Curious Geological Facts. 145 
communication through the rock in which it was imbedded, 
nor any appearance of an opening from above being en- 
closed by infiltration. When, therefore, and in what man- 
ner these bones came into that situation, is among the secret 
and wonderful operations of nature which will probably 
never be revealed to mankind.” 
Fhe perusal of the above brought to my recollection a 
fact if possible still more astonishing: it is mentioned by 
Count Boutnon in his Mineralogy, and as that work has (I 
believe) never been translated, I will here give the passage 
etre, =: 
“ During the years 1786, 7, and 8, they were occupied 
near Aix in Provence, in France, in quarrying stone for the 
rebuilding, upon a vast scale, of the Palace of Justice. The 
stone was a limestone of a deep grey, and of that kind 
which are tender when they come out of the quarry, but 
by exposure to the air. The strata were separated 
‘from one another by a bed of sand mixed with clay, more. 
or less calcareous. “The first which were wrought presented 
work- 
