118 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



out of very old beds ; but this estimable natural- 

 ist is anxious to make known how much this as- 



nouf, the governor, caused one to be extracted with much 

 labour, of which the head, and almost the whole superior 

 extremities, were wanting. This had been deposited at 

 Guadaloupe, in the expectation that another and more com- 

 plete specimen would be procured, in order to send them to- 

 gether to Paris, when the island was taken by the English. 

 Admiral Cochrane having found this skeleton at the head- 

 quarters, sent it to the English Admiralty, who presented it 

 to the British Museum. It is still in that collection, and 

 M. Kcenig, Keeper of the Mineralogical Department, has 

 described it in the Phil. Trans, of 1814, and there I saw it 

 in 1818. M. Kcenig observes, that the stone in which it is 

 imbedded, has not been cut to its present shape, but that it 

 seems to have been simply inserted, in the form of a distinct 

 nodule, into the surrounding mass. The skeleton is so 

 superficial, that its presence must have been perceived by 

 the projection of some of its bones. They still contain some 

 of their animal matter, and the whole of their phosphate of 

 lime. The rock being entirely formed of pieces of corals, 

 and of compact limestone, readily dissolves in nitric acid. 

 M. Koenig has detected fragments of Millepora miniacea, 

 of several madrepores, and of shells, which he compares to 

 Helix acuta and Turbo pica. This fossil skeleton is repre- 

 sented in Plate I. More recently, General Donzelot has 

 caused another of these skeletons to be extracted, which 

 is now in the Royal Cabinet, and of which a figure is given 

 in Plate II. It is a body which has the knees bent. A 

 small portion of the upper jaw, the left half of the lower, 

 nearly the whole of one side of the trunk and pelvis, and a 

 large portion of the left upper and lower extremities, arc 

 what remain of it. The rock which contains it, is evidently 



