071 the left banJc of the Irawadi hi Ava. 59 



whole, it may be said, that the blocks appear too large to war- 

 rant a belief that it does. 



f^ii The fossil bones, as well as the shells and wood, are all 

 found superficially, or rather indeed upon the surface, for all 

 of them were more or less exposed. Notwithstanding this ex- 

 posure they have suffered very little decomposition. They 

 are not rolled or suffered from attrition, for their sharp edges 

 and processes are preserved with great distinctness, the infe- 

 rence from which is, that the individuals to whom they belong- 

 ed died, or were destroyed on the spot on which they are now 

 found. In one respect the bones differ essentially from all 

 fossil bones of which I have heard. They are complete petri- 

 factions, and all of them more or less deeply coloured with 

 iron. Their substance is siliceous, and some of them are so 

 hard as to strike fire with steel. This no doubt accounts in a 

 good measure for their perfect state of preservation. 



The wild quadrupeds of the neighbourhood at present are 

 a leopard, a cat, a deer, and the hog. The bones of these do 

 not seem to exist among the fossil remains, nor is there any 

 evidence of those of the elephant, or of any carnivorous ani- 

 mal. As amongst similar remains in other parts of the world, 

 not a vestige is to be discovered here of the human skeleton. 



I need hardly attempt the refutation of the idle notion which 

 has been entertained by many, that the fossil remains found 

 on the banks of the Irawadi have been generated by a petri- 

 fying quality in the waters of that river. Abundance of or- 

 ganic matter may be seen on the shores of the Irawadi, both 

 animal and vegetable, undergoing the common process of de- 

 composition as elsewhere. There can, I think, be no doubt 

 that the fossil bones, shells, and wood, are here, as similar re- 

 mains are admitted to be elsewhere, all the result of the last, 

 or one of the last, great catastrophes which changed the face 

 of the present globe. They are in fact the remains of a former 

 state of our world, when the greater number of the present races 

 of animals had no existence, and above all, before man was 

 called into existence. 



The collection is altogether both extensive and curious, and 

 the more worthy of attention, since it is, as far as I am aware, 

 the first of any moment that has ever been discovered in the 



