Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1855-07-28

doius. 81 have" he says, sat some localities
traced the tracks Of single bird thirty or for
ty feet when il went into the water. This
knew from the fact that the first tracks would
hevery slight, being pressed on hard sand br
clay, and each successive step would be deeper
and deeder until the mud closed over the i'm
preston; and when he got into the water,
entirely obliterated all appearance of the track
on the strata over which the bird had walked |
But, by removing thin layer, we find the i'm. |
preston. This has ohen,mes enabled me to
tell how high the water was at the time. -
Again if the height Of those birds were in 1
proportion to the length of their feet as COM
pared with some existing birds, they must have
stood some twenty feet high"
81 have one slab containing two footprints Of a
large bird, the surface being very rongh and
uneven ! but the great weight Of the bird (prob-
ably thousand pounds or more) pressed the
sand so hard that il is perfectly smooth, show
ing distinctly the structure of the bottom Of the
foot" Again he says have many speci-
mems from Weathersfeld, Conn, which show
very plainly that they are the tracks Of birds
still consider them imperfect, because they do
no, show where the bottom Of the foot rested.
The deposit seems 10 have been fine reddish
clay, so son that the bird settled down, num-
Der of inches, the mud closing up again when
the foot was Withdrawn leaving no impression
on the surface the tracks are seen only b.
splitting the strata through which the foot pass
ed"
Mr. Marsh collected a valuable cabinet. lie
made exchanges with many scientific men in
this and in foreign countries. In 1851, his
-
stone upon which were one thousand tracks Of
birds and qnadrupeds, some of these slabs
weighing less than an ounce, and others two
tons, and containing from one to fifty tracks
each, from one half inch to nineteen inches in
, length also, two hundred fossil fishes three
, thousand sea-shells, tweniy-sx hundred rock
} crystals, and two hundred specimens Of Indian
antiquities besides specimens in zoology and
= botany, minerals and fossils from foreign coun-
: tries.
4 Uneducated though he. was, Mr. Marsh could
not remain in obscurity. In 1916 he was cleo
5 ted member Of the American Association for
: the advancement Of science ; in 1859 he was
elected member of the Lyceum of Natural
e History in New York and, in August of the
q same year, corresponding member Of the
I, Academy Of Natural Science in Philadelphia.
d The notice of this last mentioned honor was
c received while he was at Ackworth, New
: Hampshire. In reply he gave the society
very full account Of the celebrated beryl quarry
t that place. Very large crystals had formerly
+ been obtained with ease at that place but the
: bed which at first cropped out Of the ground
n had been worked till there were twenty feet of
solid quartz above ii and then abandoned But
Mr. Marsh stopped not where other men are ac-
c customed to stop. He Obtained lease If the
Y quarry, and went TO work. lie spent one hun
: dred days labor and burned four hundred
= pounds powder, digging through the twenty
n feet of solid quartz. He did not succeed in
obtaining what he hoped for, the best crystal in
n the world yet he was amply rewarded. He
d obtained a crystal, one foot in length and thir-
c teen inches in diameter, standingEin block Of
If quartz its original matrix very fine. He brought
b home with him nearly three tons Of crystals,
g most Of which were very good specimens
y This was in the autumn Of 1859. For some
d time il had been evident that incessant toll had
e made nroads upon the yigor Of his constitution
d his daily labor was interrupted and as this re-
IS source was cut Off it became necessary for him
l. TO negotiate for the sale Of his cabinet In
Is March, 1851, he writes 10 Professor II. d.
e Rogers
If MY health is still poor and if anu not
II able 10 labor must sell il. / do not suppose
Of it will bring the money it would if owned by
lie some learned society, or by some rich man.
S, ! hardly know what to say II has been esii.
mated at all prices, from four thousand TO ten
re thousand dollars but will sell in this countr,
for sum not exceeding five thousand nor less
p than three"
l. He conferred also with Professor Dana, o.
e, Yale College, concerning the sale of it to that
n institution. He offered to deduct five hundred
le dollars from its value if the town Of Greenfield
ID would purchase il, and erect for it a suiiabl,
1, building but he did not dispose Of it. His
le last scientific labor was at Ackworth. April Q
s. 1853, at the age Of AZ, he left this earth as the
e, Christian leaves it-noi to study the footprint
Ig of the Creator by toll, but with angel vision
en- to view God in his true character, through III.
10 eyes Of the distant past, molding this plasti,
e. earth for fish, reptiles, birds, animals and man
n, His cabinet was sold at auction for thre,
e. thousand dollars. Mr. Alger of Boston, ant
ID Amherst College, were the principal purchasers
II Mr. Marsh was not able to do as Professor Shep
he herd has DONE locate his cabinet at a popula
on ory. His family needed its value. But lhougl
IL his may mingle with the collections of others
d, we hope his friends who have received ii, will
he not obliterate his name from their catalogues
h but delight to honor the man who has done s.
much for science and the honor of the country
In concluding, we remind the readers of the re
he suits Of mans working with his eyes open
nd Before Mr. Marsh observed the footprint in tn
ed lagging-stone, it was not known that airbreati
iff ing animals existed previous to the oolle pc
lat riod. But since that time there have been dis
he covered, in the New Red Sand-stoue Of III
Tor Connecticut river valley, the tracks of fy spe
ch cies Of animals, all described and named by DR.
ed Hitchcock. OF these, four were lizards tw
as tortoises six batrachians twenty-five wer
ey birds, all waders. One of the bipeds, the OI
in ozoum Noodle, was huge monster, sort q
sre biped toad, as large as an elephant His track