56 Account of the Fossil Bones discovered 



prevented by a chasm about forty feet deep, which it was im- 

 possible to descend without a ladder, so that the party was 

 obliged to return. 



The general direction of the branch which was now visited 

 is north-east, a course from which may be inferred the proba* 

 ble existence of a debouche in the opposite face of the rnoun^ 

 tain, an inference which is strengthened by the fact, that a 

 cold blast of air is sensibly felt in most parts of the cavern* 

 Perhaps the most remarkable appearances which offer them- 

 selves to notice in an examination, however cursory, of this 

 curious phenomenon, are the numerous fissures or openings, 

 which occur at various altitudes in the sides, and which seem 

 to form the entrances of new branches or ramifications, by 

 which the mountain should appear to be perforated in every 

 direction. 



A few days after Captain Fisher and his party returned. 

 Mr Ellis, accompanied by Mr Wardlaw and Lieutenant 

 White, visited this cave, and passed two days in it. They 

 slept in it, and examined the different courses, but they could 

 not advance so far in any of them as in the one whicli led to 

 the chasm. 



Art. XI. — Account of the Fossil Bones discovered on the left 

 bank of the Iraxvadi in Ava. * 



The tdllebtidri of fossil bones brought from Ava by Mr Craw- 

 ford is vei-y large, and consists of fossil bones, fossil shells, and 

 fossil wood. 



Of the fossil bones the most numerous and remarkable are 

 those of an animal about the size of a large elephant. In the 

 sketch given in your paper of the late mission to Ava these 

 m'e stated to be the bones of the mammoth. This is a mistake. 

 The mammoth is an extinct species of the elephant, differing 

 from the two living species, the African and Indian. The re- 

 mains of this animal have only been found in Europe, and 

 chiefly in Siberia. The Burman fossil bones are unquestion- 

 ably those of the mastodon, as may be clearly seen by com- 



* From the Cuhuita Government Geatette, March 21, 1827. See page Ifti ; 



