DEAR SIR:--On Saturday last, some laborers engaged in digging a
well on the farm of W.C. Newell, near the village of Cardiff,
about 13 miles south of this city, discovered, lying at about three feet
below the surface of the earth, what they supposed to be the
"petrified body" of a human being, of colossal size. Its length
is ten feet and three inches, and the rest of the body is
proportionately large. The excitement in this locality over the
discovery is immense and unprecedented. Thousands have visited
the locality within the last three days, and the general opinion
seems to be that the discovery was the "petrified body" of a human
being.

I spent most of yesterday and to-day, at the location of the
so-called "FOSSIL MAN," and made a survey of the surroundings of
the place where this wonderful curiosity was found. On a careful
examination, I am convinced that it is not a fossil, but was cut
from a piece of stratified sulphate of lime, (known as the Onondaga
Gypsum.) If it were pulverized or ground, a farmer would call it
plaster. It was quarried, probably, somewhere in this county,
from our Gypsum beds. The layers are of different colors--dark
and light. The statue was evidently designed to lie on its back,
or partially so, and represents a dead person in a position he
would naturally assume when dying. The body lies nearly upon the
back, the right side a little lower; the head leaning a little
to the right. The legs lie nearly one above the other; the feet
partially crossed. The toe of the right foot, a little lower,
showing plainly, that the statue was never designed to stand erect
upon its feet. The left arm lies down by the left side of the body,
the forearm and hand being partially covered by the body. The
right hand rests a short distance below the umbilicus, the little