posed, to the amount of perhaps one third, or one fourth, of the whole mass, of the shells of oysters, escallops, muscles, and periwinkles.

At Cherry-valley there is a mass of limestone, horizontally stratified, lying on the surface, to the extent of from three to four acres; embosoming an immense number of oyster shells. This fact I had from the Hon. Timothy Edwards, Esq. of Stockbridge.

In Virginia, at a great distance from the ocean, and westward of the Blue Ridge, is a tract of forty thousand acres, covered with oyster shells. Sea-mud also was found in the same region by General Lincoln.

In the neighborhood of Payta in Peru, six hundred feet above the high-water mark, oyster shells are found in such quantities as to furnish all the lime, used by the neighboring inhabitants, more easily than it can be obtained by raking them from the harbor below; where, nevertheless, they abound.

It is perfectly well known, that all these shells are the productions of the living fish only. To remove every suspicion, however, which may exist in any mind, that these shells may have had some other origin, it is to be observed, that among them in some places the shells of the pearl oyster have been dug up; and in them the pearls also; which nothing but that oyster has ever produced.

It is well known to naturalists, that the purpura and pholades have a long, pointed proboscis, which serves them as a drill to pierce the shells of the living fish, on which they feed. Shells,

thus pierced, are dug up in the earth: an incontestable proof, that they have heretofore contained living fish.

Petrified fish have been found, in many places in Switzerland, Asia, and Africa. In the mountains of Castravan, a great number of fishes, of different sorts have been found between the lamine of stratified white stone, extremely flattened; yet so well preserved, that the minutest marks of their fins, and scales, are distinguishable, and the species easily discriminated, to which each belongs. Several fish found in one of the mountains of France, are now to be seen in the mineralogical cabinet, deposited in Yale College by Col.

Gibbs. The laminated stone, by which they were compressed, is carbonate of lime. When the lamina were separated, each fish was divided, longitudinally, into two nearly equal parts, one of which adheres to each of the lamina. These specimens were taken from their native beds by the direction, and immediately under the eye, of this gentleman.

The teeth of sharks, and of other fishes, have in various instances been found in the jaws, worn smooth at the extremities, and therefore certainly used by the living animal.

These exuviæ have been found also deeply buried in the ground,in instances innumerable.

In Holland they have been found an hundred feet below the surface; and in the Alps and the Pyrenean mountains, under beds of stone, piled over them a thousand feet.

In the autumn of 1776, I went from Boston to Hull, in com

pany with General Lincoln and several other gentlemen. A number of workmen were at that time employed in digging a well for the use of a fort, which had been begun at that place. The hill, in which it was dug, was not less than 150 feet high. When I was on the spot, the well had been dug to the depth of 60 feet: and from this depth the workmen had thrown out a great number of quahaug, or round clam shells, in a perfect state of preservation. These shells were, therefore, at least 90 feet above high water mark, and sixty feet below the surface. The earth, throughout the whole of this depth, was of the kind, called the hard pan; usually so hard as to be dug only with a pick-axe.

In Georgia there is an immense bed of oyster shells, commencing in the south bank of Savannah river, at the distance of about ninety miles from the ocean, and running across the breadth of the State, several feet beneath the surface.

Generally, marine productions, of many kinds, are found wherever mankind have explored the bowels of the earth, whether on continents or on islands. As they cannot exist without the aid of sea water; it is certain, that this water has been at some time or other wherever they are found. But they exist throughout the world. The waters of the ocean have, therefore, certainly been spread over the world.

Nor are even these all the kinds of monuments, which have been discovered within the surface of the globe. Mr. Parkin. son, in his Organic Remains of

a former world, has rendered it in the highest degree probable, that the coal mines, and the masses of various other combustible substances, are the relics of antediluvian forests, lodged by means of the deluge, in the places where they are now found. The evidence which supports this opinion must, however, be learned from the book itself, for it is incapable of being transcribed within a much less compass than that which is taken by the very respectable writer.

In the year 1462, Fulgosas or Fulgosi informs us, that some men working a mine near Berne in Switzerland found an old ship one hundred fathoms deep in the earth. Pairre Naxis gives an account of another instance of the same nature.

The Jesuit Newcombergus says, that near the port of Lima in Peru, some people working a gold mine, found an old ship on which were many characters very different from ours. Doctor Plott in his natural history of Staffordshire says, that the mast of a ship, with a pulley hanging to it, was found in one of the Greenland mountains.

Strabo relates in his Erst book, that the wrecks of ships have been found at the distance of three thousand furlongs, or 375 miles from the ocean.

At Gergenti, the ancient Agrigentum in Sicily, a few years since were found the bones of several persons of a gigantic stature, somewhat more than 170 feet below the surface of the earth. They were apparently entombed beneath structures of marble, built with huge blocks on which were engraved un

known characters. Capt. Allen of Bridgeport, in Connecticut, a man of unblemished reputation, who was on the spot, and an eyewitness of these curious facts,has published an account of them. In the National Intelligencer of December 7th, 1811, is the following article:

"A few days ago, in digging a well, by order of Col. Bissel, at Belle Fountaine, at the depth of forty feet, a tooth was found bearing a strong resemblance to that of a human being: what renders this more extraordinary is, that the place where the well is dug, is not the alluvion of any river, but the high land which borders the Missouri bottom, where the ground could not have undergone any change, by the gradual operation of natural causes for thousands of years. Before reaching this tooth, various strata of clay were dug through, and from the appear ance and situation of the place, it appears almost impossible that any subterraneous vein of watercould have passed through, which might have carried the tooth to that place from some other more exposed."

Mr. Whitehurst says, "I have been informed by the very best authority that two wells have been discovered in North America walled round with brick, according to the European method, and likewise that a plough has been found 60 feet deep by sinking a well for water.

"And we have had a recent instance of many coins being found beneath a large stone about four miles from Boston; one of which was lately presented to the Antiquarian Society. The coins are round and lettered on both VOL. IV. New Series.

sides, but whether in Arabian, Turkish,or Phænician characters, remains to be ascertained; so va rious are the opinions concerning them."

Note. The two last paragraphs have been inserted here for the purpose of inquiring whether there are any persons now living in this country who have any knowledge of these facts. As Mr. Whitehurst's book is quite a modern publication, it is not unreasonably believed that there may be persons still living, who are able to give the public further information concerning them; particularly that some of the inhabitants of Medford may be acquainted with the circumstances which attended the discovery of these coins. If such information can be given, it is solicited through the medium of the Panoplist.

The writer of this paper has another object in view in inserting these paragraphs. It is to make them the occasion of proposing to the public, and particularly to the friends of learning and science in Boston, the formation of an Antiquarian Society, the object of which to be to concenter all information concerning every thing which relates to the ancient state of America, and its original inhabitants. For want of some center of communication the various facts which have related to these subjects, so far as they have been hitherto discovered, have been imperfectly investigated, and to a great extent have been lost to the world. To preserve others from perishing in the same manner, nothing is wanting but a depot of intelligence concerning them. Had such a society

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