On Mineralogical Surveys. 355 



A new spirit of investigation is happily gaining ground in 

 this country ; not only are geologists studying minutely the 

 relative position which rocks bear to each other, but also the 

 embodied fossils are receiving a share of attention, in order 

 to ascertain the relative age of the different formations. 

 Lately a most interesting discovery was made at Cherra 

 Poonjee by Dr. McClelland, viz. an ancient Sea-beach, 

 whose present height is upwards of 1500 feet above the 

 level of the sea. He has also shewn that most of the 

 fossils belong to species now extinct, proving that it be- 

 longs to the oldest tertiary series, or Eocene epoch of 

 Lyell. That nearly the whole of Bengal, the upper provin- 

 ces extending as far as the Himalayan mountains properly so 

 called, belong to a recent geological epoch we have ample 

 evidence to shew; we shall also prove, and that too from 

 phenomena, which admit not of a doubt, that extensive 

 volcanic convulsions took place at a time when species 

 belonging to every genus of mammalia, with the exception 

 of man himself had appeared ; that after the destruction 

 of a vast number of these animals, many genera of which 

 are now extinct, by a deluge which extended its ravages 

 probably over the whole of India, that is over those parts of 

 India which had emerged from the waters of the ocean, we 

 had shortly afterwards another upheavement, caused in a 

 similar manner, and followed again by another deluge, which 

 swept across a large portion of the Himmalya. By the 

 fossils organic remains, the medallions of a former world, we 

 are thus enabled to connect bygone days with the present — 

 to state that there have been successively created, and suc- 

 cessively destroyed, whole worlds of animals and plants — that 

 the earth itself has existed for thousands and thousands 

 of years ; — but that man, the master-piece of creation, is com- 

 paratively speaking of very recent origin. 



In regard to the geology of England, much, as already 

 stated, has been written, and excellent geological maps have 



3 a 



