HU3TAN SKELETON OF GUADELOUPE. 



307 



stone and wooden ornaments, and 

 remains of pottery, have also been 

 found imbedded in it. The rock is 

 in the vicinity of the volcano called 

 the SouiFriere. It is not surpris- 

 ing, therefore, that in an island lia- 

 ble to volcanic convulsions, earth- 

 quakes, hurricanes, and inundations 

 both of water and of sand, human 

 bodies should occasionally have 

 been overwhelmed in the drifting 

 sand, which has ultimately become 

 indurated. Similar aggregations 

 of sand, gravel, and other detritus, 

 consolidated by means of deposits 

 of iron or lime from their solutions 

 in water, are familiar to all ob- 

 servers. Such deposits on a large 

 scale care in progress on the shores 

 of the Mediterranean, on the coast 

 of Sicily, and of the "West Indies, 

 the Bermudas, and other islands, 

 and in which the remains of plants 

 and animals, and articles of human 

 fabric, are becoming incrusted and 

 intombed. In the museum of the 

 American Philosophical Society at 

 Philadelphia, Sir Chas. Lyell was 

 shown a slab of limestone from 

 Santas in Brazil, procured by Capt. 

 Elliot of the United States navy, 

 which contains a human skull and 

 other bones, with fragments of 

 shells, some of them partially re- 

 taining their colour. Sir Charles 

 observed that the calcareous rock 

 resembles that of Guadeloupe, but 

 is less solid ; and ho mentions that 

 lie was informed that several hun- 

 dreds of human skeletons had been 

 dug out of the same deposit about 

 the year 1827. He supposes that 

 the soil now indui*ated may have 

 at one time been an Indian burial- 

 ground, \vhich had become sub- 

 merged in the sea, as he obsi 

 serpulte upon the rock, and had 

 again been elevated above the water. 

 Even in the lakes of Forfar 

 there is a deposit of fresh-wain- 

 limestone in progress, containing 

 recent shells and aquatic plants. 

 The unrivalled researches of M. 



Cuvier in comparative anatomy 

 enabled that profound philosopher 

 to declare his conviction, before the 

 skeleton of Guadeloupe had been 

 described, that no human remains 

 had ever been discovered in a fossil 

 state. To this subject he devotes 

 a chapter in his Theory of the 

 Earth. The reader may remember 

 the gypsum quarries about Paris, 

 whence Cuvier derived so many of 

 the osteological relics, which at the 

 bidding of his reconstructive genius, 

 bone uniting to bone, sprung into 

 primitive forms, unknown to the 

 present world, and which had been 

 buried for ages at unfathomable 

 depths under the earth. The in- 

 ductive process by which these re- 

 sults this " resurrection in minia- 

 ture," as he described it was at- 

 tained, is without a parallel in the 

 history of science. The labourers 

 in these quarries, the unconscious 

 instruments of his brilliant disco- 

 veries, were under the firm persua- 

 sion that a great proportion of the 

 bones which they brought to his 

 museum were those of the human 

 skeleton. But he informs us that 

 "having seen and carefully ex- 

 amined many thousands of these 

 bones, I may safely affirm that not 

 a single fragment of them has ever 

 belonged to our species." Again, 

 in reference to the supposed human 

 remains which Spallanzani brought 

 to Pavia from the island of Cerigo, 

 M. Cuvier affirms " that there is 

 not a single fragment among them 

 that ever formed part of a human 

 skeleton." And the general con- 

 clusion of this sagacious naturalist 

 has been confirmed by all subse- 

 quent observations : " The estab- 

 lishment of mankind in those coun- 

 tries in which the i'ns-il 1> iu's of 

 laud-animals have tu:on found, that 

 is to say, in the greatest part of 

 Europe, Asia, and Anu-rica, must 

 necessarily have been posterior not 

 only to the revolutions which 

 covered up thcdu b;>n. .;, hut also to 



