The Fossil Uuma)i Skeleton from Guadaloupe. 281 



that its presence in the rock on the coast had probably been 

 indicated by the projection of some of the more elevated parts 

 of the left arm. The bones, when first laid bare by the 

 Museum workman, were soft, and had a mouldering appear- 

 ance ; but after an exposure for some days to the air, they 

 acquired a considerable degree of hardness. Sir H. Davy 

 ascertained that they still contained part of their animal matter. 

 The rock is calcareous, with traces of phosphate of lime (found 

 by Dr. Thomson), and was said to be harder than statuary 

 marble. It has a yellowish-grey colour, and is formed of dis- 

 integrated white madrepore, with a few fine particles of red 

 madrepore, and occasional fragments of those corals; it con- 

 tained also the shell of a recent land snail [Helix acuta), and 

 the " magpie''' Trochus [T. pica), a common sea-shell of that 

 coast. 



This subject is also treated of by Baron^George Cavier, in 

 his famous TJiscours sur les Revolutions de la Surface du Globe 

 (Ed. 3, Paris, 8vo, 1825; originally published in connection 

 with his Becherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles, of which the best 

 edition is the 4th, 8vo, Paris, 1834, with 4to Atlas). After 

 referring to the skeleton obtained with so much labour by 

 General Ernouf, which came into the possession of the English, 

 he says that more recently General Donzelot had extracted 

 another example, now placed in the Cabinet du Poi (Jardin des 

 Plantes), at Paris, and of this he gives a description and figure. 

 It was imbedded in a softer sandstone, also containing a recent 

 land shell {Bulimus Giiadalupensis, Fer.) of a species still 

 inhabiting the island. The lower jaw is preserved, but the 

 skull is wanting, as in the former specimen. The other skele- 

 ton is extended in the usual position of the burial ; but this 

 has the knees doubled up, and seems to have been interred in 

 the sitting position customary among the Caribs. They may 

 have belonged to individuals of two different tribes. General 

 Ernouf explains the circumstances by reference to a tradition 

 of a battle and a massacre on this spot, of a tribe of Galibis 

 by the Caribs, about the year 1710. The name Galibi was said 

 to have belonged to an ancient tribe of Caribs of Guiana, but 

 according to a suggestion of Sir Joseph Banks, it may have 

 originated in the substitution of the letter I for r, in the word 

 Caribee. 



The only other article of any importance connected with 

 this subject is a Peport hj Dr. James Moultrie, on a Skull of 

 the Guadaloupe Fossil Human Ske]eton (communicated by Dr. 

 Shepard to Silliman's American Journal of Science and, Art, 

 vol. xxx. p. 361, New Haven, 1837). The remains consisted of 

 four cranial bones, a fragment of the lower jaw, and the lower 

 part of a thighbone, imbedded in a matrix exactly like a 

 vol. :i. — NO. IV. 



