540 Miscellaneous — Petroleum in the Punjauh. 



THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS OF THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZONS. 



SiK, — I have been mucli interested in the various articles on the 

 subject of Glaciers published in the Magazine, and all the more 

 interested as I find the statements supported by facts. I take the 

 liberty of sending you a notice of some discoveries recently made, 

 which bear particularly upon the origin of the great clay formation 

 spread over the Valley of the Amazon. It is well known that Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz, both before and after his visit to Brazil, considered it 

 " Drift," the accumulation of detritus brought down from the Andes 

 by glaciers. His theory rests mainly on the supposed absence of 

 fossils, neither he nor your countryman Mr. Bates finding any. 

 But in my late expedition across the continent I discovered a fossil- 

 iferous deposit at Pabos, and since then my valued correspondent, 

 Mr. Hauxwell, at my suggestion, has explored in other places on the 

 Amazon, and found them in abundance near Cochaquinas, on the south 

 side of the Morsion. The shells are all found in the coloured plastic 

 clays, which stretch, unbroken, from the foot of the Andes to the 

 Atlantic. I have placed these interesting fossils in the hands of our 

 eminent paleontologist, T. A. Conrad, Esq., of Philadelphia, for 

 determination, and the result is as follows : 17 species, all extinct ; 

 9 genera, six extinct.' The forms are all very singular and unique, 

 and from their extermination, especially of one genus, with all its 

 representatives, we infer that the formation cannot be late Tertiary, 

 and may be Miocene. The species indicate fresh or brackish water 

 life ; and the perfect preservation of the most delicate parts, some 

 specimens retaining even the epidermis, shows a quiet lake or 

 estuary. There certainly are no indications of a " grinding glacier." 

 — I am, yours, etc., James Okton. 



Vassor College, Poughkeepsie, New York, 

 October 7, 1870. 



DVniSODBXjIj-A.IsrEOTJS. 



Petroleum. — In the Kecords of the Geological Survey of India, 

 there appears a notice by Mr. A. B. Wynne, F.G.S., of the occurrence 

 of Petroleum, (near the village of Sudkal), near Futtijung, west of 

 Eawul Pindi, in the Punjab. As usual in the Punjab, the Petroleum 

 at this place occurs in the Nummulitic Tertiary rocks, which consist 

 mainly of grey gi-its and sandstones, with some bands of grey fossil- 

 iferous limestone, interstratified with thick zones of red shale. The 

 Petroleum pits are bounded by rocky ridges of slight elevation, on 

 both sides of which the Tertiary rocks are much contorted along 

 narrow axes, possessing considerable regularity of strike, and dip- 

 ping at high angles. Fossils occur close by the Petroleum pits, as 

 well as to the north and south of them. Orbitolites are by far the 

 most numerous, but fragments of bivalve shells are also to be found, 

 together with teeth of sharks and large bones. It is understood that 

 the mineral oil produced from this locality is to be used for lighting 

 the Station of Rawul Pindi with gas. — H. W. B. 



1 The living genera are Hemisinus, Bulimus, and Neritina, 



