Petrifactions. 
©fit well defined. Of the os facrum, the fuperior por¬ 
tion only is diftindl ; it is difunited from the lad vertebra 
and the ilium, and driven upwards. The left os ilium is 
nearly complete; but lhattered, and one of the fragments 
depreffed below the level of the reft : the offa pubis, though 
well defined, are gradually loft in the mafs of the ftone. 
On the right fide the os innominatum is completely Ihat- 
tered, and the fragments are funk ; but towards the ace¬ 
tabulum, part of its internal cellular ftruflure is difcerni- 
ble. The thigh-bones and the bones of the leg of the 
right fide are in good prefervation ; but, being confider- 
ably turned outwards, the fibula lies buried in the ftone, 
and is not feen. The lower part of the femur of this fids 
is indicated only by a bony outline, and appears to have 
been diftended by the compact limeftone that fills the ca¬ 
vities both of the bones of the leg and thigh, and to the 
expanfion of which thefe bones probably owe their pre- 
fent lhattered condition. The lower end of the left thigh¬ 
bone appears to have been broken and loft in the opera¬ 
tion of detaching the block ; the two bones of the leg, 
however, on this fide, ace nearly complete; the tibia was 
fplit almoft the whole of its length a little below the ex¬ 
ternal edge, and the fiffure, being filled up with lime- 
ftone, now prefents itfelf as a dark-coloured ftraight line. 
The portion of the ftone which contained part of the 
bones of the tarfus and metatarfus was unfortunately 
broken ; but the feparate fragments are preferved. The 
whole of the bones, when firft laid bare, had a mouldering 
appearance, and the hard furrounding ftone could not be 
detached, without frequently injuring their furface ; but, 
after an expofure for lome days to the air, they acquired 
a confiderable degree of hardnefs.” 
Sir H. Davy, who fubjedted a fmall portion of the 
bones to chemical analyfis, found that they contained 
phofphat of lime, proving the prefence of animal matter. 
Mr. Kcenig does not pretend to guefs the age of this 
foil'd fkeleton ; but fir Jol’eph Banks, w'hofe experience 
and obfervations are more extenfive, confiders it as of a 
very modern formation. Other foffil bones have been 
found in the fame vicinity; and calcareous matter, or 
rocks, continue forming there. This circumftance feems 
to fandlion the opinion of the learned prefident; and 
M. de Luc has even attempted to fix the precife date of the 
formation of this curiofity. His conjectures are addreffed 
to the editor of the Monthly Magazine, as follows. 
“The fadl that Guadaloupe is a volcanic ifland, isatteft- 
ed by all the defcriptions we have of it, and it is what ex- 
lains a part of our phenomenon. That ifland was firft 
ifcovered by Columbus, who gave it that name from 
fome refemblance to -a mountain of Spain ; his landing 
wds oppofed by the natives, and efpecially by the women, 
who ufed bows and arrows ; but the fire-arms of the 
Spaniards foon fubdued them; however, they did not 
form there any fettlement. It was only in June 1635, 
that a firft colony of Europeans fettled there ; they were 
Frenchmen belonging to Dieppe, rive hundred and fifty 
in number: at their firft landing, the natives (Caribs) 
ufed them with hofpitality; but thefe men behaved fo ill 
to them, that they were llarved; they had not carried 
with them a fufficient quantity of provilions; and, as they 
plundered the natives, inftead of aiking with civility what 
they wanted from them, they retired to a remote part 
of the ifland unknown to the invaders. We know, there¬ 
fore, that the ifland of Guadaloupe was inhabited at the 
time when it was difcovered by Europeans ; and it was pro¬ 
bably before that difcovery, that fome of the natives, fall¬ 
ing into the lea, were enveloped by the growing madre¬ 
pores. We are alfo acquainted with a caule of their fall¬ 
ing in that manner. The inhabitants of the Ihores lived 
probably by filhing, and fome were there fuffocated. It 
is recorded by the celebrated traveller, Labat, that the fea 
on that coaft is fometimes fo hot as to boil eggs ; and that, 
in moving the land with a ftick, a ftrong fmel! of lulphur 
Is perceived. 
Such is very probably the caufc of fome of the natives 
Vql. XV. Mo, 1062. 
PETRIFACTIONS. 521 
falling from the fliore into the fea, before Guadaloupe 
was in poffelfion of Europeans ; they-fell on madrepores, 
and were enveloped by them. The formation of madre¬ 
pores is a phenomenon common to the coaft of all the 
iflands of that fea; and, with relpect to the time eiapfed 
fince the Ikeletons were depofited into that calcareous 
fubftance, we mull recur to what is known of its growth. 
On this objedt, I have quoted (page 284 of the third vo¬ 
lume of my Geological Travels, firft publilhed in Lon¬ 
don) the accounc given by Denon in his Travels in 
Egypt, in which he defcribes the rapid progrefs of 
thefe madrepores in the Red Sea; they are the work of 
fea-polipi, which form a kind of rock called reef of coral ; 
and from known times in the annals of navigation, they 
have rendered the accefs of the coafts of the Red Sea dan¬ 
gerous, and have even filled up fome of its ports. This, 
therefore, being the nature of the calcareous Jubilance on 
which the unfortunate inhabitants of the Ihores of Gua¬ 
daloupe fell into the fea by being fuffocated, it did not 
require much time for the madrepores to envelope them 
completely. It appears alfo that the lea-polipi fed on the 
decaying corpfes, and left their bones quite bare; fince 
the madrepore-work of thefe animals is immediately ap¬ 
plied to the bones; they alfo cover every hard body which 
happens to fall or flowly move over them ; and thus it is 
that fome bivalve-lhells, the motion of which over bodies 
is very flow, have been alfo enveloped.” 
2. Anthropolithus partialis, the cranium, or other bones. 
Thefe are laid to have been found in France, at no great 
diftance from Rheims. In a cavern, in the Mendip-hiils. 
of our own country, fome human bones have been found 
invefted with ftaladiite; but they feem to be but of mo¬ 
dern exiltence. M. Cuvier however afferts, that, among 
the bones found in a foflil Hate, thofe of the human fpecies 
have never been dilcovered. Several fpecimens which 
paffed for being remains of the latter kind, Cuvier him- 
l’elf carefully examined; and the judgment of fo able a 
naturalift mull be held as almoft decifive. The foflil bones 
which Spallanzani brought from the ifland of Cerigo, are 
of that number: and M. Cuvier has no difficulty in af¬ 
firming, that not a Angle fragment among them ever be¬ 
longed to a human lkeleton. He pronounces the fame 
fentence on the lpecimen which Scheuchzer called Homo 
diluvii tejlis. 
Zoolithus.— The body of fome animal of the order 
mammalia, or its parts, changed into a foflil Jubilance. 
Of this genera there are enumerated thirteen fpecies. 
1. Zoolithus turcofa, or the teeth: hardilh, and of a 
bluilh-green colour. Thefe have been found in the cop¬ 
per-mines of Cumberland, in Perfia, Siberia, Bohemia, 
France, Germany, &c. and are held in great eftimation by 
the inhabitants of the Eall. Their colour is greeniih, 
with a tinge of blue, which, after long expofure to the 
air, becomes a dirty yellow brown or blackifli, opaque, 
hard, adhering a little to the tongue, and admitting fome 
degree of polish and lullre; their colour feems to be ac¬ 
quired by the oxydes pf iron or copper. 
2. Zoolithus olleolithus ; or the bones becoming a cal¬ 
careous Jubilance. Thefe have been found in Great Bri¬ 
tain, and many parts of the continent, converted into 
limeftone. 
5. Zoolithus fimiae, or the entire lkeleton of an ape. 
Found in the year 1733, at Henneburg, near Gluckforun 
in Germany, imbedded in bituminous marl, impregnated 
with copper. 
4. Zoolithus rhinocerotis, or petrified bones of the 
rhinoceros. From various comparilons of the foflil bones 
of the rhinoceros, collected from very different regions, 
it relults, that the head of the foflil fpecies is not only 
much larger, abfolutely, but that it is alfo much longer 
in proportion to the height of the limbs; and, confe- 
quently, that the general form of the animal mull have 
been very different from that of the now-living Species. 
A large quadruped, then, of a fpecies unknown at the pre- 
fcut day, is thus found buried, M. Cuvi&r obierves, in 
K numerous 
MINERALOGY. 
