428 Analyses oj Books. [July, 
of the quarry, but Mr. Garrard, the Governor of the Prison, who 
has taken an intelligent interest in the discovery, has run a 
tunnel under the face of the rock, and brought to light eight more 
footprints, four of which were found in the presence of Dr. 
Harkness. 
According to Professor Le Conte, who has made a careful 
examination of the traces and the accompanying fossils, the 
deposit must be either Quaternary or Upper Pliocene, since no 
elephant or true horse is found in the American Miocenes. The 
evidence seems altogether in favour of the Quaternary or Upper 
Pliocene passing into the former. 
On this part of the question there is a tolerable unanimity 
among the highest authorities. But it is asked : — Are we sure 
that the footprints are human ? The size of the prints is the 
first difficulty. They are eighteen, and in some cases twenty, 
inches in length, and about eight inches in width. This seems 
at first sight a fatal objection. But if, with Dr. Harkness, we 
suppose the foot covered with a large clumsy shoe, it is perfectly 
possible that the tracks would be much larger than those made 
by a man walking with naked feet upon a comparatively firm 
ground, e.g., a hard rock covered with a slight sprinkling of snow. 
It is especially to be noted that there are no marks of toes, claws, 
or hoofs. Professor Le Conte, however, remarks that no toe- 
' marks or pad-marks were found in the tracks of the elephants. 
Two other points have to be taken into consideration — the 
length of the stride and the width of the straddle. The stride is 
2|- feet, “ about the stride of an average man in a brisk walk,” 
but in others more than 3 feet. This Prof. Le Conte considers 
too much for a man walking in soft mud. We have our doubts 
on this point : in boggy ground men often take extra long steps 
for the purpose of avoiding the wetter places. The width of the 
“ straddle ” is a greater difficulty. If we draw lines through the 
centres of the left and right feet respectively, these lines are 
about eighteen inches from each other. This is fully three times 
greater than that of an average man. But we have to consider 
in how far men wearing clumsy v/ooden sandals would get into 
the habit of walking with the legs wide apart. Another point to 
be noted is the outward turn of the foot, which, according to 
Prof. Le Conte, is “ more than human.” It will be remembered 
that the Red Indians, like all men who walk much among 
brushwood, deep herbage, &c., do not turn their toes outwards. 
But if the human theory is not free from difficulties, the quad- 
rupedal supposition is still more perplexing. As Prof. Le Conte 
says : — “The one strong argument for the bipedal theory is the 
singleness of the tracks and the absence of toe-marks. The one 
strong argument for the quadrupedal theory is the wide space 
between the right and left series of tracks.” Whilst suspending 
his decision, he inclines to the notion that the tracks were due to 
a bear, or to the Mylodon, an extinct gigantic ground sloth. 
