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Ch. XLA^II.] HIS AVOEKS IN SUEAQUEOUS STEATxi. 



549 



tlie bark of tlie hollow reed-like trees converted into coal^ and 

 the central cavity filled with sandstone, so might we trace 

 the outline of a ship in coal ; Avhile in the indurated mud, 

 sandstone, or limestone, filling the interior, we might dis- 

 cover instruments of human art, ballast consisting of rocks 

 foreign to the rest of the stratum, and other contents of the 



ship. 



Submerged metallic siibstances. — Many of the metallic sub- 

 stances which fall into the waters probably lose, in the course 

 of ages, the forms artificially imparted to them ; but under 

 certain circumstances these may be preserved for indefinite 

 periods. The cannon enclosed in a calcareous rock, drawn 

 up from the delta of the Rhone, which is now in the museum 



Montpell 



metallic matter 



removed, and had entered into new combinations, still a 

 mould of its original shape would have been left, correspond- 



» 



impressions 



which all the carbonate of lime has been subtracted. About 

 the year 1776, says Mr. King, some fishermen, sweeping for 

 anchors in the Gulf-stream (a part of the sea near the Downs), 

 drew up a very curious old swivel gun, nearly eight feet in 

 length. The barrel, which was about five feet long, was of 

 brass 5 but the handle by which it was traversed was about 

 three feet in length, and the swivel and pivot on which it 



turned were of iron. 



formed 



crustations of sand converted into a kind of stone, of ex- 

 ceedingly strong texture and firmness; whereas round the 

 barrel of the gun, except where it was near adjoining to the 



iron, there were no such incrustations, the greater part of 



it being clean, and in good condition, just as if it had still 

 continued in use. In the incrusting stone, adhering to it on 

 the outside, were a number of shells and corallines, ^ just as 

 they are often found in a fossil state.' These were all so 

 strongly attached, that it required as much force to separate 

 them from the matrix ' as to break a fragment off any hard 

 rock.'^ 



In the year 1745, continues the same writer, the Fox man- 



* Phil. Trans., 1779. 



