The Devil's Footprints

The Devil's Footprints was the name given to a peculiar phenomenon that occurred in Devon, England on 8 February, 1855. After a light snowfall, during the night, a series of hoof-like marks appeared in the snow. These footprints, measuring 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide and eight inches apart, continued throughout the countryside for a total of over 100 miles, and, although veering at various points, for the greater part of their course followed straight lines. Houses, rivers, haystacks and other obstacles were travelled straight over, and footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls which lay in the footprints' path, as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes of as small as a four inch diameter.

The area in which the prints appeared extended from Exmouth, up to Topsham, and across the river Exe to Dawlish and Teignmouth ("The Times" 16-2-1855). R.H. Busk, in "Phenomenal footprints in snow, S. Devon" "Notes and Queries", s.7, 9 (January 25, 1890) page 70 states that the footprints also appeared further afield, as far south as Totnes and Torquay; and that there were other reports of the prints in Weymouth (Dorset) and Lincolnshire. In each case, the prints would go on for miles and miles before abruptly stopping.Fact|date=February 2007

The footprints were so-named because many of the more superstitious townspeople believed that the footprints were the work of Satan, since they were allegedly made by a cloven hoof; there were many attendant rumors about sightings of a "devil-like figure" in the Devon area during the scare. Many townspeople armed themselves and attempted to track down the beast responsible, without success.

Theories

Hopping Mice

Mike Dash, in an article published in Fortean Studies [cite journal|title=The Devil’s Hoofmarks| author=Dash M|journal=Fortean Studies|year=1994| volume = 1 | pages = 71-150 ] , suggests that at least some of the prints, including some of those found on rooftops, could have been made by hopping rodents such as wood mice. Dash states that the theory that the Devon prints were made by rodents was originally proposed as long ago as March 1855, in "The Illustrated London News".

In Australia, similar incidents may be attributed to hopping mice. The print left behind after a mouse leaps resembles that of a cloven animal, due to the motions of its limbs when it jumps.

Kangaroo

In a letter to the "Illustrated London News" Rev. G.M. Musgrave wrote: "In the course of a few days a report was circulated that a couple of kangaroos had got loose from a private menagerie (Mr. Fische's, I believe) at Sidmouth." It seems, though, that nobody ascertained whether the kangaroos had escaped, nor how they could have crossed the Exe estuary. ("Professor Owen on the foot-marks in the snow in Devon." "Illustrated London News", 26 (March 3, 1855): 214.)

Other explanations

Many different animals have been suggested as a cause, but none would have been capable of covering so large a distance overnight. It is still bizarre at this time even with modern day technology.

Some contend it remains a mystery to this day, although it has been suggested that some bizarre meteorological phenomenon was at work. Paranormal writer Colin Wilson suggests (based on a theory by author Geoffrey Household) that a weather balloon had gotten loose from Devonport dockyard and drifted over the area in question. Others have connected the footprints with the contemporaneous sightings of Spring Heeled Jack, a mysterious figure known for his extraordinary jumps.

It is also often suggested that the footprints were merely a case of mass hysteria, caused by the sighting of various different animal tracks and lumping them together as one.Fact|date=April 2007 The most common argument for this theory is the improbability that someone would be able to track the course of the lines for over 100 miles in the course of a single day, while throughout the night and even during the day many animals roam about creating new tracks and disrupting old ones. Also, as Joe Nickell points out in his book "Real Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal" (2001), the eye-witness descriptions of the footprints varied from person to person; the claim that the footprints were identical is unlikely at best.

Other occurrences

Reports of similar anomalous, obstacle-unheeded footprints exist from other parts of the world, although none is of such a scale as that of the case of the Devil's Footprints.

Among the high mountains of that elevated district where Glenorchy, Glenlyon and Glenochay are contiguous, there have been met with several times, during this and also the former winter, upon the snow, the tracks of an animal seemingly unknown at present in Scotland. The print, in every respect, is an exact resemblance to that of a foal of considerable size, with this small difference, perhaps, that the sole seems a little longer, or not so round; but as no one has had the good fortune as yet to have obtained a glimpse of this creature, nothing more can be said of its shape or dimensions; only it has been remarked, from the depth to which the feet sank in the snow, that it must be a beast of considerable size. It has been observed also that its walk is not like that of the generality of quadrupeds, but that it is more like the bounding or leaping of a horse when scared or pursued. It is not in one locality that its tracks have been met with, but through a range of at least twelve miles. (The Times, March 14, 1840)

In the Illustrated London News, March 17, 1855, a correspondent from Heidelberg writes, "upon the authority of a Polish Doctor in Medicine," that on the Piaskowa-góra (Sand Hill) a small elevation on the border of Galicia, but in Russian Poland, such marks are to be seen in the snow every year, and sometimes in the sand of this hill, and "are attributed by the inhabitants to supernatural influences."(17) [298]

References

Charles Fort, "The Book of the Damned", chapter 28.

ee also

*Phantom kangaroo
*The Great Thunderstorm, Widecombe - another legend of the Devil in Devon.
*"The Devil's Footprints (comics)", a 2003 miniseries by Scott Allie, published by Dark Horse Comics

External links

* [http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/fortean/devils_foot.html Mysterious Britain]
* [http://www.resologist.net/damn28.htm the complete Fort chapter given above, with annotated sources]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n1_v20/ai_17849133/pg_1 'The Devil's footprints': solving a classic mystery] , article from Skeptical Inquirer