26 



and the most unremitting were required to 

 insure success: bank after bank felling the 

 increase of water was a constant impediment, 

 the extreme coldness of which benumbed the 

 v/orkmen. Each day required some new ex- 

 pedient, and the carpenter was always making 

 additions to the machinery : every day bones 

 and pieces of bones were found between six 

 and seven feet deep, but none of the most im- 

 portant ones. But the greatest obstacle to 

 the search was occasioned by the shell marie 

 which formed the lower stratum -, this, ren- 

 dered thin by the springs at the bottom, was, 

 by the weight of the whole morass, always 

 pressed upwards on the workmen to a certain 

 height 5 which, without an incalculable ex- 

 pence, it was impossible to prevent. Twenty- 

 five hands at high wages were alm.ost constantly 

 employed at work which was so uncomfortable 

 and severe, that nothing but their anxiety to 

 see the head, and particularly the under jaw, 

 could have kept up their resolution. The pa- 

 tience of employer and workmen was at length 

 exhausted, and the work relinquished without 

 obtaining those interesting parts, the v^ant of 

 which rendered it impossible to form a com- 

 plete skeleton. 



