Edward Hitchcock's Poem, The Sandstone Bird (1836)

Edward Hitchcock's 113-line poetic description of the animals believed responsible for the large, three-toed Lower Jurassic Eubrontes giganteus fossil footprints was obscurely published in 1836. Due to the literary, rather than scientific, nature of the journal (The Knickerbocker) and Hitchcock's incomplete bibliographic reference to its source, the poem has been completely overlooked by today's geological historians. It offers a unique (and ironic) glimpse of the early sciences of geology and paleontology in the era just before Agassiz's glacial hypothesis was introduced. The work is still laced with many lingering notions about Diluvial processes and a persistent belief in the Earth's degenerate, ruined condition. This remarkable poem is offered for republication here (with critical comments).