The story is of an incredible multiplicity of marks discovered in the
morning of Feb. 8, 1855, in the snow, by the inhabitants of many towns
and regions between towns. This great area must of course be disregarded
by Prof. Owen and the other correlators. The tracks were in all kinds of
unaccountable places: in gardens enclosed by high walls, and up on the
tops of houses, as well as in the open fields. There was in Lymphstone
scarcely one unmarked garden. We've had heroic disregards but I think
that here disregard was titanic. And, because they occurred in single
lines, the marks are said to have been "more like those of a biped than
of a quadruped"--as if a biped would place one foot precisely ahead of
another--unless it hopped--but then we have to think of a thousand, or
of thousands.
It is said that the marks were "generally 8 inches in advance of each
other."
"The impression of the foot closely resembles that of a donkey's shoe,
and measured from an inch and a half, in some instances, to two and a
half inches across."
Or the impressions were cones in incomplete, or crescentic basins.
The diameters equaled diameters of very young colts' hoofs: too small to
be compared with marks of donkey's hoofs.
"On Sunday last the Rev. Mr. Musgrave alluded to the subject in his
sermon and suggested the possibility of the footprints being those of a
kangaroo, but this could scarcely have been the case, as they were found
on both sides of the Este. At present it remains a mystery, and many
superstitious people in the above-named towns are actually afraid to go
outside their doors after night."
The Este is a body of water two miles wide.
London _Times_, March 6, 1855:
"The interest in this matter has scarcely yet subsided, many inquiries
still being made into the origin of the footprints, which caused so much
consternation upon the morning of the 8th ult. In addition 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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