72 
Ein von Herrn Dr. K. F. Schimper zu Mannheim an den Secretair der 
geologischen Section gerichtetes Schreiben wurde hierauf verlesen, worin derselbe 
bevorstehende Publicationen ankündigt über die von ihm neu aufgestellte „Mor- 
phologie der Geschiebe“ und ausser einigen Andeutungen über den bishe- 
rigen Gang und die Erfolge seines Studiums dieser Bildungen zugleich seinen 
Entschluss mittheilt, eine reichhaltige Sammlung von Original - Beweisstücken für 
diese Lehre demjenigen deutschen naturwissenschaftlichen lustitute als freies Ge- 
schenk anzubieten, welches sich verpflichtet, dieselbe angemessen für Jedermann 
zur Ansicht aufzustellen. 
Die von dem zweiten Geschäftsführer übergebenen, von Liverpool einge- 
sandten, Gypsabgüsse der Fährten eines Cheirotherium , welche dort im bunten 
Sandsteine gefunden worden sind, wurden den Mitgliedern der Section vorgelegt. 
Mr. Alfred Higginson, Vicepräsident der Liverpooler naturhistorischen Ge- 
sellschaft, begleitete dieselben mit folgenden Bemerkungen: 
„The Stourton-Hill quarries are situated in the County of Chester, in the 
peninsula of Wirral, about 2 Miles from a ferry on the river Mersey, called 
Rock Ferry. 
These quarries have been worked for upwards of half a Century. The 
strata of which tliey are composed are a portion of the variegated Sandstone 
which is very extensively developed in this part of the Kingdom. The rock con- 
sists of fine grains of quartz and felspar united by an argillaceous cement. It is 
of a yellow and yellowish white appearance, and contains nodules and small 
masses of clay of a similar colour to the rock, and also of a bluish tint. The 
rock is unequally divided into strata, from a few inches to 15 and 20 feet in 
thickness. The strata are separated from each other by seams of bluish clay of 
inconsiderable thickness, — from a mere film to about an inch. • — 
About the month of June 1838, the impressions which have since excited 
so much attention, were discovered, not because they were then first exposed to 
view, but because they had not before come under the observation of any scien- 
tific person. These impressions were the footmarks of an immense number of 
reptiles of various kinds, and of tliat unknown animal, which from the peculiar 
shape of its foot, has been called the Cheirotherium. The animals have walked 
upon the surface of each stratum of rock or clay, soon after it was formed, and 
belore it had become Consolidated, and whilst, at the same time, from some 
unknown cause, the waters which had deposited the stratum had retired, and left 
it dry ground. Very soon afterwards, a fresh stratum of rock has been deposi- 
