IN STRATA OF RECENT FORMATION. 87 



no human remains having as yet been found in conjunction 

 with those of extinct animals, may be alleged in confirma- 

 tion of the hypothesis that these animals lived and died be- 

 fore the creation of man. 



The occasional discovery of human bones and works of 

 art in any stratum, within a few feet of the surface, affords 

 no certain evidence of such remains being coveal with the 

 matrix in which they arc deposited. The universal practice 

 of interring the dead, and frequent custom of placing various 

 instruments and utensils in the ground with them, offer a 

 ready explanation of the presence of bones of men in situa- 

 tions accessible for the purposes of burial. 



The most remarkable and only recorded case of human 

 skeletons imbedded in a solid limestone rock, is that on the 

 shore of Guadaloupe.* There is, however, no reason t(» 

 consider these bones to be of high antiquity, as the rock in 

 which they occur is of very recent formation, and is com- 

 posed of agglutinated fragments of shells and corals which 

 inhabit the adjacent water. Such kind of stone is frequently 



* One of these skeletons is preserved in the British Museum, and has 

 been described by Mr. KOnig, in the Phil. Trans, for 1814, vol. civ. p. 101. 

 According to General Ernouf, (Lin. Trans. 1818, vol. xii. p. 53,) the rock 

 in which the human bones occur at Guadaloupe, is composed of consoli- 

 dated sand, and contains also shells, of species now inhabiting the adjacent 

 sea and land, together with fragments of pottery, arrows, and hatchets of 

 stone. The greater number of the bones are dispersed. One entire skele- 

 ton was extended in the usual position of burial; another, which was in u 

 .softer sandstone, seemed to have been buried in the sitting position cu.stom. 

 ary among the Caribs. The bodies thus differently interred, may Iiave be- 

 longed to two different tribes. General Ernouf also explains the occurrence 

 of the scattered bones, by reference to a tradition of a battle and massacre 

 on this spot, of a tribe of Gallibis by the Cai-ibs, about the year 1710. 

 These scattered bones of the massacred Gallibis were probably covered, b}' 

 the action of the sea, with sand, wiiich soon after became converted to solid 

 stone. 



On the west coast of Ireland, near Killery Harbour, a sand bank, which is 

 surrounded by the sea at high water, is at this time employed by the natives 

 as a place of interment. 



