66 Notice regarding Fossil Remains found in Ava. 



longed died, or were destroyed, on tlie spot en 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 mea- 

 sure, for their perfect state of preservation. 



The wild quadrupeds of the neighbourhood, at present, are a 

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

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

 dence of those of the elephant, or of any carnivorous animal. 

 As amongst similar remains in other parts of the world, not/ji 

 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 petrifying 

 quality in the water of that river. Abundance of organic mat- 

 ter may be seen on the shores of the Irawadi, both animal and 

 vegetable, undergoing the common process of decomposition as 

 elsewhere. There can, I think, be no doubt that the fossil 

 bones, shells, and wood, are here, as similar remains are admit- 

 ted 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 

 East. 



Report made to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, upon 

 a Memoir by M. Constant Prevost, entitled An Eocaminatio7i 

 of the Geological Questicm, whetJier the Continents which we 

 ijiJtabit Imve been repeatedly submersed by the Sea. By 



Mess. CUVIEB & COEDIER, 



JL HE author, in the first place, endeavours to prove, that, 

 among the sedimentary and alluvial formations j there is no bed 



