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TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



to me <^that once a full barrel of newly discovered bones 

 was sent to Mr Clifford." He believes that the salt- 

 petre made there was chiefly sold to Mr Clifford. 



The room in which the bones are found is situated a 

 great distance from the entrance ; it is therefore not 

 probable that the animal came there alive : but if he came, 

 he must certainly have fallen into the excavation and 

 perished, because, as I have already observed, it requires 

 a ladder to descend into it. Nor is it probable that it 

 was dragged there by carnivorous animals ; I do not 

 believe that they would have dragged their prey for a 

 mile and more to devour it (I had penetrated the cave, 

 according to my guide, about 3 miles). It seems there- 

 fore that it was drifted in by the current which formed 

 these subterraneous fabrics, and that it is very probable 

 that the whole carcass was there, because we have frag- 

 ments of the extremities and of the pelvis.* These 

 bones were covered from 3 to 4 feet deep with the earth 

 from which the nitrate of lime for the preparation of 

 saltpetre is extracted. f Whether this must be consi- 



* Squire Fisk mentions in a letter to me, speaking of a large claw he sent to 

 the late Dr Barton : " Flakes had been scaled off at and near the point of the 

 claw, by which means it had evidently been shortened ; but its original length, 

 I am confident, was not less tiian 15 inches. It measured around the heel or 

 base of the ball, which was a bone of the most indurated kind, and well 

 preserved, 12 inches." 



t In a correspondence with Professor Reinwardt, of Leyden, an eminent ' 

 naturalist, and who no doubt investigated, during his residence in the East 

 Indies, the sources from which, in India, saltpetre is drawn, that philosopher 

 says, that it would be interesting to investigate the causes by which this salt 

 is produced in America; he seems of opinion that its origin must be attributed 

 to the decomposition of organised matter. I do not believe that saltpetre is 

 produced by the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter, in the caves 

 of the interior of America; they have already produced large quantities, and 

 still abound in that salt. I have been very attentive in investigating this 

 matter, and examining the materials vphich have been lixiviated, and those 

 that are yet in their unaltered state in the caves ; and I have always found 

 them more or less similar to the disintegration of the rocks in which the caves 

 were excavated, and somewhat analogous to the soil which is foiind in its 

 vicinity, making abstractions of the vegetable matter which is found in the 

 latter, and the first containing a larger proportion of carbonate of lime. J 



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