Chap. I.] general description of rocks. 15 



thousands of feet in thickness of the Sivalik rocks, but my most 

 patient search and inquiry on the spot has hitherto failed to trace 

 one single fossil to the Nahun beds. I give this as my own expe- 

 rience, but the contrary has been so circumstantially stated, and by 

 such high authority, that the fact, as I put it, must be considered open 

 to doubt. A letter of Colonel ' Cautley's, published in the " Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society, Bengal," for 1834 (Vol. III., p. 527), contains 

 the following passage — "Lieutenant Durand, on a late visit to Nahun, 

 was fortunate enough to meet with the stratum of marl or clay- 

 conglomerate, on the north face* of the mountain on which the town 

 of Nahun stands ; the remains therein discovered, in my opinion, 

 identify it completely with the Sivalik stratum, the position of both 

 being similar and in juxta-position with the calcareous sandstone ; 

 the fossils in the Nahun deposits are exactly of a similar description 

 to those found at the Kalawala Pass, — a pass in the Sivalik hills 

 east of the Jumna. Lieutenant Durand's discovery is of particular 

 interest, from its having at once established the formation of the Nahun 

 connecting link, as at this point the low line of mountains skirting 

 the Dhera and Kyarda duns impinge upon the Himalayan chain. 

 Since the discovery of these fossils I have visited the spot, and am 

 satisfied with the identity of this formation with that of the Sivalik. " 

 In a letter of Dr. Falconer's (Jour. As. Soc, Ben., . Yol. IV., p. 57) 

 a less exact mention is made of the Nahun locality : — " In one of my 

 tours I have had to return through Nahun. I got a hint of where 

 the fossils came from, and on going to the ground I reaped a splendid 

 harvest. This was on the 20th November (1834), a couple of days 

 after Lieutenants Baker and Durand had got their first specimens 

 through their native collectors." The position is not here specified, 

 and I venture to surmise that the last words of Dr. Falconer's remarks, 



* [Italics are mine.] 



