ARTIFICIAL STONE AS A BUILDING MATERIAL. 421 
southern corner being chipped away about two-fifths its height. The mean depres. 
■sions are at the north end 0.26 inch, at south end 0.19 inch, at west side 0.20 
inch, and at east side o.oi inch. They are observable^vertically^as well as hori- 
zontally. At the south end of the west side there is no depression perceptible ; 
while at the north end of the same side the depression is 0.20 inch, and on the 
south end, at different distances from east to west, the depressions are 0.08, 0.12 
and 0.14 inch. Upon all sides the coflfer is highly polished^over all these inequal- 
ities. Now, no one acquainted with the simplest means of working natural stone 
would look for these inequalities, and for the corresponding bulging out upon the 
inner surfaces which we find to exist. 
The square, the plummet, and the rule would have'done their,^perfect work 
before the polishing, and if the depressions had^been intentional, they would have 
been regular. Again, if we take the superficial outside measurements of the coffer, 
we find the same irregularity. On the east side near the^bottom we have a length 
of 90. 5 ; ten inches below the top, 90. 1 5 j on the top, 90. 20. On the west side near 
the bottom, 89.2; near the top, 89.95; at the top, 90.05; mean length, 90.01. At 
the north end near the bottom, 39.05 ; near the top, 38.7 ; at the top, 38.67. At 
south end near bottom, 38.8; near top, 38.6; at top, 38.5 ; mean width, 38.72. 
From all which we argue that the coffer was moulded in its present position from 
plastic material, but that it became thus slightly warped, or^shrunken, as it dried 
— in short, that it is of artificial stone, and not of "porphyry," of "black mar- 
ble," or of "a darkish variety of red and possibly syenitic granite," as has been 
variously asserted. 
Coming down to a later period and a little nearer home, we have in the city 
of Santo Domingo some of the most interesting historical monuments of this 
material. This is the oldest existing settlement by white^neny^n the New World, 
being founded by Bartolommeo Columbus in 1494. Although built on a solid 
limestone formation, the city is surrounded by a wall of artificial stone, eight feet 
thick, built (in 1506) oi mamposieria, " a composition of earth, powdered stone, 
and lime." Many of the more ancient houses and public buildings of the city, 
constructed of this material, are still standing and are remarkable for their solid- 
ity; the cathedral, especially, in which the remains of Columbus and his brother 
Bartolommeo reposed for two and a half centuries, which was begun in 151 2 and 
finished in 1540; while on the opposite bank of the river the so-called'" Castle of 
of Columbus," a fortified stone house subsequently built by^Diego Columbus, the 
son of the great admiral, is in ruins. ■ 
The Vanne Aqueduct, in France, is another example. Gen. Gillmore char- 
acterizes this as " the most important and costly work that has" yet been under- 
taken in this material," being thirty-seven miles in length. This aqueduct, which 
supplies the city of Paris with water, traversing the forest of Fontainbleau its 
entire length, comprises two and a half to three miles of arches (some of them as 
much as fifty feet in height), eleven miles of tunnels, and eight or ten bridges 
(from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five feet span) for the bridging of 
-rivers, canals, and highways. The smaller arches are half circles, and are gener- 
VII-27 
