Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1882-08-03
THOSE TRACKS.
What Professor LeCOnte Has to
Say About Them.

Say About Them.
Nearly q year ago q gentleman now con-
nected with the SENTINEL wrote an article
on the remarkable fossil tracks found in
the yard of the State Prison, which was
sent as o communication to the San Fran
Carson Index. Since that time attention
has been called to the subject by the
papers of Western Nevada from time to
time, which has resulted in an investiga-
ton recently by Prof. Joseph LeConte Of
the University Of California, an eminent
writer on geology, assisted by DR.. Hark-
ness and Professor Rising of San Fran
cisco. Professor LeConte informed a
reporter Of the Reno Gazette that these
fossil imprints are very interesting.
There are the tracks of a mammoth and
and another track which he thinks that of
a man. He says some persons are entirely
convinced that they are human, but he is
more cautious. While he believes them to
be so, still there are doubts. The track is
so large, being nearly twenty inches, that
it seems impossible that any human being
ever lived with foot capable Of making
such an imprint. If it was a foot, it was
wrapped up in something soft and pliable,
or wore a sandal of some sort. The pc
culiar outline of the human foot is dis
tinct. The curved outside, the heel bending
inward, the broad ball and wide front with
the inward curve at the hollow on the in
side of the foot are still there. The Pro-
lessor says he looked carefully to see if it
could be the footprint of a bear or some
animal, but found no marks of claws or
toes which would be part of a bear track.
He tried to imagine an animal which
stepped with its hind foot into the track of
its fore foot and made such an impression,
but he found nothing to indicate it. Being
asked if it might be a foot wrapped in bark
or skins as a defense against cold, he
thought not, because if it was cold the
mud would be frozen and there would
have been no impression. 1t could hardly
be that the foot was wrapped to keep the
body from pressing into the mud, as snow
| shoes are worn, for then the outline of the
foot would not be preserved. On the
whole the human track is a puzzle.
One thing remarkable about it is the
distance between the lines of the tracks
made by the right and left foot, vulgarly
speaking the straddle, which is about
eighteen inches. The length of the stride
is that of a common man. being less than
Three ltet, DuU tue size OF lle 1OOG ana tno
distance between them were those of a
giant. 1t will be considered carefully by
men Of science everywhere and no doubt
more light will come. The track of the
mammoth is about such a one as would be
made by the one in Professor Wards col
lection, now on exhibition in San Fran
cisco. The Professor thinks the prints
were probably made in the soft mud on
the bank, perhaps near the mouth, Of u
river and soon after a Spring flood came
down and spread a layer of sand on them,
which was followed in years by the large
deposit which became the rock now seen
there. The Professor assigns the tracks
to a period at least as far back as the
glacial epoch, and thinks perhaps they be-
long to the pliocene. There seems to be
no great significance in the fact of finding
human tracks, even if they are human,
with those of the mammoth, because it has
been long known that man appeared on
the earth before the mammoth became ex-
tinct. Still the discovery is very interest
ing to science and may lead to important
results.