Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/110

 The early colonists were very much puzzled by finding in Virginia large blocks resembling English millstones, but which in composition were neither metal nor ordinary masses of rock. These blocks were enormous conglomerates of marine shells, but as they were so far from the shore, their origin seemed to be veiled in obscurity. Here and there were observed extensive banks of scallops and oyster-shells, which lay unopened and as thickly grouped as if they had formed at one time a part of the flooring of the sea. Many years after the foundation of Jamestown, the remains of unknown animals of huge dimensions were brought to light in digging below the surface of the earth; these were the bones of the mastodon, or some huge sea monster, which had been deposited in the original sediment, and probably caused even greater wonder and speculation among the colonists than the accumulation of shells in the interior of the country.