332 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [April 28, 



Grant and Christie, were unknown to Europeans. The report of Capt. 

 Vicary on the previously unexplored Muree country, from Shakpoor to 

 the Degra valley *, was accompanied by a case of fossils collected under 

 circumstances of unusual difficulty. 



Having had the honour of being entrusted by the Earl of Ellen- 

 borough and Sir Charles Napier with that report of Capt. Vicary 

 and with his fossils, I laid them before this Society, and an account 

 of them is printed in the second volume of our Quarterly Journal, 

 p. 260. 



I have recently been favoured with another letter from Sir Charles 

 Napier, who, previous to the late occupation of the Punjaub, desired 

 Capt. Vicary to gain all possible information respecting the country 

 near Kurrachee at the westernmost debouchure of the Indus, and also 

 to explore the region along the eastern edges of the Hala Mountains, 

 and between that range and the Indus. 



This object was to a great extent attained (i. e. for a distance of 

 about 200 miles from S. to N., viz. from Cape Monze to the hills 

 west of Larkhanaf), when the war of the Punjaub compelled Capt. 

 Vicary to rejoin his regiment and proceed with it to the station of 

 Subathoo, situated on one of the southernmost spurs of the Himalaya 

 Mountains. By this circumstance geologists were sure to profit ; for 

 we now learn that long and rapid as were his marches, Capt. Vicary 

 never lost sight of the rocks and their fossils. The collections 

 of the latter are, it is true, still deposited in the distant military 

 quarter of Subathoo, whence we may expect to receive them after 

 some delay. In the meantime it appears to me to be highly desirable 

 that the memoir of Capt. Vicary and his sections should be made 

 known to the Geological Society ; since it is certain that the Hala 

 Mountains, which are essentially composed of nummulitic limestones, 

 are surmounted by tertiary shelly conglomerates and beds charged 

 with bones of quadrupeds, many of which are of the same character 

 as those described from the Sub-Himalaya or Sewalik Range by our 

 able associates Dr. Falconer and Major Cautley. 



In short, we are now in possession of important additional materials 

 to enable us clearly to define the western limits of that grand former 

 coast-line first laid down by Dr. Falconer;];, along which terrestrial 

 animals lived in the tertiary period ; and after comparing the disco- 

 veries of Capt. Vicary with other admirable data of Major Cautley and 

 Dr. Falconer, we can now unhesitatingly say, that the animals of their 

 Sewalik types which once lived on the northern shore of the great 

 tertiary depression of Hindostan were also inhabitants of its western 

 shores, or the north and south ridges of nummulitic limestone, sand- 

 stone, &c. (based on older and Jurassic rocks) which actually form 

 the western limits of British rule or influence in the East. 



From what I can gather from foreign geologists and palaeontologists, 

 particularly from Von Buch, E. de Beaumont and A. d'Orbigny, it 



* Shakpoor is in lat. 28° 42', long. 68° 40', and the Degra valley in lat. 29° 3', 

 long. 69° 45'. 



t Cape Monze is in lat. 24° 50', and Larkhana in 27° 30'. 

 X See Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



