417 
surface of the sand. The yielding material has been evi- 
dently moved in various directions, and the appearances thus 
produced can, I think, only be ascribed to the agency of 
animated heinous. 
I have carefully compared seven or eight pieces, in my 
possession ; and although the impressions are very much con- 
fused, I have no doubt that they contain foot-prints of much 
larger animals than those previously discovered in the sand- 
stones of the Coal measures. The confused condition of these 
impressions forms no insuperable objection, for Professor 
Hitchcock, in his description of Ornithicnites, in the valley of 
Connecticut, says, " they are sometimes crowded like the 
impressions of feet on the muddy shores of a stream or pond, 
where ducks and geese resort." They could not possibly have 
been formed by any action of the water ; and the supposition 
that they formed a bed for nodular concretions, is disproved 
by the circumstance that all the indentations were filled with 
clay or marl, which was deposited upon the whole surface of 
the stratum, and in the hollows, in thin horizontal layers ; 
whereas, on this hypothesis, the substance should have been 
confined to the indentations, and formed of concentric coats. 
But, although I am confident as to the presence of foot-prints, 
yet, as some persons may doubt, and the subject is open for 
discussion, I think speculation as to the character of the 
animals would be premature ; and I shall merely call attention 
to the resemblance between several of these marks, and the 
impressions found in the New Red Sandstone near Dumfries ; 
and also point out the similarity between others and the web- 
footed reptile, whose track was first discovered at Hessberg, 
in Saxony. I have stated that in this case the appearances 
are less conclusive. I thought them, however, suflSciently 
important to warrant me in directing to the specimens the 
special notice of the geologists who are present, knowing that 
speculations become absurd only when contrary to facts, and 
Q 2 
