assumed in the petrifaction of any organic body. Further
peculiarities of the Onondaga gypsum are very noticeable in the
block, and among them is the peculiar style of decomposition
by which the whole lower part of the figure is affected, as also
one side of its head. Here the soluble earths, with any portions
of carbonate of lime, have been dissolved away, and the pure
granular sulphate (snowy gypsum) remains, standing up with ragged,
uneven, cavernous surfaces, which is a feature very noticeable
everywhere in weather-worn fragments of this rock. This
decomposition or rotting of the lower side of the left leg gives
a very vivid semblance to the corruption of actual flesh, and has
doubtless had much to do with the ready reception which the
"petrifaction" theory has found among the mass of visitors--even
including many men of intelligence and general education. If such
persons will refer to works which treat of petrifaction in all
their various kinds of transformation and in all the thousand
genera and species of fossil organisms, they will find that
although bones, shells, and the hard parts of animals, changed to
stone, yet preserving their original outlines, are of constant
occurrence, yet there is not a single instance on record of fossil
flesh; of the fat, muscle or sinew of man or beast changed into
stone or into any substance resembling stone. To a person
acquainted with the nature of petrifaction, the slow substitution
of mineral for animal matter, particle by particle, the reason
why humor of other flesh does not undergo the same change will be
apparent. This is truly not entirely in accordance with popular
belief, nor with the ever-recurring stories in our public journals.
"A fish nearly a foot long, petrified to solid stone" has lately
been cited in your columns as another instance of the petrifactions
of the Onondaga Valley. I visited this yesterday at the Museum