Engraved by J. Sartain.—From a original Talbotype.
Gould & Lincoln, Boston
THE
FOOT-PRINTS OF THE CREATOR:
OR,
THE ASTEROLEPIS OF STROMNESS.
BY
HUGH MILLER,
AUTHOR OF “THE OLD RED SANDSTONE,” ETC.
“When I asked him how this earth could have been repeopled if ever it had undergonethe same fate it was threatened with by the comet of 1680, he answered,—‘thatrequired the power of a Creator.’”—Conduit’s “Conversation with Sir Isaac Newton”.
FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION.
WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR
BY LOUIS AGASSIZ.
BOSTON:
GOULD AND LINCOLN.
69 WASHINGTON STREET.
NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.
CINCINNATI: GEO. S. BLANCHARD.
1868.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
Gould, Kendall and Lincoln,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
To you, Sir, as our highest British authority on fossil fishes,I take the liberty of dedicating this little volume. In tracingthe history of Creation, as illustrated in that ichthyic divisionof the vertebrata which is at once the most ancient and themost extensively preserved, I have introduced a considerableamount of fact and observation, for the general integrity ofwhich my appeal must lie, not to the writings of my friendsthe geologists, but to the strangely significant record inscribedin the rocks, which it is their highest merit justly tointerpret and faithfully to transcribe. The ingenious andpopular author whose views on Creation I attempt controverting,virtually carries his appeal from science to the wantof it. I would fain adopt an opposite course: And my use,on this occasion, of your name, may serve to evince the desirewhich I entertain that the collation of my transcripts ofhitherto uncopied portions of the geologic history with the[iv]history itself, should be in the hands of men qualified, byoriginal vigor of faculty and the patient research of years,either to detect the erroneous or to certify the true. Further,I feel peculiar pleasure in availing myself of the opportunityfurnished me, by the publication of this little work,of giving expression to my sincere respect for one who, occupyinga high place in society, and deriving his descentfrom names illustrious in history, has wisely taken up thetrue position of birth and rank in an enlightened country andage; and who, in asserting, by his modest, persevering labors,his proper standing in the scientific world, has renderedhimself first among his countrymen in an interesting departmentof Natural Science, to which there is no aristocratic or“royal road.”
I have the honor to be