DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0045
REMARKABLE PETRIFACTIONS.
33
the west. Besides these, several shin and thigh-bones
were also got out whole, equally petrified. On some of
them was a brownish kind of skin, which on scratching crum-
bled like hard plaster, and shewed the bony parts in their ori-
ginal whiteness; the marrow was crystallized. Several sharp,
but crooked teeth, from two to five inches long, were like-
wise found, thought to have belonged to marine animals.
The opening hitherto made, continues the account, measures
but twenty feet in width, and ten in depth ; and as numbers are
daily crowding from this city, (Aix) and other places, to view
these curiosities, all further progress is postponed for a time •
i>ut it is the generally received opinion, that more discoveries
will be made, when they go to work anew, though the utmost
care will be necessary to get out entire what may be met with,
as the rock, which spreads itself a great way under the land, is
so very hard a substance. Thus an ample field for specula-
tion and conjecture is opened for the naturalist and virtuosi.
Ann. Reg. 1760, p. 78.
When the foundations of the city of Quebec, in Canada,
where dug up, a petrified savage was found among the last
beds to which the workmen proceeded. Although it was
impossible to form any judgment of the time at which this
man had been buried under the ruins, yet his quiver and ar-
rows were in good preservation.
In digging a lead mine in Derbyshire, in 1744, a human
skeleton was found among stag’s horns. It was impossible
to say how many ages this carcase had lain there.
In 1695, the entire skeleton of an elephant was dug up in
Thuringia, in Germany; and some time before, the petrified
skeleton of a crocodile was found in the mines of that
country.
About the beginning of the last century the curate of
Sleegarp, in the Swedish province of Schonen, and several of
his parishioners, digging turf in a drained marshy soil, found
VOL. IV. F
33
the west. Besides these, several shin and thigh-bones
were also got out whole, equally petrified. On some of
them was a brownish kind of skin, which on scratching crum-
bled like hard plaster, and shewed the bony parts in their ori-
ginal whiteness; the marrow was crystallized. Several sharp,
but crooked teeth, from two to five inches long, were like-
wise found, thought to have belonged to marine animals.
The opening hitherto made, continues the account, measures
but twenty feet in width, and ten in depth ; and as numbers are
daily crowding from this city, (Aix) and other places, to view
these curiosities, all further progress is postponed for a time •
i>ut it is the generally received opinion, that more discoveries
will be made, when they go to work anew, though the utmost
care will be necessary to get out entire what may be met with,
as the rock, which spreads itself a great way under the land, is
so very hard a substance. Thus an ample field for specula-
tion and conjecture is opened for the naturalist and virtuosi.
Ann. Reg. 1760, p. 78.
When the foundations of the city of Quebec, in Canada,
where dug up, a petrified savage was found among the last
beds to which the workmen proceeded. Although it was
impossible to form any judgment of the time at which this
man had been buried under the ruins, yet his quiver and ar-
rows were in good preservation.
In digging a lead mine in Derbyshire, in 1744, a human
skeleton was found among stag’s horns. It was impossible
to say how many ages this carcase had lain there.
In 1695, the entire skeleton of an elephant was dug up in
Thuringia, in Germany; and some time before, the petrified
skeleton of a crocodile was found in the mines of that
country.
About the beginning of the last century the curate of
Sleegarp, in the Swedish province of Schonen, and several of
his parishioners, digging turf in a drained marshy soil, found
VOL. IV. F