TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 6l 



are thereby cemented in the strongest manner, 

 and very difficult to break asunder. Petrified 

 bones are very seldom found in this stony mass, 

 but they are so much the more frequent in the 

 more recent bed of the conglomerate, or breccia, 

 immediately over it, which contains the same 

 rounded little grains of quartz, and the other in- 

 gredients, though of smaller grain, that is, the 

 rolled pieces, from the size of a hen's egg to that 

 of a bean, as well as a considerable quantity of the 

 light grey limestone, and shows more frequent ve- 

 sicular cavities. Besides the fossil bones, we found 

 chiefly shells of recent land-snails. They are of 

 the size of half a line to half an inch, partly whole, 

 partly broken. We observed most frequently and 

 clearly the Helix algira; several small white frag- 

 ments seem, however, to belong to other kinds, 

 perhaps even to sea-shells. The bones and teeth 

 of the various animals themselves, lie pretty much 

 calcined in the breccia, mingled together, not 

 lying in regular strata, without any trace of having 

 been rolled in the water, vqxj seldom entire, more 

 often sharp-splintery, without any connection or 

 orderly disposition of the parts, which naturally 

 belong together. Cuvier *, to whom we are in- 

 debted for a very accurate examination of these 

 petrifactions, has declared these bones to be those 

 of ruminating animals and gUres, and, as he con- 



* Rapport sur les Breches Osseuses, Annales du Mus. d'Hist. 

 Nat. torn. 13. 1809. 



