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Show ~58 tMBEDDING OF' 'l'liE REMAINS OF MAN (Ch.XVI. . ~ hich they may re tain when i.n clud~d in1 carved-engravmg~ w tal preserves tts natura subaqueous strata, as long as a crys form. 1 deeds of the English It was a splendid boast, that tl~ . l cl n.v al ry at Agincourt made Henry's c rome e as rich with praise - d bottom of the deep . As is the ooze an k d umless treasul'ies ; With sunltcn wrec an s t f the at a reater number of monumen s o for it is probable th g ·n . the course of ages, be col-skill and indust? of man ;1 i :~e ocean, than will be seen at lected toO'ether m the be o . 0 h £ of the contments. one time on t e sur ace t date as we suppose, it will . bp of as recen a h" If our speCies 1- • f nd the worl<s of ts k .1! t1 e remams o man a be vain to see lOr 1 cpt in those regions d d . bmarine strata, exc bands imbed e m su f nt and the a1terations . 1 t thquakes are reque ' where vw en ear 1 b d of the sea may have 1 · 1 1 oTeat that t 1e e of re atlve eve so o ' 1 l" t "cal era We do not d · t 1 nd within t 1e ns on ' · been convcrte m 0 a 1 ents whenever those d . y of sue 1 monum despair of the Iscover d b n from the earliest . b , people Y rna t·egions wlnc~1 have een time the principal theatres of aO'es, and winch are at the sam~ d b the joint skill of the ·v~lcanic action, shall be examme y antiquary and the geologist. h remains are as capable b ]oubt that uman · There can e no c t f the inferior am-the harder par s 0 of resisting decay as are . h . ark of Cuvier, that h 1 eady clted t e tern ma1s; and we ave a r b f men have suffered as . fi ld f battle the ones o . d . " in anc1ent e 8 0 · h" h were bune 111 . . those of horses w IC little decompos1t10n as 1 f tl Ganaes bones of men * " In the de ta o te o . the same grave . . . . 11 t the depth of nmety have been found in dtggmg a weha. f "t course and fills 1 . frequently s 1 ts 1 s feet t . but as t lat nver I d to suppose that ' 1 1 are not cal e upon tlp its ancient c lanne s, we . . . t r that they were f t mcly htgh antiqm y, o these bodies are 0 ex re a· delta where they buried when that part of the surroun mg ' occur was first gained from the sea. ,.. Vol. i. p. 154. t Hoff,, vol. i. P• 379• Ch. XVI.] AND HIS WORKS, IN SUBAQUEOUS STRATA. ~59 Several skeletons of men, more or l~ss mutilated, have been found in theW est Indies, on the north- west coast of the mainland of Guadaloupe, in a kind of rock which is known to be forming daily, and which consists of minute fragments of shells and corals, incrusted with a calcareous cement resembling travertin, which has also bound the different grains together. The lens shows that some of the fragments of coral composing this stone, still retain the same red colour which is seen in the reefs of living coral which surround the island. The shells belong to species of the neighbouring sea intermixed with some terrestrial kinds which now live on the island, and among them is the Bulimus Guadaloupensis of Ferussac. The human skeletons still retain some of their animal matter, and all their phosphate of lime. One of them, of which the head is wanting, may now be seen in the British Museum, and another in the Royal Cabinet at Paris. According to Mr. Konig, the rock in which the former is inclosed is harder under the mason's saw and chisel, than statuary marble. It is described as forming a kind of glacis, probably an indurated beach, which slants from the steep cliffs of the island to the sea, and is nearly all submerged at high tide. Similar formations are in progress in the whole of the West Indian archipelago, and they have greatly extended the plain of Cayes in St. Domingo, where fragments of vases and other human works have been found at a depth of twenty feet. In digging wells also near Catania, tools have been discovered in a rock somewhat similaJ". When a vessel is stranded in shallow water, it usually becomes the nucleus of a sand bank, as has been exemplified in several of our harbours, and this circumstance tends greatly to its preservation. About fifty years ago, a vessel from Purbeck, laden with three hundred tons of stone, struck on a shoal off the entrance of Poole harbour and foundered; the crew were saved, but the vessel and cargo remain to this day at the bottom. Since that period the shoal at the entrance of the harbour has so extended itself in a westerJy direction towards Peveril Point s 2 |