Correspondence. 563 



he observes were noticed as fossils in the "Madras Spectator," and also 

 from a different situation several globular bodies, which have been 

 regarded as fossil fruits of various kinds. In addition to the specimens 

 received from Dr. Spilsbury we have been favoured with others from 

 the same quarter by Drs. Row and Drummond, as well as a very curious 

 form of agate, supposed to be a fossil palm. Except the last, we doubt 

 if any one of these bodies which we have as yet examined be of organic 

 origin, but as the question is one of interest, we shall on a future 

 occasion endeavour to examine them with more care. The substances 

 supposed to be alcyonites or fossil zoophytes, appear to be radiated calc 

 spar, which is found in two forms in the Nerbudda, namely globular, in 

 which the crystals extend uniformly on every side from a common 

 centre, which is hollow, and filled with calcareous earth, giving it the 

 appearance of a fruit. In other cases the radii extend in fan-shaped 

 clusters, so as to form portions only of the speroidal shapes, and several 

 of these clusters are aggregated so as to give the whole a coralline 

 appearance. While the former were considered to be fruits, the latter 

 were regarded as a kind of coral or alcyonite. The general colour of 

 these specimens is reddish yellow, the external surface is dull, with a 

 silky glimmering kind of lustre. 



" Other kinds of these fossil-like substances are spheroidal earthy 

 balls, one of them is labelled as follows — ' spheroidal balls found in lime- 

 stone, some 6| inches in diameter with a distinct corticle, inner part all 

 crystallized carbonate of lime. Small hills near Jubbulpore.' Another 

 is marked, from its external form, as a fossil mangoe, a third has merely 

 a ticket indicating the locality in which it was found, attached to it. 

 Its form also resembles that of a mangoe. First, as to the spheroidal 

 earthy balls, nothing can present a stronger external resemblance to 

 large fruit, and this general resemblance is further supported by the 

 appearance of a distinct outer rind, but when we come to examine 

 more closely we find the part within the rind to be composed of coarse, 

 and fine pebbles imbedded in a calcareous matrix, and the rind to 

 consist of fine globular crystals of calcspar, without any thing organic 

 in their arrangement more than in that of the sandstone on which 

 they are deposited. Some of them appear from the label above 

 quoted to contain radiated calcspar, perhaps such as that composing 

 the substances supposed to be of a coralline character. These re- 

 marks will apply almost equally to the substance, called fossil mangoe, 

 except that the outer layers enclosing the nucleus form a compact 

 earthy crust, either to a nucleus of sandstone or a smaller nodule 

 composed also of various layers as the crust itself. Some of these 

 earthy spheroids are more calculated to impress on the observer an idea 



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