446 Geological Society. 



the great gavial ; and a crocodile resembling Crocodilus vulgaris. Of 

 the former there are portions of the lower jaw and several vertebrae j 

 of the latter, there is the anterior termination of the lower jaw, which 

 must have belonged to a very large individual. 



The specimens, in general, do not appear to have undergone any 

 mineral change, with the exception of being abundantly penetrated 

 with iron, and are very brittle. This last circumstance, arising from 

 the loss of their animal gluten, indicates great antiquity, and that they 

 have not been imbedded in any very compact soil ; unlike the teeth 

 of the mastodon of the Ohio, which lie in a strong blue clay, and have 

 almost as much animal matter as is to be found in a recent tooth. 



The bones are almost in every instance broken ; and from the 

 firmness of texture of most of them, the direction and cleanness of the 

 fracture, and the sharpness of its edges, the injury, which must have 

 been the result of an immense power operating with sudden violence, 

 appears to have taken place at the period, or very soon after the 

 period, of the destruction of the animal. 



A paper was next read " On a collection of vegetable and animal 

 remains, and rocks, from the Burmese Country, presented to the 

 Geological Societv by J. Crawfurd, Esq," by the Rev. W. Buckland, 

 D.D. V.P.G.S. F.R.S. &c. 



Mr. Crawfurd collected these specimens during his voyage up the 

 Irawadi in a steam-boat, on an embassy to Ava, in the latter part of 

 the year 1 826. The author considers them to be of high importance, 

 as affording an answer to the curious, and till now undecided ques- 

 tion, whether there be, or be not, in the southern regions of Asia, any 

 remains of fossil quadrupeds analogous to those which are found so 

 widely dispersed in the diluvium of northern Asia, and of Europe and 

 America. 



The evidence which Mr. Crawfurd has imported, consists of several 

 chests full of fossil wood and fossil bones, and of specimens of the 

 strata that are found along the course of the Irawadi, from Prome up 

 to Ava, being a distance of nearly 500 miles. The greater part of the 

 fossil wood is beautifully silicified ; other specimens of it are calca- 

 reous j they are mostly portions of large trees, both monocotyledo- 

 nous and dicotyledonous, and were found along the whole valley of 

 the Irawadi from Ava to Prome. The bones were all collected from 

 a small district near some wells of petroleum, about halfway between 

 these towns, and on the left bank of the river. From Mr. Cliffs exa- 

 mination, it appears, that although we have among them no remains 

 of fossil elephants, we have the same fossil pachydermata that are 

 found associated with elephants in Europe 5 namely, rhinoceros, 

 hippopotamus, mastodon, and hog. We have also two or three spe- 

 cies of ruminantia resembling the ox, antelope and deer, with the 

 addition of the gavial and alligator, and two freshwater tortoises, 

 namely, trionyx and emys. 



The teeth of the mastodon belong to two unknown species of that 

 genus, both of them approaching in size to the largest elephant. Mr. 

 Clift has designated them by the names of Mastodon latidens and 

 M. elpphanloides. The teeth arc from animals of all ages 5 and there 



are 



