ii8 Mr. Konig on a fossil human Skeleton 
made the least progress towards a petrified state. Most of 
the ivory employed in Russia is derived from the tusks of the 
fossil extinct species of elephant ; and even the osseous re- 
mains of the plaister quarries of Paris, according to Vauoue- 
lin's analysis, have yielded animal matter. Shells also may, 
for a considerable lapse of time, escape the influence of petri- 
fying causes ; a remarkable instance of which we liave in the 
calcareous rock of Maestricht, which, together with the re- 
mains of extinct species even of amphibious animals, encloses 
shells but very little altered from their original state. 
The attention of geologists being now directed towards this 
object, it may be expected that a scientific examination of the 
circumstances under which this limestone occurs, will not fail 
ere long to fix its age, and assign to it the place it is to occupy 
in the series of rocks. All our present information respecting 
the grande terre of Guadaloupe amounts to this, that it is a flat 
limestone country, derived principally from the detritus of 
zoophytes, with here and there single hills {mornes) composed 
of shell limestone ; while Guadaloupe properly so called, se- 
parated from the other part by a very narrow channel of the 
sea, has no trace of limestone, and is entirely volcanic. It is 
the opinion of father Labat, who is followed by Buffon, that 
the grande terre, of a far more recent origin than the other 
part of Guadaloupe, was originally a shoal covered with 
corals, which emerged from the deep in consequence of the 
retreat of the sea. Others, who have visited those parts, such 
as Messrs. Peyre, Hapel, Amic, &c. find in the irregularity, 
of stratification and the tumultuous manner, in which, as they 
tell us, the shells are dispersed in the rocks composing the 
grande terre, a strong indication, that t!)is portion of the island 
