Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/473

Rh sand of the sea-shore, in which the slain were interred, having subsequently become indurated by the process above described.

Fossil human skeletons have also been found in solid calcareous tufa, near the river Santa, in Peru. Bones belonging to some scores of individuals were discovered in travertine, containing fragments of marine shells, which retained their original colour; yet this bed of stone is covered by a deep vegetable soil, and forms the face of a hill, crowned with brushwood and large trees.

Edifices.—The changes which are continually taking place in the relative level of the land and water from the subsidence of extensive tracts of country at one period, and their subsequent elevation, are phenomena so well known, that I need not dwell upon the subject; and I will therefore only remind the archæologist of the inexhaustible treasures of past ages, which must sooner or later be exposed to view, in the deposits that have been formed during the human epoch.

Nor can it be regarded as improbable, that in the beds of the present seas, the edifices and works of nations, whose history is altogether unknown to existing generations, are entombed and preserved. The exquisite stanzas of Mrs. Hemans, on the hidden "Treasures of the deep," are as true as they are beautiful:—

In connexion with this topic, I would refer to the engulfing of buildings, and even entire cities, by the effects of earth- quakes and volcanic eruptions; of which the catastrophe that overwhelmed Stabiæ, Herculaneum, and Pompeii, affords an illustration never to be forgotten; for after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, the city of Pompeii was dis- interred from its silent tomb, in that marvellous state of conservation, so graphically described by one of our most