FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME 37 
discovery of footmarks, resembling those of land tortoises, on the 
exposed surfaces of slabs of sandstone of Triassic age, in a quarry 
at Corncockle Muir in Dumfriesshire, of which an interesting 
account was published by the Eev. Dr. Duncan. Regular tracks, 
indicating the slow progression of a small four-footed animal over 
the surface while the stone was in the state of moist sand, v/ere 
traced on the blocks of sandstone, when separated by the quarry- 
men, along the lines of their stratification. In one instance there 
were found twenty-four consecutive impressions, forming a track 
with six distinct repetitions of the marks of each foot, the front 
feet differing from the hind feet. The appearance of five claws 
was discernible on the impressions of each fore paw. In 1853, 
Sir William Jardine published a splendid folio work in which he 
fully described these footprints ; it was illustrated by full-sized 
lithographs coloured after Nature.^ 
The footprints occur in the Dumfriesshire Sandstones, in 
different patches, in several localities, but are best seen either 
where naturally exposed in the valleys of the Esk, the Mth, and 
the Annan, or in the quarries in those districts where they are 
worked for building material. One of those areas, of considerable 
extent, fills up the bottom of nearly all the upper basin of the 
Annan Valley above the ridge at Dormont Rocks. The beds 
are about two hundred feet thick, and present even surfaces. It 
is a curious fact, observed by the author of the above-mentioned 
book, that all the footprints are impressed as if the animal had 
walked from west to east. As a rule the creature seems to have 
walked in a straight line, but sometimes the tracks turn and wind 
in different directions. The paces are generally even and unin- 
terrupted, seldom diverging much aside, showing little stoppage 
for food, or for a scuffle with a neighbour, which sometimes 
^ Ichnology of Annandale (Edinburgh, 1853; folio). 
