ICHNOLOGY OF ANNANDALE. 3
remains that have been discovered, with the footprints of the animals in.presscd upon the same rocks, and
in explaining what has become of the hard parts of those animals, or why they have not been moro frequently
discovered, when wo find in other formations, if not large, at least considerable accumulations of tlie Ijones,
teeth, &c., of reptilian forms.
" A retrospective glance at the catalogue of reptiles which formerly existed on that portion of tlie earth's
surface, constituting the small Island of Great Britain, and which are now extinct, must call forth such novel and
surprising reflections on the dealings of Providence with tlie animated beings of this planet, as may well lead,
in the fii-st place, to a questioning of the truth of the affirmations with which the present summary commences.
Did the numerous, strange, and gigantic representatives of the several orders of reptiles actually at any time
hve, and move, and propagate their Idnd, in the localities where their bones are now so abmidantly found?
Are not these bones the rehcs rather of antediluvian creatures, which perished in the great liistorical catastrophe
of water, and have been washed fi-om latitudes suitable to their existence, to more northern shores?
Are the British reptiles actually extinct, and may not some hving representatives of the Labyrinthodons,
Enaliosaurs, Dinosaurs, &c., still remain to be discovered in those warmer regions, where alone large species of
reptiles are known now to exist?"—These arc the remarks of Professor Owen, in tlie opening paragraph of the
" Summary" to liis valuable Report on British Fossil Reptiles ; and he adds, " Sucli questions and explanations
of these plienomena, will be most likely to suggest themselves to those who are not conversant with the truths
of Geology, and who may never have been eye-witnesses of the circumstances under which fossil bones of
reptiles are found." The footprints which we have now undertaken to illustrate, will also supply some answers
to such queries, and the tracks, clear and delicate as at the moment when they were impressed, repeated upon
bed after bed, as the fresh tablets were prepared for their reception, forming now altogether, a mass of rock
some huncb-ed feet in thickness, have preserved a record, that these sheets of stone, and their marks, must have
been the work of more than either days or years.
The mass of NEW RED SANDSTONE which occupies a great portion of Warwickshire, Shropshire, and
Cheshire, has fm-nished a few remains of the bones and teeth of several extinct forms of reptiles; and in many
of the quarries which have been opened in these counties, particularly in those of Storeton in Cheshire, and
Runcorn in Lancashire, impressions of footprints occur with considerable frequency and distinctness, which have
been considered to have been impressed by reptihau forms, and probably by some of those of which the osseous
remains arc preserved and now recovered.
The NEW RED SANDSTONE of the north of England, in Westmoreland and Cumberland, so far as wo are
aware, has produced no remains or footprints : but in some of the small areas or patches which are continued