162 KUASI HILLS. 



mineral ogically alike, and both uaquestionably belong to the same great 

 division of geological time. 



There is some little difficulty in ascertaining exactly what Dr. 

 McCIelland's views, regarding the arrangement of the rocks at Cherra 

 Poonjee, were. In the earliest announcement of his discovery of fossil 

 shells in these hills, made iu September 1835 (a), he merely states, 

 " that he had discovered a large number of shells at various altitudes 

 from 1,000 to 4,200 feet, and even in and around the station of Cherra 

 Poonjee itself," among which he thought he recognized Pecten, Turri- 

 tella, Melania, Serpula, Cirrus, Pleurotoma, &c., " and that these re- 

 mains were in rocks hitherto considered as primitive." In the following 

 year, he exhibited to the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, the collections made 

 by him during his trip to Assam, and stated that fossil shells were 

 found in such number and variety at Cherra Poonjee, as to afford most 

 unquestionable evidence " of the tertiary nature" of the Khasi moun- 

 tains : and further, that when the specimens had been compared with 

 the fossils from the Paris and London basins, " it might be possible to 

 find their place in the Eocene and Pleiocene groups of Lyell." While 

 this would seem to indicate that he referred to the epoch of the 

 formation of the rocks, and not to that of the formation of the moun- 

 tains, the next sentence appears to shew that it was the period of up- 

 heavement to which he alluded, as he thinks this is the first instance 

 of " any extensive deposit of fossil shells in the Sub-Himalayan rocks, 

 calculated to throw sufficient light on the period of their " up- 

 heavement" (b). 



In the following year (18.37), a short communication from the same 

 author was read to the Geological Society of London, in which he refers 

 to the nummulitic limestone at the base of the hills, and to the occur- 



(a) Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. iv. p. 520. 

 (6) Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. v. p. 519. 



