OF THE NILE AND GANGES. 641 



perforated sandy clay near the level of the river ; the other, 

 marks of shells in the granular concrete of rock kankar, found 

 at 60 feet above the stream, at Burlot. Bnt fossil bones were 

 encountered in great abundance. In one case, unconnected 

 with the operations above referred to, the skeleton of a fossil 

 Elephant was discovered in a bed of clay deposited on a 

 bottom of kankar, overflowed by the water of the river during 

 the floods, about three miles above Calpee. Some of the re- 

 mains were forwarded in 1828 to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 

 In another case the skeleton of an Elephant, forming a great 

 mass, was observed by Mr. E. Dean lying amongst an im- 

 mense assemblage of kankar deposits, contained in the lowest 

 stratum of clay intersected by the river, under the village of 

 Pauch-kowrie, near Korah Jehanabad. The stratum forms 

 a bank, there elevated 4^ feet above the highest flood-mark, 

 and 80 feet below the summit of the cliff j and abreast of it 

 the Jumna has deepened its bed 25 feet. Numerous other 

 organic remains occurred in the masses of other deposits 

 surrounding the skeleton, but the precise kinds were not 

 ascertained. In a third case, a very large tusk of an Elephant, 

 stated to have been 8 inches in diameter, was discovered 

 lying beneath a plate or slab of kankar in removing obstruc- 

 tions from the bed of the Jumna, near Adliae. The ivory 

 was fossilized, but not petrified ; and the Sepoys engaged on 

 the work broke it up, and burnt it for pipeclay to whiten 

 their belts. 



The great mass of the fossil bones which were discovered 

 during the first five years of the operations were unfortunately 

 lost, having been heedlessly thrown back into the deep 

 channel j and only those subsequently met with were pre- 

 served. They were found either embedded in the lowest 

 deposit of stiff clay, or in the shoals of kankar. Of the latter, 

 some were unquestionably of very modern origin, since they 

 yielded a sword and portions of a sunken boat. Their mode 

 of formation is obvious. Nodules of kankar and fossil bones, 

 detached from the alluvial cliffs by various denudating agen- 

 cies, are swept on by the floods until they meet with some 

 obstruction, where they collect and get commingled with 

 extraneous materials of modern origin, and the whole become 

 solidified in a concrete, formed by the calcareous mud of the 

 kankar, aided by lime derived from the waters of the river. 

 They are therefore remanie deposits, wholly distinct from the 

 original kankar and fossiliferous clay-beds through which the 

 stream has cut its way down. The difference was clearly 

 made out by the engineer officers employed in the removal 

 of the shoals, who distinguished the two by the names of 

 natural and artificial kankar. 



VOL. II. T T 



