1837.] Proceedings of the A siutic Society. 241 



of sandstone 14 inches long by 5£ wide and 2 inches thick, and looks like a long 

 brick. It exactly in appearance resembles the building sandstone used at Agra. It 

 is flexible and elastic in every direction 11 If you place it flat on a table, and press 

 the hand on one end and raise the other, you can bend it to a certain extent, and 

 see the undulations moving along to the fixed end. If you seize it by both ends, 

 one in each hand, and make an action as if you intended breaking it, yon can see 

 and feel it bend like a piece of whale-bone, but of course in an infinitely smaller 

 degree, and the undulations are observed propagated from end to end. If you tap 

 it on the side with the finger as you would a massak of water, it yields pretty much 

 in the same fashion, propagates an undulation and instantly reci>vers its form. If 

 you press it at the sides it gets narrower, and if you pull at the ends it elongates ! ! 

 but always recovers its original form. Is there any account on record of so extra- 

 ordinary a sandstone? Should there not, I may send you some notes about it. It 

 is not known where the specimen came from." H. F. 



The fossils dispatched by Dr. Spilsbury had been brought down by the 

 Honorable Mr. Shore, but had been sent in the first instance to Dr. Row 

 at Barrackpur. 



Dr. Spilsbury notices that the beautiful meteor remarked at Bersia, (see Proc. 

 February,) was also seen at Baitul, at Hoshangabad and Jabalpur. 



A letter from Mr. W. Dawe announced the dispatch of a fresh selec- 

 tion of fossils (including a lower jaw of the SwatheriumJ for the Society's 

 Museum in three chests, which left Karn&l 10th March. 



Read a letter from Lieutenant T. Hutton, proposing exchanges of fresh- 

 water shells with the Society, for mutual benefit of cabinets. 



The Curator explained that he had already effected the object desired. 



A continuation of the Rev, R. Everest's notes on the Revolutions of 

 the Seasons was received. 



This part of the author's researches is accompanied by diagrams of the prices of 

 grain in different years, whence an estimate is derived of the amount of rain. 



A note on the genera Oxygyrus and Bellerophon was received from Mr. 

 W. H. Benson. 



The following Meteorological notes were communicated by Major 

 Davidson, Engrs. from Lacknau. They seem to confirm the theory lately 

 started of the prevalence of these asteroids in the opposite parts of the 

 earth's orbit traversed in November and May. 



1. On board the ship Northumberland, Captain Pope, proceeding from England to 

 India in 1834, a pale star was visible for at least five days*, during sunshine. It 

 ■was first discovered by Captain H. Timmings, of the Bengal Horse Artillery, and 

 was seen by all the crew and passengers of the ship. (Lat. long, unknown.) 



2. At Assirgarh in April or May, J 823, I was lying awake on my bed at about 12 

 or 1 o'clock, when I was startled by a brilliant light advancing from the east end of 

 a long narrow veranda. I waited a few seconds, expecting to see some of my fami- 

 ly or servants bearing a candle, when (I presume as the meteor passed over my 

 bungalow), I looked out in the compound, and observed the individual shadows of a 

 tall Jainun tree, cast vertically on the ground — a circumstance I had never seen in 

 the brightest sunshine. Not a breath of air, nor an audible sound. Conversing with 

 Col. Richards, commandant, I found that he had seen the glare, and that subse- 

 quently it had been reported to him that an immense number of stones had fallen 

 from the sky, about twenty miles to the west of the fortress, in a forest, inhabited 

 by Bhlls. No inquiries were ever made. 



3. "While the Sappers and Miners were marching from Cawnpur on Bharlpur, 

 (about November, 1824,) at 4 in the morning a meteor was seen by the officers of 

 the Engineers rising in the North : it ascended from the horizon to an elevation of 

 about 65°, and remained there in an obscure group of fixed stars for upwards of 25 

 minutes. On its first reaching the cluster, its light was very distinct, but it gradu- 

 ally melted away, until the eye could only detect its situation by the increased 

 brightness of the spot, on making a sweep over that part of the heavens. 



4. At Assirgarh fortress, during the rainy season, I often observed an insect 

 formed like the common centipede, (Scolopendra electrica ?) which at night used to 

 leave a glowing fiery trace of its progress ; and on one occasion, I had the curiosity 

 to rub my fingers on the track, which was unctuous, and on smelling them found the 

 strong and almost suffocating stench of burning phosphorus. C. J. C. D. 



* This may have been the planet Venus ?— En. 



