Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 2.djvu/51

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EXPLANATION OF PLATES 26″. 26‴.
37

in the same straight line. The footsteps d. e. f. form part of another track of the same kind. Some of the large toes of the Chirotherium, and also of the smaller species, have left distinct impressions of nails: g. h. i. k. 1. m. n. o. p. q. form the track of an animal of another species, probably a Tortoise crossing the same slab in a different direction.

The irregular cylindrical concretions that intersect each other on the surface of this slab, appear to have been formed in cracks, caused by the contraction of a thin bed of green marl, interposed between two deposites of Sandstone. See note, V. I. p. 203.


Fig. 2. One of the impressions of the the hind feet of Chirotherium, on the slab Fig. 1; half nat. size. (Sickler.)
Fig. 3. One of the footsteps in the track of the smaller animal, upon this slab; nat size. (Sickler.)

M. Link has made out the footsteps of four species of animals in the Hildburghausen sandstone, and it has been conjectured that some of these have been derived from gigantic Batrachians.


Plate 26″. V. I. p. 203.

Impression of the hind foot of Chirotherium, selected from a well-preserved Track upon a slab of sandstone from Hildburghausen, in the British Museum. (Original.)


Plate 26‴. V. I. p. 203.

Footsteps of a small web-footed animal, probably crocodile an, drawn from a Cast of impressions on Sandstone, found near Hildburghausen. (Original.)

The Sandstones in which all these fossil footsteps have been discovered in Germany and Scotland, appear to be referable to the same division of the secondary strata,