VOL. XLII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. J l-J 



countries of the known world ; as appears of late years from the practice of the 

 Americans. And it is also manifest, from the many instruments of war, that 

 are made of stone, which have been dug up in these western parts of Europe, 

 that the use of iron was not very common in these parts, till of late years. 

 Moiitfaucon, in the 4th and 5th tome of his Antiquities, gives us an account 

 of several tombs being opened near Paris, and in other places ; where the hard 

 and destructive part of the weapons found consisted of stone. He particularly 

 gives the cut of a stone-hatchet in his own possession, which was made of 

 touchstone, in the 4th tome of his Supplement, p. 30. But the bishop has in 

 his possession a much more complete one, made of the same kind of stone, ex- 

 pressed by fig. 1 . pi. 20, which is done with exactness, by a scale of a quarter 

 of an inch to an inch, plainly made for doing execution both ways ; and there- 

 fore answers the description given by Montfaucon of the Amazonian hatchet, 

 or the sagaris of Xenophon (vide Montf. torn. iv. p. 69). The handle is made 

 of yew, and the stone is not inserted into the handle at right angles, but 

 makes an acute angle below towards the hand ; the use of which appears at 

 first sight. 



Concerning a Zoophyton, somewhat resembling the Flower of the Marigold.* By 

 the Rev. Griffith Hughes,^ Minister of St. Lucys Parish in Barhadoes. 

 N''471, p. 590. 



However surprising the description of a flower, which is probably a real ani- 

 mal, may appear ; yet we cannot, without the highest arrogance, presume to 

 prescribe limits to the power of the Almighty, who, for wise ends, sometimes 

 hides his works in such darkness, as to be concealed from the most exalted 

 human knowledge. There are no ages past, in which fresh and numerous in- 

 stances of his wonderful works have not discovered themselves. And what, in 

 ours, seems most inexplicable, will, possibly, appear to futurity no more than the 

 natural consequence of other discoveries then become familiar. 



At the north end of the island of Barbadoes, in St. Lucy's parish, is a cave 

 about 14 feet long, and 1 1 wide : its bottom is a basin always full of transparent 

 salt-water, its greatest depth about 3 feet : in this basin there is a stone of 

 about 4 feet long, and 3 in breadth, always covered with water. From small 

 holes in the sides of this stone, at different depths under water, appear in full 



• The animal here described is a species of Actinia, and is the Actinia Calendula of Solander and 

 Ellis. 



f Author of the Nat. History of Barbadoes, folio, 1750, with many plates. 



