Read Ebook: Remarks on some fossil impressions in the sandstone rocks of Connecticut River by Warren John Collins

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The formation of bird-tracks is well represented by a clay specimen, about an inch thick, and ten inches long. This is a piece of dried clay, obtained by President Hitchcock from the banks of the Connecticut, and produced by washings from clay on the shore above, covered with foot-impressions of a small tridactylous bird, and dried in the sun. This piece shows, in a way not to be questioned, the manner in which the ancient vestiges were produced. Sir Charles Lyell noticed a similar fact on the banks of the Bay of Fundy.

ORGANIC IMPRESSIONS.

Near one extremity of the slab of the Ornithopus Gallinaceus is an elevation, about a foot long, and between one and two inches wide, projecting from the surface nearly half an inch. It has the appearance of a round bar of iron imbedded in the rock, which is clayey sandstone. This apparent bar of iron was probably a bone, buried in the stone, now silicified and impregnated with iron; the animal matter having entirely disappeared. In the slab of the Brontozoum Sillimanium is a projection about seven or eight inches long, and half an inch wide; probably the bone of an animal, perhaps a clavicle of the Brontozoum Giganteum.

To the vegetable impressions discovered among the sandstone rocks a peculiar name has not yet been assigned. When, however, we consider the strong probability that many impressions of stalks, leaves, fruits, and other parts of vegetables, may be hereafter discovered in these rocks, it will be found convenient to have a distinctive denomination. Vast numbers of vegetable impressions of a distinct and beautiful appearance, and in great variety, have been found in the coal-formation, which is nearly allied to the sandstone: such are the Sigillaria, Stigmaria, Equisetaceae, Lycopodiaceae, Coniferae, Cycadeae, &c. It is sufficient to say that the number of these has been already swelled to many hundreds: we must also believe, that some of the impressions in sandstone rocks which have been assigned to other substances ought to be attributed to vegetables. We may, therefore, venture to call the vegetable impressions "phytological."

A number of our slabs bear impressions of vegetables; either twigs of trees, or spires of plants. In a fragment broken from one of the toes of the Brontozoum Giganteum, we see a cylindrical depression, three inches long, and half an inch in diameter, marked by transverse lines, about the sixth of an inch apart, and presenting an unquestionable appearance of a fragment of a twig of an ancient vegetable, which had been trodden under the foot of the mighty Brontozoum. On the reversed surface of the same slab are found impressions, which were produced by a number of fragments of sticks, five or six inches long, lying at right angles, or nearly so. One of these sticks has been broken, and its pieces are slightly displaced from each other. Various other specimens contain the marks of sticks, or twigs of trees. The striae, so distinctly discernable in a number of these portions, having been compared with twigs of the existing coniferae , were found to resemble them. Some of these sticks show the appearance of incipient carbonization; yet the rock is sandstone, presenting, as already mentioned, distinct appearances of quartz, and other substances of which the arenaceous rocks are composed.

PHYSICAL IMPRESSIONS.

The latest accounts of fossil footprints we have had occasion to notice are those of the Crustacea, already mentioned, as found in Canada, and of the Chelonian in Scotland. The Canadian impressions, called by Professor Owen Protichnites, were discovered in the year 1847, and were laid before the London Geological Society in 1851. The most remarkable circumstance about them was their existence, as already stated, in a white sandstone, near the banks of the River St. Lawrence, at Beauharnais. This sandstone, which has been described by New York geologists under the name of Potsdam, is thought to belong to the Silurian system, and to have a higher antiquity than even the "old red."

The Scotch footsteps are situated in the old red sandstone, and are those of a Chelonian. So that we have now two series of tracks, the Crustacea in Canada and the Chelonian in Scotland, of higher antiquity than any which had been previously discovered.

On a review of the labors of President Hitchcock, we are struck with admiration at the immense details that, in the midst of arduous official and literary duties, he has been able to go through with in the period since the foot-tracks were discovered on Connecticut River. Although his labors should be modified by succeeding observers, Science must be ever grateful to him for laying the foundation, and doing so much for the completion, of a work so great, novel, and interesting.

This inquiry seems to us to promise a rich variety; and we hope that President Hitchcock and other observers will continue to explore and cultivate it with undiminished zeal.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATE.

We are indebted to Photography for enabling us to represent the remarkable slab from Greenfield, and its numerous objects, in a small space, yet with perfect accuracy. This slab is four feet seven and one-half inches in one direction, and four feet one inch transversely to this; in thickness it measures about an inch. It is composed of gray sandstone, in which the micaceous element is conspicuous, and contains many interesting impressions on both surfaces.

The most curious track, consisting of six digitated impressions, still remains. The first is seen on the left of the longer turtle-track, near the largest bird-track; the second is on the track; the third is above the track; the others cross the slab by fainter impressions. Each of them is composed by two feet, and each foot contains four toes, which are seen more distinctly in some impressions than in others. The largest of these double tracks is about three inches in diameter. Perhaps it would be useless to speculate upon what kind of animal they were made by. There is a similarity between these and the tracks of the Anomoepus Scambus, spoken of in the sixth group. In the latter, however, the toes are five and three. Some experienced persons think they are tracks of the mink, Mustela Lutreola, an animal common at the present day in these parts. This has five toes; but it may be in this as in some other digitigrades, that one of the toes in each foot does not make an impression; or perhaps it is safer to believe, till further investigation is made, that it was an animal of a construction not now existing.

The direction of these tracks presents a puzzle we are not able to unravel; it exhibits the impressions of four toes, and we have supposed it might possess five. In either of these cases, we have no right to consider it a bird-track, but probably a reptile or a mammal. Admitting this to be the fact, we are unable to account for the direction of the steps, which is not alternate, as in the quadruped, but in straight lines. In other words, this animal, supposed to have four legs, gives us the impressions of two only, and both of these placed together.

When the tridactylous tracks are attentively considered, compared with each other, and with the digitated tracks, they appear to exhibit the character of the impressions of the feet of birds so very decidedly, that it would require something more than a philosophic incredulity to question their ornithic origin.

The other side of this slab contains interesting impressions. In the first place, this surface is covered with ripple-marks, each about two inches broad, extending with various degrees of distinctness across the slab, and having an interval of an inch. The width of the ridges is greater than in any of the specimens we have seen.

This surface is almost covered by rain-drops. It has also, among other impressions, one which has been drawn by Mr. Silsbee, our photographist, and represented by the figure below of its proper size. This figure, nearly four and a half inches in length, is an exact resemblance in form, but not in size, of the great Otozoum, as depicted by President Hitchcock, and shown by the actual impression, in our hands, of the great foot, twenty inches long, and of proportionate breadth. The form of the heel, or posterior part of the foot, is the same in the two figures; the toes are equal in both, viz. four in number; the two internal toes correspond in their articulations, and the two external are nearly alike, with a little allowance for a different amount of adipose texture. Whether this was the impression of an infant Otozoum, I pretend not to determine: the drawing was taken by a gentleman who knew nothing of the Otozoum. There are similar impressions, smaller than that last described, on the same surface.

The stone, though now very hard and intractable, having resisted all the chemical agents we could employ, must have remained in a soft state for some time; for the impressions of the foot shown below penetrate to the opposite surface.

In this description we have not attempted to point out all the objects worthy of interest on both sides of this curious slab. Every part of it is full of interest, and presents a field for protracted observations. The surface represented in the plate may, by the aid of a magnifier, be studied without the presence of the stone itself; for the photographic art displays the most minute objects without alteration or omission.

Transcriber's Notes.

With the exception of several presumed typographical error which have been changed as noted below, the text presented is that shown in the original printed version. The original text included Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations. Also, the 'AE' and 'ae' ligatures are included ; but the 'oe' ligatures are shown as 'oe' for readability as the ligature character is not present in many fonts.

Typographical Errors:

Emphasis Notation:

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