290 ACCOUNT OF HUMAN BONES 



Museum ; there are several laminae of a yellowish substance, 

 and some smaller portions of the same kind disseminated here 

 and there — the larger are manifestly splinters and scales 

 of bone, probably from crushed pieces of the skeleton ; the 

 latter I can attribute to no other source. . 



Mr Konig speaks of several kinds of shells — in this there 

 are many broken oysters and one serpula. Mr Konig does 

 not mention an oyster shell in his description. 



A question naturally arises as to the date of that catastro- 

 phe which enclosed several hundred individuals in the tufa 

 of the Rio Santas. The aborigines of that coast were always 

 very poor, few and ignorant: — could they erect such a 

 mound? 



Monsieur Lavaysse was at Guadaloupe when General Er- 

 nouff wrote his account of the Galibies to M. Faujas St Fond, 

 and says he collected many specimens, as heads, arms, legs. 

 vertebra, &c. for his own use. He also found a cote des 

 Sqelettes, mortars, clubs, &c. &c. in a petrified state, and 

 consisting of a basaltic or porphyritic stone. We might ask, 

 how can you petrify a basalt or a porphyry. Mr L. regards 

 the skeletons as indigenes burried in a cemetery. 



It seems unlikely that these remains were formally buried 

 by surviving friends. It is unlikely that so solid a stone 

 should have been formed at so great a distance from the sea. 

 The enormous trees that grow on the surface make it neces- 

 sary to go back many years in search of the date. 



1 would not venture to differ from the opinion of Mr Cu- 

 vier on such a subject as this if I could learn his opinion. I 

 will, however, take the liberty of referring to some appear- 

 ances of our maritime borders for illustration of the few addi- 

 tional observations I have to make. This alluvion extends 

 from Long Island to the province of Texas, widening in some 

 places till it recedes 150 to 200 miles from the sea shore. 

 From North Carolina to near the mouth of the Mississippi 

 there is traceable, at intervals, a line of beds, consisting mostly 

 of oyster shells in some particular spots of an enormous size. 

 These beds are, at the point where the line crosses Eddistoe 



