and the tiiird shorter still. But in one of the im- 
pressions this is not the ease, tiie middle toe being the longest, as in the ease 
of birds, and he is therefore strongly inclined to think that the impressions are 
really tiiose of a bird; but the toes are broader in proportion to then- 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 the front of the other, 
and he believes both belong to the same animal ; but the second has been 
somewhat interfered with by the foot-piints of another animal which has crossed 
it, and he eaimot thus speak positively upon the point, but he believes he may 
atfirm that these two arc single and alternate. 
He has recently learnt from the workmen engaged in this quarry that the 
same, or similar imjiressions 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 the 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, wliieh lie one on the other, and which, by means of the 
ripple-marks, show also the dii-ection of the wind, or the currents of water, at 
the time they were deposited. 
ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 
THE DEVONIAN FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 
By W. Pengelly, F.G.S. 
The author stated that if we adopt the classification of Professor Sedgwickf, 
we have, iu 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 tlie "Barnstaple" age iu each of the two latter. 
* On a slab of Red Sands'.onc, in the Jlanchcster Museum, tlicre are footprints which much 
resemble these, but in which the toes are/on,- in number, the side toe, as in the jiresent 
instance, bemg the longest, and the other three each shorter than the other. 
t Quar. Jour. Gcol. Soc, vol. viii., p. 3— 11. 
