39 



specimens of which I have brought with me : 

 they are in strange and unknown figures, and 

 appear to be generally marine productions, a^ 

 various species of coral and sea-urchins were 

 hkewise found among them. Two revolutions 

 in nature must have contributed to this effeft ; 

 one in which the petrifactions were formed by a 

 copious incrustation of calcareous matter, in a 

 semifluid state ; and a subsequent one, in which 

 the stones have been broken to pieces, worn into 

 a round shape, and finally deposited, an hundred 

 miles from the sea, and many hundreds from 

 those seas where corals are produced. 



Here a question of some importance arises ; 

 could this animal have been destroyed in a de- 

 luge, which must have been sudden and power- 

 ful enough to produce those great efi^ects ? And 

 was the entire race of them thereby rendered ex- 

 tinct? Certain it is that they are no where to 

 be found, nor their footsteps traced. Among 

 the Indians of North America, from nation to 

 nation, the tradition has spread and prevails, 

 which relates their former existence and their 

 sudden extirpation. I shall here give a tradi- 

 tion, said to be in the very terms of a Shawanee 

 Indian, as published in Winterbotham's History 

 of America, which appears in an embellished 



F 2 



