New-York tribune., 1842-04-04

footprints of the animals, it found them hlled with
| these rents in the clay; and when they came 70
be takenup these cracks are found to be IN reiiet
as well as the footsteps. The same things are
! found in The same beds Of England; and in .his
. red sandstone, which is found all c.si Cheshire
and other parts OF the kingtcni, are found ripple
/ ,na1k-para!le ridges, marking the ripple on the
beach Of the sea at low-tiae
/ Il vas remarked when reasoning Upon the sub
| ect in London, and in DC discussions of the
Geological Socie..ss, that these footsteps must
have beqr made BY an air-breathins animal;
| 40 animal which existed va.se. water could
make such distinct fsu.-s.aarks, not being heavy
cnoughin that fuid: they were pressed down
by tho &ielgit Of animal walking in the
atmosphere. and therefore at low tide, And
nothing is more common now thsn tc observe the
tracks Of various animals upon the beach al low
tide. had an opportunity myself Of observing this
in the islands near Savannah in Georgia. ALLOW
tide have seen the whole beach covered with the
tracks Of the Opos,utrl. Racoon and other animals
and in many places after tracing these tracks some
hundreds Of feet, came II places where the
quarzoseloosc sand OF the low cliffs of the islands
had been blown By the wind only few hours be-
fore while the tide was down. still there had beer
slne for the tracks SC .jc made and for the wind
to blow the end over, and in some places the
trockc were thus oblitcrated, sorlc entirely and
other. ony in part. We haze ;iilen only to suppose
| a submergence ~ a coast situated earring
down the sand, afterwards thatit was consolidated
| bv ierruginUus or other matter, and we should
have counterpart Of this. Take up slab of the
common sand and it would present the same marks
Of the racoon and opossum.
At the same time thnt these fossil remains were
discoveredby Prof kAUp who devoted considerable
attention to the. subject Mr.. OWEN procured from
! Warwick several fossil teeth cf = conical form !;
and being engaged the time in Investigating tho
internal texture of the teeth of various animals he
cut away thin slice and subjected it to e1amina-
ton by powerful microscope, and he wa. 7ur-
| prised to find that this tooth, found in the New
Red Sandstone, No. 3. differed greatly from those
of all the other reptiles found in No =, or the o.
lite formation. This Oolitc has been called the
agc of Reptiles, because we have in i. 50 many Of
the Tcrabratula ard rcptles-iies, FISH, lizards,
| ichMyosou7fan, and Saurians of various kinds
not one of which has a texture resembling in the
least degree the texture of those found in the New
Rcd-Saudstonc. he made representation of a
small part-.nc-fourh of TOOTH which he has
allowed me to copy. Exhibited. You see that
its texture recalls the appearance OF L section OF
the human brain 1t has the same convoution>.
formed by the dentnc and pulp of the tooth: the
| animal that exhibited remarkable structure
was believed to be distinct from any yivn. species.
Surposing this to be the case and becoming great
Iy interested in this discovery, Mr.. OWES applied
to the German Professor kAUr, to have one of his
fossil teeth sent from Germany that it might be
dissected, aud thus that it might ba ascertaned 1t
had the same structure as those found in England.
This was done and the same remarkable tectsre
o6scryed Thus have in both countrics-
A., IL,
same rock and having the same structure, entirely
distinct from that Of reptiles i'll other formations.
1t was evident that they had belonged to reptiles
fer they were different from any belonging to quad
rupeds or fish. 1t was thus believed that they were
a reptilian class of new and before unknown
family.
The next discovery made in the rocks of this
very age, and in the same series Of Sandstone in
which the Impressions of footmarks we're found was
Of parts Of the Scapua femor and pevis of more than
one species of this animal. 1t had received the
provisional name of Cheirotherium or Beast Of
the Hand, from the shape of the imprinted foot
step. The question was whether the teeth and
the bones could belong to the Chcirothe7ium.
Mr.. OwEs remarked, after examining some of
the bones Of the hinder extrenlitics and comparing
them with the bones that evidently belonged to the
anterior oxtremites-ts tho fore arm, found the
same place and probably belonging to the same
anma-thatMerc acas as great disparity in
the relaticc si1e Of these bones as tn the marks
Of the hind feet compared nth those Of the tsre
feet. Soon after portion Of the jaw was found
and Mr. OWEN was able to construct skeleton
Of this anmal-torcstore in imagination something
of the form of the animal that may have
walked so as to produce these lines of ool-marks,
by bringing its hind foot forward as to make
an impression close the last of the fore foot.
This figure is a representation of the animal and
the position of his tracks: