Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/472

338 the detritus of shells and corals of Species that inhabit the neighbouring sea. Land-shells, fragments of pottery, stone arrow-heads, carved wooden ornaments, and detached human

bones, are occasionally found therein. The rock is therefore identical in its origin and composition with the calcareous and arenaceous limestones now forming on the seashores of many countries. As, for example, on the northern coast of Cornwall, where extensive tracts of drifted sand have been converted into sandstone by the slow infiltration of water, charged with calcareous and ferruginous matter. In intertropical climes, where the waters of the sea are often turbid with the detritus of shells and corals, the sand-drift, thrown up on the strand, undergoes a rapid transmutation of this nature. Along the shores of the Bermudas, limestone is produced by this process of sufficient hardness and durability for the construction of buildings, ere the inclosed shells have lost their colour and polish.

In the Isle of Ascension, which is frequented by turtles for the purpose of depositing their eggs in the loose sand, to be hatched by the heat of the sun, so rapidly does this lapidification take place, that groups of eggs are often found in the consolidated limestone, containing the hatched remains of the chelonian reptiles that had thus been entombed alive. This conglomerate consists of the water-worn detritus of corals and shells, with fragments of lava and scoriæ, rendered solid by infiltration of carbonate of lime.

These facts, if duly considered, will enable us to receive without surprise the result of an accurate investigation of all the circumstances relating to the fossil human skeletons of Guadaloupe; namely, that though imbedded in compact rock, and with the bones permeated by crystallized carbonate of lime, they are the relics of some individuals of a tribe of Gallibis, slaughtered by the Caribs, in a conflict that took place near the spot not more than 150 years ago; the