s locality completely developed the true characters of
the foot, its ranks of joints, its claws and integuments. So far as I
have seen, the faultless impressions are upon shales of the finest
texture with a smooth glossy surface, such as would retain the beautiful
impressions of rain drops. This kind of surface containing footmarks is
exceedingly rare: I have seen but few detached examples; recently it has
been my good fortune to recover a stratum, containing in all more than
one hundred most beautiful impressions of the feet of four or five
varieties of birds, the entire surface being also pitted by a shower of
fossil rain-drops. The slabs are perfectly smooth on the inferior
surface, and are about two inches in thickness.

"The impression of a medallion is not more sharp and clear than are most
of these imprints, and it may be proper to observe, that this remarkable
preservation may be ascribed to the circumstance, that the entire surface
of the stratum was incrusted with a layer of micaceous sandstone,
adhering so firmly that it would not cleave off, thereby requiring the
laborious and skilful application of the chisel. The appearance of this
shining layer which is of a gray colour, while the fossil slab is a dark
red, seems to carry the probability that it was washed or blown over the
latter while in a state of loose sand, thus filling up the foot-prints
and rain-drops, and preserving them unchanged until the present
day--unchanged in the smallest particular, so far as relates merely to
configuration, nothing being obliterated; the precise form of the nails,
or claws, and joints, and in the deep impressions of the heel bone, being
exquisitely preserved."

The small slab figured at p. 156 is described as being an incomparable
specimen. "For purity of impression it is unsurpassed, and the living
reality of the rain-drops, the beautiful colour of the stone, its sound
texture and lightness, renders it a fit member for any collection of
organic remains."

[Picture: Mandan rain-makers]

CHAPTER VIII.

COMMON SAYINGS RESPECTING THE WEATHER--SAINT SWITHIN'S-DAY--SIGNS OF RAIN
OR OF FAIR WEATHER DERIVED FROM THE APPEARANCE OF THE SUN--FROM THAT OF
THE MOON--FROM THE STARS--FROM THE SKY--FROM THE DISTINCTNESS OF
SOUNDS--FROM THE RISING OF SMOKE--FROM THE PECULIAR ACTIONS OF PLANTS AND
ANIMALS--PROGNOSTICS NOTICED BY SIR HUMPHREY DAVY--SIGNS OF RAIN
COLLECTED BY DR. JENNER--NORTH AMERICA