Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. 29 
If, as Mantell seems to have imagined, the intaglio were in 
sandstone, the difficulty in supposing it a fossil would be lessen- 
ed, The tracks of marsupialia, birds, and reptiles hitherto dis- 
covered, occur, I believe, uniformly in that species of rock.* 
Of the materials which compose sandstone we have daily ex- 
amples in a state capable of receiving an impression, and it is well 
known that, by the infiltration of calcareous matter, beds of sand 
may, in a comparatively short period of time, be consolidated. 
There is, therefore, not the same difficulty to encounter, in ex- 
plainivg the occurrence of foot-marks in sandstone as in pure 
calcareous matter, which, although it frequently encrusts, is sel- 
dom seen on dry land in a plastic state. 
But all these previous arguments are weak, compared with that 
based on the origin, position and age of the rock under consider- 
ation, and on the fact, that no human remains of any description 
have ever been discovered in any similar formation. 
We have ascertained, that the organic remains taken from the 
slab itself are marine shells. We find, moreover, that it is overlaid 
by other beds of limestone coutaining fossils, also the former 
inhabitants of an ancient ocean. The inference is inevitable, 
that these various beds were deposited at the bottom of the sea. 
But unless we imagine the stratum containing the foot-marks to 
have been raised from the bed of the ocean, while still in a plastic 
mii to — received the impress of the human foot, and to have 
e tracks remaining uneflaced until 
wade covered by other beds of limestone, ) how can we even 
the nascent rock ? 
No remains of man or his works, 1 have. ever - yet been found, 
except in the 
our slab is of immense antiquity ; anterior, even, to ‘the coal for- 
mation. Between this ancient limestone and the recent one of 
Guadaloupe, as well as all other rocks in which have been de- 
tected any traces of man or his handicraft, there intervene six 
* The only tracks ever Sieh des in solid limestone are, I believe, of Crusta- 
cea, and therefore of marin’ origin. 
. +The human fossil bones eaeks in Guadaloupe are no exception; ; for they were 
discovered i ina species of limestone now im process 2 ots por This modern 
rock i is composed of ¢ “ consolidated sand and recent shells ;”’ the shells of the same 
adjacent Pat and bears no eRe a whatever to the 
[Sea ’ 
