to the
circumstances mentioned in the _Times_ a little while ago, it may be
stated that at Dawlish a number of persons sallied out, armed with guns
and other weapons, for the purpose, if possible, of discovering and
destroying the animal which was supposed to have been so busy in
multiplying its footprints. As might have been expected, the party
returned as they went. Various speculations have been made as to the
cause of the footprints. Some have asserted that they are those of a
kangaroo, while others affirm that they are the impressions of claws of
large birds driven ashore by stress of weather. On more than one
occasion reports have been circulated that an animal from a menagerie
had been caught, but the matter at present is as much involved in
mystery as ever it was."

In the _Illustrated London News_, the occurrence is given a great deal
of space. In the issue of Feb. 24, 1855, a sketch is given of the
prints.

I call them cones in incomplete basins.

Except that they're a little longish, they look like prints of hoofs of
horses--or, rather, of colts.

But they're in a single line.

It is said that the marks from which the sketch was made were 8 inches
apart, and that this spacing was regular and invariable "in every
parish." Also other towns besides those named in the _Times_ are
mentioned. The writer, who had spent a winter in Canada, and was
familiar with tracks in snow, says that he had never seen "a more
clearly defined track." Also he brings out the point that was so
persistently disregarded by Prof. Owen and the other correlators--that
"no known animal walks in a line of single footsteps, not even man."
With these wider inclusions, this writer concludes with us that the
marks were not footprints. It may be that his following observation hits
upon the crux of the whole occurrence:

That whatever it may have been that had made the marks, it had removed,
rather than pressed, the snow.

According to his observations the snow looked "as if branded with a hot
iron."

_Illustrated London News_, March 3, 1855-214:

Prof. Owen, to whom a friend had sent drawings of the prints, writes
that there were claw-marks. He says that the "track" was made by "a"
badger.

Six other witnesses sent letters to this number of the _News_. One
mentioned, but not published, is a notion of a strayed swan. Always this
homogeneous-seeing--"a" badger--"a" swan--"a" track. I should have
listed the other towns as well as thos