Copy 1, Volume 1

A residence at Constantinople, during a period including the commencement, progress, and termination of the Greek and Turkish Revolutions / By the Rev. R. Walsh.

  • Walsh, R. (Robert), 1772-1852.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A residence at Constantinople, during a period including the commencement, progress, and termination of the Greek and Turkish Revolutions / By the Rev. R. Walsh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    52/458 (page 22)
    cavity it had made, and capable of being detached in sepa¬ rate valves ; and I was informed by a gentleman who had collected a museum from the rock, in which he had several such specimens, that it was not uncommon. That a marine shell should be thus found nearly two thousand feet above its native element, as complete as when the animal was alive, and apparently in the act of performing what is known to he a curious operation in its natural history, is perhaps one of the most striking proofs on record that the sea had once submerged the mountain. In a deep fissure lower down were other organic remains, but evidently of a very recent date. An agglomerated mass was formed of ferru- ginous, calcareous matter, which had attained considerable induration. It was very heterogeneous, consisting of shells, spar, and bones, all in a perfectly organized state, particu¬ larly the bones, which were not at all changed in shape or substance, but susceptible of being scraped with a knife on the surface, though the mass that united them together was as hard as marble. They were supposed to be washed down by the violent rains, and left in the fissures with water, where, by the deposit of calcareous matter, they were firmly united by a brief process, which is seen going on every day at the Dripping Well at Knarcsborough, anti similar places in England. In the specimens I found, the bones were principally those of fowl, and were probably the remains of parties of pleasure, who had brought their dinner to some of the magnificent views on the summit of the rock, from whence they were carried down by the tor¬ rents, and received into the first open fissure. This, you will say, is not a very remote, nor a very dignified cause for a curious natural object; but I am satisfied many such might be with truth assigned for effects which have puzzled philosophers.