1833.] and on Fossil Bones collected on the Jamna. 623 
tions of place, for almost the remarks that have offered themselves 
have been reserved until I know whether they will be of ser- 
vice.” 
All geologists will agree that the graphic mode of illustration 
adopted by Captain Smiru is the very best for communicating at once 
an acquaintance with the nature of the country he has explored, and 
though confined to the banks and bedof a river, it must be remembered, 
that the section thus opened to him by the operations of nature, to a 
depth in some places of 100 feet or more, is a section of the great allu- 
vium of the Doab and of the Agra plains, and not, as it would be in the 
lower course of the Ganges, a mere exhibition of the continually 
shifting channel and sands of the comparatively recent delta.— 
This remark extends particularly to the fossil bones discovered at 
Karimkhtin and other places, which will be seen, as we proceed, to 
belong to the genuine class of fossils, underlying the kankar stratum of 
the clayey alluvium, and are not merely casual deposits in the present 
river, as Captain Herpert was led to suspect when theirexistence was 
first pointed out, in a situation of the same nature, near Calpf, by Doctor 
Duncan, in 1828*. 
Dr. Royue also brought away a fragment of bone in 1831, and 
expressed his opinion that fossils would be found in the banks of the 
Jamna, (Journal, vol. i. 457.) 
Regarding the present collection of fossil bones, Captain E. Smrrn’s 
private letter furnishes the following particulars : ‘‘ With the specimens 
of rock there is a box of fossils ; I have done little more than indicate the 
localities, with a few remarks on the state of the bones, originating in 
* See GLEANINGS IN SCIENCE, i. 23.— Account of fossil elephant bones found in the 
river near Calpi. As no further notice was taken, at the time, of Dr. DuNcan’s dis- 
covery, I take this opportunity of publishing the extract from Mr. J. Lesi1e’s letter 
which brought the subject to the notice of the Physical Class of the Asiatic Society. 
“*T had the pleasure of sending you on the 6th, two portions of the fossil bones 
of an elephant, for which I am indebted to my friend Dr. Duncan at Calpi;the 
following is an extract from his letter which accompanied them: ‘ Thespot on 
which these remains were found is nearly three miles up the river on the opposite. 
side to Calpi ; at the time of visiting them there was not a long bone whole; proba- 
bly a tooth might have been procured, but certainly not now, the remains being 
scattered by the natives who accompanied us, inall directions. I however send you 
what I preserved, part of a long bone (the femur) anda portion of a tusk, the la- 
mellated structure of which is very distinct. The remains lay about 40 yards from 
the edge of the water, then very low, but which during the rains must evidently over- 
flow the spot to an equal or greater extent. They appeared but superficially im- 
bedded in the slightly coherent earthy stratum, which has been deposited by the 
waters on a bottom of kankar, of which the bed and banks of the river were here 
composed.’ ”’ 
