XXV. — Geological Account of a Series of Animal and Vegetable Re- 

 mains and of Rocks, collected by J. Crawfurd, Esq. on a Voyage 

 up the Irawadi to Ava, in 1836 and 1827. 



By The Rev. WILLIAM BUCKLAND, D.D. P.G.S. F.R.S. F.L.S. 



PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 



[Read April 18th, 1828.] 



i^OR the specimens and notes which form the subject of the present com- 

 municationj the Society is indebted to the zeal and activity of J. Crawfurd, 

 Esq., one of its Fellows, who having occasion to traverse the Burmese Country, 

 on an embassy to Ava in the years J 826 and 1827, discovered an extensive 

 deposit of organic remains in that unknown and distant region. He has 

 brought home specimens of these remains, both animal and vegetable, as 

 well as of the strata in which they were found, and has with much judgement 

 and liberality presented them to the Geological Society of London, and to 

 several other scientific Societies. It is on an examination of these specimens, 

 and of the notes contained in Mr. Crawfurd's daily journal, that the observa- 

 tions and descriptions that make up the present memoir are founded. 



Before I proceed to the details of this interesting subject, it may not be amiss 

 to refer to the state of our knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the geology of 

 these regions, antecedently to the discoveries of Mr. Crawfurd ; an ignorance 

 which our frequent and extensive intercourse with India has but recently and 

 in a very slight degree tended to dispel ; since with the exception of two 

 Memoirs in the Geological Transactions*, — the one a paper by Mr.Colebrooke 

 on the N.E. border of Bengal, the other a description of a collection of 

 specimens made by Mr. Fraser, on a journey from Delhi to Bombay ; and of 

 two brief notices in the same volume, — no description of the secondary, ter- 

 tiary, or diluvial formations of central and southern Asia, as compared with 

 the similar formations of Europe, has been given to the public. 



In the year 1823, in the following passage of my Reliquice Diluviance f, 

 I quoted the opinion of Mr. Weaver on the importance of instituting a 



* Vol. I. Part. 1. New Series. t P« 170. 



VOL. II. — SECOND SERIES. 3 D 



