OF THE NILE AND GANGES. 



637 



In his ' Reisen,' Russegger describes the occurrence of the 

 human bones at Duntai in terms somewhat different from 

 those employed in his ' Briefe ' in the ' Jahrbuch.' ' The 

 freshwater alluvia occurring at Karkodije and Seru extend, 

 with the slight modifications already indicated, up the Blue 

 River as far as Roserres, forming a hillocky alluvial track ; 

 and in this instance I must observe that in the ancient mud- 

 conglomerate of Geivan we found portions of Mimosa-wood 

 completely converted into lignite, and, at the village of 

 Duntai, near Seru, calcined (verkalkt) human bones in the 

 incipient stage of bitumenization. 1 A kind of bitumen, or 

 rather highly bituminous lignite, also occurs, although spa- 

 ringly, at Geivan, and, according to my observation, only in 

 small elongated nodular pieces, which in their transverse 

 fractures display a concentrically laminated structure, resem- 

 bling the annual growth of wood, and burning with a brief 

 flame only, but emitting a very smoky and bituminous odour.' 

 On neither occasion does Russegger specify what these fossil 

 human bones were, nor am I aware that any detailed identifi- 

 cation of them has been published. But the case is of suffi- 

 cient importance to demand the attention of future explorers 

 of the Nile valley to a walk of observation wbich may yield 

 results of high importance. Captain Grant informs me that 

 neither Captain Speke nor he ever met with fossil bones along 

 their route. Besides the asserted human bones at Duntai 

 (about halfway between Sennaar and Roserres), Russegger 

 mentions, cursorily, that in the conglomerate of Woadd 

 Medineh, also on the Blue Nile, he encountered a kind of 

 sandstone mass containing bones, which he took to belong to 

 the foot of a young camel. Dr. Murie, who accompanied 

 Mr. Petherick on his return to Soudan, has shown me speci- 

 mens of an alluvial fine grained siliceous grit or conglomerate 

 from the White ISTile, above Khartoom, which is full of shells 

 of Gyrena fluminalis. The observations of Russegger, Mr. 

 Leith Adams, and Dr. Murie agree as to the abundance of 

 the shells of Mollusca in the Nilotic alluvia, mud, or con- 

 glomerate, from the neighbourhood of the First Cataract 

 upwards, and along the course both of the Blue and White 

 Rivers — oyster banks of Mtheria Caillaudi occurring through- 

 out. 



4. Analogy of the Fluviatile Deposits of the Nile with those 

 of the Ganges. — In some of the phenomena observed by all the 



1 The original passage stands thus : — 

 ' Und ich glaube diessfalls nur bemer- 

 ken zu miissen, dass wir in dem altera 

 Flussschlamm-Konglomerate bei Geivan 

 Stikke von Mimosenholz, das ganz in 



Braunkohle umgewandelt war, und am 

 Dorfe Duntai bei Seru Mensehenknochen 

 fanden, verkalkt und im Zustande einer 

 beginnenden Verkohlung.' (Russegger, 

 ' Eeisen,' Band ii. pt. 2, p. 717.) 



