246 PROCEEDIKGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



separated by sedimentary deposits, and indicating conditions similar 

 to those now obtaining in the same part of the world. I once had 

 an opportunity, on a spell of leave with nothing else to do, of closely 

 examining these deposits near Nahun, and 1 very soon discovered beds 

 containing fresh-water shells, belonging to the genera Unio, Bythinia, 

 and Vivipara. When digging out inch by inch the pelvis and hind 

 leg of an elephant, associated with Chelonian remains, which were 

 embedded in a thick bed of dark clay, several specimens of AmpuUaria 

 were found. Now these I should not have noticed under an ordinary 

 passing inspection of the supposed face of the deposit, and it showed 

 me that a close examination of such clay beds, digging them out and 

 working over the material Avith a lens, might yiehl important results, 

 and disclose minute species of not only fresh-water but land shells 

 also : in such beds, indeed, Camptoceras might even occur. Similarly, 

 on an exhaustive search, there is much, I am sure, to be yet found 

 in the later Pliocene deposits of the Valley of Kashmir, which rest 

 against the northern slopes of the Pir Panjal range. These beds are 

 of great thickness, presenting at intervals old marsh and lacustrine 

 surfaces, to obtain a better knowledge of the ancient fauna of which 

 would be most valuable. I noticed that the fresh-water shells in these 

 beds were very frequently flattened out by pressure, and compression 

 of this kind may be one of the reasons for the paucity of fossil land- 

 shells. Unless quite filled with fine silt they would certainly be 

 broken, and closely coiled species would fill up very slowly. 



These Pliocene beds, capped by the later Karewah deposits, extend 

 round the Kashmir Valley for sixty miles from the south to the west 

 and north-west, with a maximum breadth of fifteen miles. At 

 Hirpur, which is 2,500 feet above the Jhelum River, I estimated 

 the whole series to be 1,400 feet thick. I could only spare one 

 afternoon for an examination of this spot. The shells were like 

 existing species, an acuminate Lymnea and a small Planoriis, the 

 latter the more abundant; impressions of a bulrush were very common, 

 and a few small fish scales were detected. These occurred on two 

 horizons, separated by 65 feet of coarse sands and coarse con- 

 glomerate. It is evident there is further work to be done here, open 

 to future travellers. Mammalian remains might also possibly be 

 found, but the teeth, or bones, of a rakhshus, or demon, were never 

 reported to me in Kashmir, though such relics are well known 

 to the natives in the neighbourhood of Jammu and Aknur, for 

 there they say was the field of a great battle between demons, 

 Hhunbeer Singh, the Maharajah of Kashmir, had one brought to show 

 me when I paid him a visit, and we had a long and amusing discussion. 

 I tried to show him it was the molar of an elephant, but he would not 

 be convinced. 



I should not expect to find many land-shells preserved in these 

 deposits, for they are by no means common in the Kashmir Valley 

 at the present day. Bulimus candelaris is perhaps the commonest 

 shell, but very local. There is still much to be done even in this 

 part of India. Stoliczka collected here on his way to Yarkand, 

 while Theobald paid the valley a hasty visit in 1877, at the dry time 



