I
I C I I N O L O G Y OF ANN AND ALE.
tlu)ugh ilicy o-row gviulunlly fainter or less distinct as tl.cy reach the top of the beds, which would havo been
the niaro-in of drier sands nearer tlie land. J)r. Duncan observed, in his paper already mentioned, that the
nninials had progressed in both directions, cast or west, or as he terms it, from the inclination of the beds, " up
„ r down;" but " never across the slope in any degree." Footprints are occasionally uncovered passing from east
to west, but they are .mfrequent and generally indistinct. There are at present two tracks of Herj)etk-krms sauroplvsim
to be seen in the quarry running from east to west; but the impressions are simple hollows, with scarcely
any indication of a claw or toe, as if they had been impressed in very wet sand where aU irregularities would
immediately fill up; and upon another, a lately uncovered slab, we have a track directly across, or nearly from
south to north. In several instances, the tracks on one slab which we consider to have been impressed at the
same time, are numerous and left by different animals travelKng together. They have walked generally in a
straight hne, but sometimes turn and wind in different directions. This is the case in a large extent of surface,
where we have tracks of above thirty feet in length uncovered, and where one animal had crossed the path of a
neighbour of a difterent species. The tracks of two animals arc also met with as if they had run side by side.
No animal remains of any description have yet occurred in tlic Eed Sandstones of Dumfries-shire, and in the
quarries of the upper basin of the Annan, no trace of any vegetable organization, either terrestrial or fucoid, has
been seen, neither have ripple marks been observed ; but in a few instances, some surfaces have been exposed
which exhibited the appearance of rain drops, or of air bubbles in wet sand- This appearance we have endeavoured
to represent in the vignette below.
I C I I N O L O G Y OF ANNANDALE,
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.
THE impressions made by the feet of different species of animals travelling over the inoist sands of some
ancient sea beach, are in the Annandalo, or indeed in the great Itunian or Solway Basin, the only evidence we
possess of living beings inhabiting the coasts of the then New Red Sandstone Sea ; neither have we traces of
what the vegetation of these shores was, except in so far as we can reason from the analogy of other neai-ly
contemporaneous formations. To ascertaia therefore what the animals themselves were is extremely difficult. We
are in the habit of judging ancient forms to be so very different from those of a modern period, and the present
climate and condition of this country arc so adverse to, and it now contains so little reptilian life,
particularly of such as attain a large size, that we can know nothing of these ancient habits, anil \ve havo
to suspect and surmise the pace and mode of progression, as well as that economy of their life wliich made
them pass and repass so frequently across those then soft sands. The animals that have passed most frequently
over these sands, or in other words, the impressions most numerously found, without doubt belong to
some forms of Tortoise. This we discover by the very close resemblance and analogy they bear, both in the form,
the direction of the footprint, and pace or stride, to that of recent species which have been made purposely to
waU^ over soft substances. From the impressions left by the other animals, we can only yet surmise that they
have had a long or a short stride, a narrow or broad body ; and our knowledge of the footpi-ints of recent
animals, what may be termed modern Ichnology, how these are placed in relation to eacli other, and of the
markings made by the lower classes of animals in their passage across soft sand or mud, is so limited from
want of observation or experience, that wc cannot with any degree of certainty mark even the class of beings by
which they have been made. From the prevalence of Saurian life in the period immediately following that of
the New Eed Sandstone era, we are prejudiced in favour of reptihan forms; but however it may answer in
theory, it does not at all follow, that all the higher forms were absent anterior thereto, particularly as we have,
in the Elgin fossil, indisputable evidence of reptile hfe existing at a much earlier period than was once allowed ;
and the very singular and remarkable tracks in the Potsdam Sandstone of America, much more ancicnt still, and
though assumed as Crustacean, have in our view yet to be so substantiated. All we can do, then, is yet only
to surmise, and to make the remarks that accompany the plates of this work such as will enable observers to
,^ork this intricate subject farther and more clearly out. The paces are generally even and uninterrupted, seldom
diverging much aside, showing little stoppage for food or to scuffle with a neighbour which sometimes accompanied
them ; and they appear more as the tracks of animals passing at once across some tide^receded estuary,
iu pursuit of some well known and favourite grounds which were periodically sought after for business or pleasure,
as the creatures mio-ht incline.