Professor Buckland on the Bones of Mastodon, Ssc.from Ava. 391 



other relation to it than that arising- from the strata which contained them 

 resting- immediately upon this clay; in the same manner as the diluvial gravel 

 containing similar remains of Mammalia near Oxford, rests immediately upon 

 strata of the oolite formation, and near Rugby, rests upon lias. 



Postscript. 



While this paper was in the press, my attention was called to an extract 

 in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, [Sept. 1828,] from Lieut. 

 Alexander's Travels in the Burman Empire, [London 1827,] stating, that 

 during the late military operations at Prome, "the pioneers were ordered 

 to remove a house; and upon endeavouring to cut down the massive teak 

 pillars on which it was raised, they found that the edges of their hatchets 

 were all turned. On examining into the cause of this, they found that the 

 pillars were petrified throughout, though the house had only been built ten 

 years, and the pillars were under water three months in the year during the 

 monsoon." — Page 34. 



This statement is so contradictory to the observations of Mr. Crawfurd, and 

 to my own opinions, that I feel called upon to notice it in a few words. — We 

 are told that the period of the submersion of these massive pillars was altogether 

 but thirty months, and that in this short time they were petrified throughout; 

 but it is not mentioned whether they were converted into silex or carbonate of 

 lime. Now the most remarkable example we know of wood silicified by any 

 existing river, is that of the piles of a Roman bridge over the Danube in 

 Hungary, which are said to have become impregnated with silex to the depth 

 of about an inch inwards from their surface, and this in a period of much 

 more than a thousand years. In common cases of rapid incrustation by cal- 

 careous earth, the wood is simply incased with stony matter, and not pene- 

 trated by it throughout, as the pillars of Prome are stated to have been : the 

 rapid petrifaction of these pillars, therefore, is so contrary to all experience and 

 to theoretical probability, that I cannot but imagine that there must be some 

 mistake in the information given to Lieut. Alexander upon the subject. Is it 

 not more probable, either that the fossil trees which are so abundant in this 

 district were made use of as posts to support the house in question } — or that 

 the pioneers, on finding the hardness of the wood, were either impressed by 

 the popular. belief of the petrifying powers of the Irawadi, or took advantage 

 of it to escape from their laborious task ? Should these hypotheses be un- 



