Chap. 2.] w. blanfoud, western india. 7 



Captain Dangerfield also described the Nerbudda valley above and 

 below Mundlaisur. In the upper part he mentions the iron smelting of 

 Katkot and Chandgurh_, and refers to the occurrence of Ammonites in the 

 bed of the Nerbudda near Oonkar Mandatta^ an island in the river a little 

 above Burwai^ on which stand some famous temples. This curious state- 

 ment is probably due to some mistake {a) ; no such fossils have been found 

 by more recent observers^ nor is it probable that any really occur at the spot 

 indicated. Dangerfield mentions the occurrence of basaltic columns near 

 Mundlaisur^ and describes the alluvium of the Nerbudda near that city. He 

 also gives an account of the occurrence of earthern vessels and bricks imbed- 

 ded in the alluvium at Muhesur^ and refers to the report that the ancient 

 city of the same name, together with Oojein and 80 other large places in 

 Malwa and Bagur, were^ at a very remote period, overwhelmed by a 

 shower of earth [h) . To this story Captain Dangerfield does not appear to 



{a). It appears almost impertinent to suggest that the Ammonites might have been 

 shells of Planorhis, yet I see no other probable ,way of explaining the difficulty. They are 

 said to have been accompanied by Buccinum and a species of mussel, and to have occui-red 

 in marl and earthy limestone. The fossils near Bagh occur in earthy limestone, but 

 Ammonites are rare, and so are any shells resembling Succinum, and the most abundant 

 fossils are Echinoderms (HemiasterJ to which Dangerfield does not refer. But no Bagh beds 

 are known to occur near Oonkar (or Oonkarjee, as it is more commonly called), and the 

 marls and earthy limestones are probably the river deposits, which contain Paludina and 

 Melania, either of which might have been mistaken for Buccinum and Unio. With the 

 vague knowledge of natural history necessarily prevalent in India at the period, and the 

 impossibility of reference to such few books as then existed, or to museums, it is not 

 sm-prising that such errors should have been committed as to mistake these shells Paludina 

 or Melania and Planorhis for Buccinum and Ammonites, and precisely similar errors were 

 committed many years later by Voysey and others. 



(J). This very curious native story, which is totally unfounded, has, unfortunately, ob- 

 tained a wide circulation, like the equally absurd tale of the eruption of Denodur hUl in 

 Cutch, both being prominently mentioned by Sir C. Lyell in his Elements of Geology. The 

 earth covering the ancient Muh^sur (if, indeed, anything more than a few bricks and 

 waterpots be imbedded) is ordinary river alluvium, and I learn from Captain MelKss, lately 

 Executive Engineer at Mhow, and a good geologist, that the same is the case at Oojein, as 

 was indeed long ago suggested by Colonel Sykes in his paper on the geology of a portion 

 of the Dukkun (Geol. Trans., Ser. 2, Vol. IV). Mr. Eraser, who visited Oojein, thinks (Geol. 

 Trans., Ser. 2, Vol. I, p 141,) that the old town probably decayed, and that the tale of its 

 destruction is a myth. The stories of the occiu-rence of volcanic craters filled with water 



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