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Y 



Point 

 V 



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- 



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I 



i 



n of ti { 



ll 2 ( 



1 



I 



an 



J 





'Jd sand 



f 481 feel I 



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oft 



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1 





dirt-bed 3 



f 





Ch. XIX.] 



NEAR CALCUTTA. 



479 



imply that the subsidence of the ground was gradual or in- 

 terrupted by several pauses. Below the vegetable mass they 

 entered upon a stratum of yellowish clay about ten feet thick, 

 containing horizontal layers of kunkar (or kankar), a nodular, 

 concretionary, argillaceous limestone, met with abundantly 

 at neater or less depths in all parts of the valley of the 

 Ganges, over many thousand square miles, and always pre- 

 senting the same characters, even at a distance of one thou- 

 sand miles north of Calcutta. Some of this kunkar is said 

 to be of very recent origin in deposits formed by river inun- 

 dations near Saharanpoor. After penetrating 120 feet, they 

 found loam containing water-worn fragments of mica-slate 

 and other kinds of rock, which the current of the Ganges can 

 no longer transport to 



this region. 



In the various beds 

 pierced through below, consisting of clay, marl, and friable 

 sandstone, with kunkar here and there intermixed, no organic 

 remains of decidedly marine origin were met with. Too posi- 

 tive a conclusion ought not, it is true, to be drawn from such 

 a fact, when we consider the narrow bore of the auger and 

 its effect in crushing shells and bones. Nevertheless, it is 



worthy of remark, that the only fossils obtained in a recog- 

 nisable state were of a fluviatile or terrestrial character. 

 Thus, at the depth of 350 feet, the bony shell of a tortoise, 

 or trionyx, a freshwater genus, was found in sand, resembling 

 the living species of Bengal. Fro 



same 



humeru 



first referred to a hyaena. It was of the size and shape, says 

 Dr. Falconer, of the shoulder-bone of the Cervus porcinus, or 

 common hog-deer, of India. At the depth of 380 feet, clay 



with fragments of lacustrine shells was incumbent on what 

 appears clearly to have been another ' dirt-bed/ or stratum of 

 decayed wood, implying a period of repose of some duration, 

 and a forest-covered land, which must have subsided 300 feet, 

 to admit of the subsequent superposition of the overlying 

 deposits. It has been conjectured that, at the time when 

 this area supported trees, the land extended much farther 

 out into the Bay of Bengal than now, and that in latter times 

 the Ganges, while enlarging its delta, has been only recover- 

 ing lost ground from the sea. 



