Valley of Oodipoor. 277 



resemblance between such beds and many of the kunkur deposits 

 was occasionally exceedingly striking. Deposits formed under 

 such circumstances we will naturally expect to find much inter- 

 mixed with foreign matter, such as sand, gravel, rolled pebbles, 

 &c. It must at the same time be borne in mind, that mineral 

 springs frequently carry matter from beneath upwards ; and to 

 this source, perhaps, may occasionally be attributed the foreign 

 ingredients of kunkur. 



The absence, or rather great apparent scarcity, of organic re- 

 mains in the kunkur beds, is a somewhat perplexing circum- 

 stance; but there are many phenomena attending the occur- 

 rence of feuch bodies, which have hitherto been kept perfectly 

 unexplained. The process by which, in many cases, the origi- 

 nal materials composing them has been removed, and in its 

 place a substance of an entirely different nature substituted, is 

 as yet unknown ; and, before we presume to reason upon a sub- 

 ject of so difficult a nature, we must he content to wait till such 

 time as facts have been substituted for conjectures. In the 

 above particular the kunkurs are similarly circumstanced to the 

 magnesian limestones ; and if Mr Ly ell's opinion in regard to 

 the origin of the latter be correct, the scarcity of organic re- 

 mains in the kunkur, supposing the fact to be fully established, 

 will present no obstacle to the adoption of the view which I 

 have taken of the subject. 



Sowerby, with a kindness and liberality for which I cannot be too grateful, 

 has examined minutely a collection of these remains, which I placed in his 

 hands for the purpose. The most important result of this examination he 

 communicates to me in the following words: — *' All the shells which can 

 positively be referred to a genus among your fossils are marine. Among 

 them are Lenticulites and JRatalites, such as occur in the London clay ; and 

 in the same masses, are at least two, perhaps three, species of a genus of crus- 

 taceous animals, which are no way to be distinguished from Cypris." The 

 above discovery ought to make us exceedingly cautious in drawing conclu- 

 sions from solitary or ill-ascertained facts. The occurrence of remains of 

 Cypris in the "VVealden clays have been made the basis of a theory, upon what 

 slender grounds, may be imagined from the fact, that the so-called Cypris of 

 the Wealden " cannot be distinguished from a marine genus (Cytherina 

 Lam.), in which the animal alone affords the generic character." An ac- 

 count of the deposits in which these remains were discovered, 1 hope to be 

 enabled, at no distant period, to draw out, when the result of Mr Sowerby's 

 valuable researches shall, with his permission, be communicated. 



