The Southern Enterprise

Footprints upon the Rocks.

In Carson Valley, Nevada, near the town of Dayton, there are many curious and interesting geological vestiges of an ancient fauna and flora. Petrified palm trees, coniferae and many species of extinct tropical plants are found in abundance; but the most notable object in this region is the "foot printed rock." At the mouth of Eldorado Canyon, on the northeast side of the Carson river, a wagon road passes over a plain of naked rock which lies nearly horizontal, and is apparently composed of silicified volcanic ashes, or at any rate, the product of some sort of volcanic matter. This stone is extensively used in Nevada for building material, and is considered superior to the free stone of the Atlantic States. From the appearance and markings of the rock about which we are writing, it is quite apparent that it was at one time in a soft plastic condition, analogous to mud or wet mortar. The surface of the rock contains innumerable foot prints or tracks of quadrupeds, all as distinctly defined as if they were impressed there recently. The most remarkable of these impressions is that which has been made by an enormous beast of the equine genus. Many of these ancient horse "tracks" measure eighteen inches in diameter. The impressions are deeply cut in the rocks and have the precise form of the horse's hoof, except the heel or heavy fetlock of the beast has also made an impression in the rear of the track. The same rock surface contains tracks of the young of the same species; these last being about the size of a full grown modern horse track. In addition to these, the rock is dotted with the footprints of enormous bears, elks, deer and other animals. Two or three years since the skeleton of a large fossil animal was exhumed in Nevada. The specimen, when alive, probably measured about 18 feet in length, by about 7 or 8 feet in height. Although the specimen was in an advanced state of decomposition, those who examined it were satisfied that it belonged to the genus equus, and was probably the kind of creature which left the footprints above described.