F. E. a Reed— Fossils from JSfepaL 257 



in the name of the river is explained in an okl paper on the Ancient 

 Geography of India by Lieut. -Col. F. Wilford (Trans. Asiatic Soe. 

 Bengal, vol. xiv, 1822, p. 415), who states that the alternative name 

 for the Gandaca (= Gandak) is the Sallagramma, and he adds the 

 valuable and illuminating remark that the river is so called because 

 of the stone of that name found in its bed. This is of importance 

 because the ammonite-beai'ing concretions of precisely similar character 

 to those in this Wallich collection are known throughout India as 

 Salagrams, and are used as charms. Thus Everest ^ figured an 

 ammonite of this type from the Himalayas in 1833 with the note 

 that such are the Salagrams of the Hindoo temples ; and Mr. H. J. 

 Colebrooke" presented to the Geological Society in 1818 "argillaceous 

 nodules containing Ammonites and called Salagrams, worshipped by 

 the Hindoos." Mr. G. H. Tipper, of the Indian Geological Survey, 

 on seeing Wallich' s ammonites in the Sedgwick Museum at once 

 recognised them as being typical Salagrams. Dr. T. H. Holland, how- 

 ever, informs me that some so-called Salagrams are only small,rounded 

 boulders of quartzite. In Blanford's^ figures and descriptions of the 

 Cephalopods from ITepal in General Hardwicke's collection no precise 

 localities are given, but the word ' Sulgranees ' appears on plate C in 

 J. E. Gray's work,* where some of these fossils are figured, and Blanford" 

 has recently suggested that it is probably a corruption of the word 

 ' Saligram.' The latter has also expressed the view that " it is very 

 doubtful if any of the Ammonites represented in the ' Illustrations ' 

 came originally from Nepal at all ; it is more probable that they came 

 from further west, from the region whence Ammonites have been 

 supplied to India in all probability for ages. It is certain that there 

 has long been an importation of small Ammonites into India from the 

 Tibetan side of the Himalayas, chiefly from the Spiti district, N.N.E. 

 of Simla, or from the neighbourhood of the Niti pass, north of 

 Kumaun." It was previously stated in Blanford & Oldham's 

 Geology of India (2nd ed., 1893, p. 229), that Jurassic rocks were 

 known to occur north of Nepal, characteristic fossils having been 

 brought bj- traders, but no locality in Nepal itself is given, so that it 

 appears doubtful if any recorded occurrence in Nepal with the precise 

 locality has previously been published. It must not, however, be 

 overlooked that Oppel ^ refers to a specimen of Ammonites sahineanus, 

 Oppel, in a black nodule from the river 'Gundock' (? = Gandak), which 

 had been kept in the collection of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris since 

 1825 ; this fossil may possibly have been obtained from the same spot 

 as Wallich's specimens, particularly as the mode of occurrence suggests 

 a Salagram, and as the same species is most probably represented 



^ Everest, Himalayan Fossils, Asiatic Researches : Trans. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 

 vol. xviii (1833), pi. i, fig. 3. 



• Trans. Geol. Soc. London, vol. v (1821), p. 643. 



■^ Blanford: Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. xxxii (1863), p. 124. 



* J. E. Gray : Illustrations of Indian Zoology ; chiefly selected from the collection 

 of Major-General Hardwicke (published 1830-2), plate C (no description). 



5 Blanford: Proc. Malac. Soc, vol. v. No. 6 (October, 1903), p. 345. Crick: 

 Geol. Mag., Dec. V, Vol. I (1904), p. 62. 



^ Oppel: Palaontologische Mittheilungen, vol. iv (1863), p. 302. 



DECADE v. — VOL. V. — NO. VI. 17 



