544 



IMBEDDING OF THE EEMAINS OF MAN AND 



XLV 



from rising again to the surface. The vessel often strikes 

 upon an uneven "bottom, and is overturned ; in wliicli case 



shingle, and rock, or the 



the 



ballast, consisting of sand, 



cargo, frequently composed of heavy and durable materials, 

 may be thrown down upon the carcasses. In the case of 

 ships of war, cannon, shot, and other warlike stores, may 

 press down with their weight the timbers of the vessel 



as 



they decay, and beneath these and the metaUic substances 

 the bones of man may be preserved. 



Poiver of human remains to resist decay. — There can be no 

 doubt that human remains are as capable of resisting decay 

 as are the harder parts of the inferior animals ; and I have 

 already cited tlie remark of Cuvier, that ^ in ancient fields of 

 battle the "bones of men have suffered as little decomposition 

 as those of horses which were buried in the same grave.' 

 {See above^ VoL I. p. 166.) In the delta of the Ganws bones 



of men have been found in digging a well at the depth of 90 



feet; 



->f 



but as that river frequently shifts its course and fills 



up its ancient channels^ we are not called upon to suppose 

 that these bodies are of extremely high antiquity, or that 

 they were buried when that part of the surrounding delta 



where they occur was first gained from the sea. 



Several skeletons of men, more or less mutilated, have 

 been found in the West Indies, on the northwest coast of 

 the main land of Guadaloupe, in a kind of rock which is 

 known to be forming daily, and v/hich consists of minute 

 fragments of shells and corals, incrusted with a calcareous 

 cement resembling travertin, by which also the different 

 grains are bound together. The lens shows that some of the 

 fragments of coral composing this stone still retain the same 

 red colour which is seen in the reefs of living* coral which 

 surround the island. The shells belong to species of the 

 neighbouring sea intermixed 

 which now live on the island, and 



with some terrestrial kinds 



them is the 



anion g 



Bidimus Guadaloupeiisis of Ferussac. The human skeletons 

 still retain some of their animal matter, and all their phos- 

 phate of lime. One of them, of which the head is wanting. 



»' 



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I 



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* Von Hoff, vol. i. p. 379. 



