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ently of the same species, crossing the stone in different directions; and several 
casts of the feet of a reptile are also visible. 
The rock consists of a member of the New Red Sandstone series ; and it is a 
fact worthy of notice, that the only other impressions of this same animal 
that have hitherto been discovered exist also in the New Red Sandstone of 
Hilburghausen, in Saxony, and, what is remarkable, they are accompanied by 
the footmarks, apparently, of the same reptile which has left its traces in the 
stone at Storton-hill. The slab bearing these footmarks is now in the British 
Museum, and a particular account of them has been given by Prof. Buckland, in 
his Bridgewater Treatise. They were first noticed by Prof. Kaup, who gave 
the animal which made them the name Chirotherium , which we shall retain, and 
he placed it among the Marsupialia. In this specimen the footmarks are only 
sixteen inches distant from each other, while in that before the Society they are 
twenty-two inches, showing a great difference in the size of the two animals. 
This animal, of which we have no remains but the impressions of its feet, 
appears to have belonged to the order Marsupialia. The hind feet bear a 
stronger resemblance to those of the animals of this family than to any other; and, 
indeed, they look somewhat like enlarged models of one of the species— Didelphis 
Virginiana. In some respects the animal seems to have been allied to the 
Opossums, though in others it appears to have approximated to the Kangaroos, 
especially in shape. This is deducible from the disproportionate size of the feet. 
The hind feet are large and strong, and show that the back part of the animal 
was very large and heavy; while the comparatively small size of the fore feet 
seems to indicate that the head, neck, and chest were small and light—or, in 
other words, the animal appears to have been of a conical shape, and in this 
respect approximating to the Kangaroo tribe, although differing widely from it in 
the structure of its hind feet, which, as we have already stated, bear a resem¬ 
blance to those of Bidelpliis (the Opossum). There are, also, two other points of 
difference deducible from the footmarks of this animal, namely, that its fore legs 
were long and slender, and that it had no tail for leaping. The first of these 
appears from the fact that the length of the step of the fore feet is exactly that of 
the hind feet—to wit, twenty-two inches—which is as large as the step of a 
Cow; and the fact of the absence of a leaping tail is shown by the non-occurrence 
of any mark on the stone which could indicate its presence, and which would 
probably have been the case if it had existed. In both these respects the animal 
has differed from the Kangaroo. There are many strong points of difference 
between the characters of Chirotherium and those of the other genera of the order 
Marsupialia ; so that taking all the circumstances in connexion, it may perhaps 
have occupied a place between the genera Didelphis and Kangurus —resembling 
the former in the structure of its hind feet, and the latter in the shape of its 
