FOl NI) XKA11 SANTAS IN IlliVZII.. 291 



and Savannah rivers, verj wide and deep. No doubt thej 



arc co-existent with the emerged land: they arc not to be con- 

 sidered as the results of human industry. The shore of the 

 Atlantic must have formerly swepi nearly in a line with the* 

 remarkable deposits. But the Atlantic level lias remained 

 nearly what it is for more than 4000 years, and still these oyster 

 shell-- are whole: they are not petrified; they are occasionally 

 burned for lime. Within tin- bed, or nearer than it to the 

 sea, are found fossil bones of elephants, &c. which can not be 

 so old as the unfossilized oyster shells, since they could not 

 have been fossilized anterior to the existence of the soil, out 

 of which they are dug, unless you consider them as boulders, 

 which is not admissible. Such fossils do not perhaps deserve 

 the name of extraneous — that is all we can say ot them, sine 

 they exist in an alluvion. 



I am sorry I can not learn the geological character of the 

 mountains of Cubiton. There is a long chain running near 

 the coast from Rio Janeiro southwesterly. 



The geologists are at liberty to determine the date and 

 rank of the Santas tufa and thereby the probable age of th< 

 hones: our alluvial border, at least, bears no marks of volca- 

 nic agency, [t emerged from a sinking sea 5 its organic re- 

 main- are of an indefinite age. Did the Santas mound come 

 above water by the same proc( — 



