458 Curious (ieoiagical Facts. 



ternalcomsnunication through tiie rock in which it was imbeddetl, 

 nor ativ appearance of an opening from above, being inclosed by 

 infihration. Wlicn, therefore, and in what manner these bones 

 came into that situation, is among the secret and wonderful ope- 

 rations of nature, which will probably never be revealed to man- 

 kind." 



Professor Silliman having given a place to the foregoing in 

 hw< American Journal of Science, No. 5, subjoins to it the fol- 

 lowing extrj'.ct, translated from Count Bournon's Mineralogy, 

 as a fact still more interesting : 



'•' During the years 178fi, 7, and 8, tliey were occupied near 

 Aix in Provence, in France, in (juarryiiig 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 

 tbey come out of tlie quarry, Int harden 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 })resented no appearance of any foreign bodies ; 

 but, after the workmen had removed the first ten beds, they were 

 astonished, when taking away the eleventh, to find its inferior 

 surface, at the depth of forty or fifty feet, r.-overed with shells. 

 The stone of this bed having been removed, as they were taking 

 Hwav a stratum of argillaceous sand, which separated the eleventh 

 bed from the twelflli, they found stumps of columns and frag- 

 ments of stones half wrought, and the stone was exactly similar 

 to that of the (juarrv: they found moreover coins, handles of 

 hammers, and other tools or fragments of tools in wood. But 

 that which principally commanded their attention, was a board 

 about one inch thick and seven or eight feet long ; it was broken 

 into many pieces, of which none were missing, and it was possi- 

 ble to join them again one to another, and to restore to the 

 board or plate its original form, which was tliat of the boards of 

 the same kind used by the masons and quarry men: it was worn 

 in the same manner, rounded and waving upon the edges. 



" The stones which were completely or partly wrought, had 

 not at all changed in their nature, but the fragments of the board, 

 and the instruments, and the pieces of instruments of wood, had 

 been changed into agates, whicli were very fine and agreea/dy co- 

 louved, Ilere then (observes Count Bouruoa) we have the traces 

 of a work executed by the hand of man, placed at the depth of 

 fifty feet, and covered with eleven beds of couipact limestone : 

 every thing tended to prove that this work had been executed 

 upon the spot where the traces existed. Tiie jnesence of man 

 had then preceded the formation of tliis stone, and that very con- 

 siderably, since he vvas already arrived at such a degree of civili- 

 zation that the arts were known to him, and that he wrought the 

 stone and formed columns out of it," agri- 



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