is
now the Isle of Anglesey.

For you find in the beds, from the top to the bottom (at least in
Cheshire), particles of mica. Now this mica could not have been
formed in the sand. It is a definite crystalline mineral, whose
composition is well known. It is only found in rocks which have been
subjected to immense pressure, and probably to heat. The granites
and mica-slates of Anglesey are full of it; and from Anglesey--as
likely as from anywhere else--these thin scales of mica came. And
that is about all that I can say on the matter. But it is certain
that most of these sands were deposited in a very shallow water, and
very near to land. Sand and pebbles, as I said in my first paper,
could not be carried far out to sea; and some of the beds of the
Bunter are full of rounded pebbles. Nay, it is certain that their
surface was often out of water. Of that you may see very pretty
proofs. You find these sands ripple-marked, as you do shore-sands
now. You find cracks where the marl mud has dried in the sun: and,
more, you find the little pits made by rain. Of that I have no
doubt. I have seen specimens, in which you could not only see at a
glance that the marks had been made by the large drops of a shower,
but see also from what direction the shower had come. These delicate
markings must have been covered up immediately with a fresh layer of
mud or sand. How long since? How long since that flag had seen the
light of the sun, when it saw it once again, restored to the upper
air by the pick of the quarryman? Who can answer that? Not I.

Fossils are very rare in these sands; it is not easy to say why. It
may be that the red oxide of iron in them has destroyed them. Few or
none are ever found in beds in which it abounds. It is curious, too,
that the Keuper, which is all but barren of fossils in England, is
full of them in Wurtemberg, reptiles, fish, and remains of plants
being common. But what will interest the reader are the footprints
of a strange beast, found alike in England and in Germany--the
Cheirotherium, as it was first named, from its hand-like feet; the
Labyrinthodon, as it is now named, from the extraordinary structure
of its teeth. There is little doubt now, among anatomists, that the
bones and teeth of the so-called Labyrinthodon belong to the animal
which made the footprints. If so, the creature must have been a
right loathly monster. Some think him to ha