148 



proved to belong to a later age than the TertiarifS of 

 Perim, viz., the Pliocene, The fossils of that district, 

 therefore, have no connection with the ones in question, 

 as Baron Hiigel supposed.* 



Major Fulljames was the next to visit the island, and 

 it is to him Ave are indebted for by far the greatest 

 amount of information we possess, both as to its physical 

 features and geological character. In a letter published 

 iu the Bengal Asiatic Society s Journal,'''\ he gives a full 

 description of the place. " On my arrival in this part cf 

 the country, in the month of April, I heard a report that 

 some bones, turned into stones, as the natives called them, 

 had been discovered on the Island of Perim, in the Gulf 

 of Cambay, and in latitude 21° 29'. I lost no time iu 

 going there to see if the report of fossil remains was 

 correct, and, although I do not pretend to be a geologist, 

 or to know much about fossil osteology, still I consider 

 myself most amply repaid by my first visit to the island, 

 for 1 obtained a most perfect specimen of the teeth of the 

 mastodon ; one also, I think, belongs to the pala3othe- 

 rium ; the femur vertebra;, and many other bones belong- 

 ing to mammiferous animals now extinct." * * * 

 Concluding, he sums up by saying — " I will here enume- 

 rate the varieties of specimens of fossil remains which 

 I think have been found. Teeth of mammoth. Mastodon, 

 Palaeotherium, Hippopotamus or Rhinoceros, and a number 

 of other large bones, one shell in siliceous sandstone, and 

 the half of a deer's foot," % * * * * 



From this time until 1845 nothing further was written 

 or published on the subject of Perim fossils. In the 

 month of June in that year, Mr. Albemarle Bettington, of 

 the Bombay Civil Service, communicated to the Royal 

 Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, an account 



* The bone beds of Pyetun and Rakasbowen, in the Dcccan, are of a Pliocene 

 nge also. + Vol v p. 289. 



