Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/709

Rh to a committee of the American Association of Geologists, consisting of H. D. Rogers, L. Vanuxem, R. C. Taylor, E. Emmons, and T. A. Conrad, in order, if possible, to produce a unanimity of opinion. Those who had most earnestly opposed the new doctrine were upon the committee, but all were convinced; as their report, issued in 1841, states, "From a comparative examination of the facts on both sides, your committee unanimously believe that the evidence entirely favors the views of Prof. Hitchcock, and should regret that a difference had existed, if they did not feel assured it would lead to greater stability of opinion."

The publications upon the subject of these triassic footmarks by Prof. Hitchcock have been quite numerous. The most important were that in the final report upon the geology of Massachusetts in 1841, a paper in the Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848, in the Ichnology of New England, published by the State of Massachusetts in 1859 and its supplement in 1860. The total number of species described, as finally revised, amounted to one hundred and fifty. They were referred to several groups: a few marsupialoids, thick and narrowtoed birds, ornithoid lizards or batrachians, lizards, batrachians, chelonians, fish, Crustacea, myriapods, insects, and worms. At first the trifid impressions were referred to birds; and it was considered a remarkable confirmation of this view that in 1838 or 1839 there should have been found in New Zealand the bones of true birds having the same dimensions as the largest Brontozoum. Prof. Owen has stated jthat his belief in the ornithic character of the Deinornis was strongly fortified by the fact of the existence of the Brontozoum. Very soon after the earliest publications about these ornithichnites specimens were exhumed which became very puzzling because of the presence of quadrupedal characters. It became very clear that there must be an intermediate class of beings between birds and reptiles, and accordingly this conclusion was embodied in the assignment of a large number of these Ichnozoa to the designation of "ornithoid lizards or batrachians." As time has progressed the order of Deinosaur has been proposed, to include such animals as have been made known to us by their bones; and now it is doubtful whether any of the impressions were made by birds. Prof. O. C. Marsh has obtained entire skeletons of Deinosaurs from the Connecticut sandstones, which he calls Anchisaurus. They seem to be allied to the Plesiornis rather than the Anomœpus or Brontozoum of Hitchcock.

The specimens from which the opinions and descriptions of the ichnology were derived are preserved in the Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet at Amherst College, and completely fill a room one hundred by forty feet, besides two smaller apartments. The number of distinct impressions studied and labeled exceeds twenty