ore the public a great amount of ichnological information, and
really created a new science. Dr. Deane, on his part, has not been
idle: besides making valuable discoveries, he has written a number of
excellent papers to record some portion of his numerous observations.

In 1837, at the request of my friend Dr. Boott, I carried to London,
for the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, various scientific
objects peculiar to this country; among which were a number of casts
of Ornithichnites.

These casts were kindly furnished me by President Hitchcock, and the
Government of the Royal College thereon voted to present to President
Hitchcock and Amherst College casts of the skeleton of the famous
Megatherium of South America. These casts were packed, and sent to be
embarked in a ship destined for Boston, but were unluckily delivered
to a wrong shipping house in London, and I lost sight of them for some
time. They were at length discovered. After remaining in this
situation for more than a year, they were sold at public auction; and,
notwithstanding many efforts on my part, I was unable to obtain and
transmit them to Amherst College.

The fossil impressions which have been distinguished in various places
in the new red sandstone are those of birds, frogs, turtles, lizards,
fishes, mollusca, crustacea, worms, and zoophytes. Besides these, the
impressions made by rain-drops, ripple-marks in the sand, coprolites
or indurated remains of faeces of animals, and even impressions of
vegetables, have been preserved and transmitted from a remote
antiquity. No authentic human impressions have yet been established;
and none of the mammalia, except the marsupials.(?) We must, however,
remember that, although the early paleontology contains no record of
birds, the ancient existence of these animals is now fully
ascertained. Remains of birds were discovered in the Paris gypsum by
Cuvier previous to 1830. Since that time, they have been found in the
Lower Eocene in England, and the Swiss Alps; and there is reason to
believe that osseous relics may be met with in the same deposits which
contain the foot-marks. Most of the bird-tracks which have been
observed, belong to the wading birds, or Grallae.

The number of toes in existing birds varies from two to five. In the
fossil bird-tracks, the most frequent number is three, called
tridactylous; but there are instances also of four or tetradactylous,
and two or didactylous. The number of art