The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-18
FOSSIL BIRD TRACKS.
Some Recent Finds Near the Foot of
Mount Tom.


Tom recalls the great sensation in scienti-
hc circles a half century ago when the
late President Hitchcock of Amherst Col
lege published the results of his labors in
Franklin and Hampshire counties
The red sandstone strata border the
Connecticut river on both sides through
the whole of Massachusetts, and as far
south as Middletown, where the river
turns eastward. and the sandstone area
passes straight on to the sound. These
strata dip eastward at an angle of twenty
to thirty degrees and are cut by frequent
assures and faults. Wherever large sheets
of sandstone stand denuded, as at Dibbes
crossing, in the southern part of Holyoke,
1t Will be noticed that they preserve aD-
proximately the same angle, which would
indicate that the thickness of the strata
Is between 5000 and 10000 feet. The whole
series of sandstone is very distinctly STRAIT
flied, and in many parts beautifully fssile.
The earlier and lower forma TONS such as
are met with in the sandstone quarries at
East Longmeadow, are not so finely lam
mated but the later strata, such as are
encountered on the banks of the Agawam
river, near the bridge, at Mittineague, and
at Delaney's quarry, at Holyoke, are al
most as fssile as slate. II these later de-
posts are broken open along their marks
of Elimination, all kinds of shore marks are
ripple marks rain prints and sun cracks;
at Dibbles crossing a large area of sand
stone gives a magnificent example of this
shoal water deposit. 1t is in such strata
that we may hope to find bird tracks
We may easily imagine the circum-
stances under which these tracks were
formed In the Jura-Trias period there
was in this region shallow inland sea,
connected by a narrow outlet with the
ocean. The ebb and flow of the tide left
extensive flats of mud A shower pltted
the soft mud. already ribbed with ripple
marks, and the sun dried and cracked it,
This occurred constantly for many ages,
when we find huge bird-like reptiles saun-
tering along the shore in search of food.
The returning tide gently covered the
tracks, preserving them forever; that race
of reptiles passed away, and the slow de-
posits of mud buried all trace of them
beneath hundreds OF feet of deposit.
About sixty years ago a number of rep
lillian tracks We're unearthed at Turner's
Fails and in the vicinity of Greenfield.
Later, foot-tracks were found south of
Amherst, and also al Middletown, Conn.
Edward Hitchcock examined more than
fifty species and his magnificent collec-
lions are now in the possession of Am
herst College. These tracks vary in size
from a half inch long to twenty inches
Some have five toes, some four, and some
only three toes on the hind feet Some
had fore and hind feet of nearly equal
size, and walked in quadrupedal fashion
Others, whose fore feet were much small
Ter than the hind feet walked almost en-
tirely with the hind feet, putting down
their fore feet occasionally 1 have in
mind slab in the Genealogical museum
at Amherst, showing the ordinary bipedal
track the impression made as the animal
rested on it's launches, and the small
prints left as it dropped it's fore feet be-
fore it. Another slab bears small bipedal
tracks with the trail of a dragging tail;
as the reptile swerved in it's course, the
tail swerved as a rudder to balance it.
But these last are so rare and doubtful
that it is generally supposed that the an
imals were long legged and short tailed.
But to return to the newly-discovered
tracks north Of Holyoke John D. Cotton
to whom the credit of the discovery is
due, and 1 made a hasty survey of the
ledge some weeks ago, aud secured a few
slabs bearing three-toed impressions about
six inches in length. We turned over
slabs about thirty inches square contain
ing, in some cases, eight or ten three
toed tracks, ranging from three inches to
eight inches in length. 1t was impossible
to determine the stride of the reptiles as
We had no means of stripping off large
areas of the ledge and determining the rec
ord of any one set of tracks In several
instances we noted what appeared to be
the Impressions of a dragging tail but
the tracing was too faint to warrant much
| credence. BY far the largest tracks are
on che surface, but, owing to the pecu-
liar erosion, it will be impossible to find
a complete record until tons of sandstone
are removed. Organic remains are scarce
in sandstone, but in this ledge we noticed
fine traces of coal in the same strata that
bear the tracks. This coal appears in
thin vein-like segregations of about four
inches in length. Altogether, we await
witt ierpt Of lie
ledge.
There is doubt as to whether these
tracks he those of birds or reptiles This
is not s > strange as it may at first appear.
Doubtless were we to see the birds them
selves we should be puzzled TO decide
whether to call them rephlian birds or
birdlike reptiles. These two classes were
probably not yet fully separated from
each other In these newly discovered
tracks there is a regular progression In
the number of joints to the toes, as in
birds aud the track of a bird exactly
| resembles these tridacty1 tracks. But it
has been discovered by Marsh and Cope
that many reptiles of the Jura-Trias pc
riod had but three functional toes on the
hind foot and the same number of joints
as birds possess. On the other hand,
Dana has shown that a bird whose stride
is four feet and the length of whose tracks
is eighteen inches must have been wing
less, as its size is far beyond the limit
within which flight is possible But the
doubts in regard to these reptiles have
been cleared up by the discovery by
Marsh of a nearly perfect skeleton. This
skeleton resembles that of a kangaroo as
closely as that of any animal of the pres
ent day; it walked, however. on its hind
feet instead of hopping, as does the kan
CARGO.
Heretofore all the tracks have been
found along the ancient shore line of the
inland sea of the Jura- Trias period; name
| ly, at Turner's Falls, South Hadley and
at Middlotown But lately traces of rep
lillian tracks have been found skirting the
Holyoke range across the valley. This
would indicate that here at one time was
the boundary or shoal waters which In
| high tide swept inland as far as Green
field. From this we may infer how shall
low this inland sea really was.
Biologists generally agree that the Pc
riod of sandstone deposit came before and
continued after the Jura-Trias period
when these tracks were formed. This ac-
counts for the lack of tracks in the East
49, \