Although these footsteps are thus abundant in the extensive quarries of Corn Cockle Muir, no trace whatever has been found of any portion of the bones of the animals whose feet they represent. This circumstance may perhaps be explained by the nature of the siliceous sandstone having been unfavourable to the preservation of organic remains. The conditions, which would admit of the entire obliteration of bones, would in no way interfere with the preservation of impressions made by feet, and speedily filled up by a succeeding deposite of sand, which would assume, with the fidelity of an artificial plaster mould, the precise form of the surface to which it was applied.
Notwithstanding this absence of bones from the rocks
which are thus abundantly impressed with footsteps, the latter
alone suffice to assure us both of the existence and character
of the animals by which they were made. Their form
is much too short for the feet of Crocodiles, or any other
known Saurians; and it is to the Testudinata, or Tortoises,
that we look, with most probability of finding the species to
which their origin is due.[1]
markings occur in the Old Red Sandstone, which are referred by the
natives to the tracks of Horses, and the impressions of Patten-rings, and legendary tale has been applied to explain their history. They are
caused by concretions of Marlstone and Iron, disposed in spherical cases around a solid core of sandstone, and intersected by these water courses.
- ↑ This evidence of footsteps, on which we are here arguing, is one which all mankind, appeal to in every condition of society. The thief is identified by the impression which his shoe has left near the scene of his depredations. Captain Parry found the tracks of human feet upon the banks of the stream in Possession Bay, which appeared so fresh, that he at first imagined them to have been recently, made by some natives: on examination they were distinctly ascertained to be the marks of the shoes of some of his own crew, eleven months before. The frozen condition of the soil had prevented their obliteration. The American savage not only identifies the Elk and Bison by the impression of their hoofs, but ascertains also the time that has elapsed since each animal had passed. From the Camel's track upon the sand, the Arab can determine whether it was heavily or lightly laden, or whether it was lame.
