231 



ed a great portion of this time buried beneath rubbish, 

 or the surface of the earth, and therefore not subject to 

 the operation of the agents, which are supposed to pro- 

 mote the decomposition of rocks. If this plea be ad- 

 mitted, it establishes, incontestibly, a very important 

 fact, viz : that the decomposition of rocks beneath the 

 surface of the earth, is not promoted by any chemical 

 agent, formed by the decomposition of vegetable or 

 other matter upon the surface of the earth. Otherwise, 

 in all probability, those inscriptions must have been 

 totally effaced. 



In the present instance, however, it is not necessary, 

 to confine our views to the inscriptions discovered at 

 the Bagneres de Luchon. Let us examine that which 

 was found at La Pene d'Escot, as reported by M. le 

 Roi, Engineer, &c. 



This inscription is represented as being sculptured 

 on a lime stone rock, of which kind this part of the 

 mountain is composed ; and by the side of the road 

 leading into Spain, through the forest du Pact, and 

 which road is said to have been cut by Julias Cesar : 

 since whose time, (being more than 18 hundred years,) 

 this inscription has remained exposed to all the vicis- 

 situdes of time and temperature, without a single letter 

 being effaced, as is implied by the language of the 

 author, who says, ^ les restes frun inscription en par- 

 tie effacee par le terns."* From these circumstances 

 then, the inference is very obvious and plain, that in- 



* Mineral des Pyrennees, page 80. 



