1862.] Account of a visit to Puppa chung. 225 



3. White sandy bed abounding in fragments of 



pumiee to which its colour is due. Wanting 

 on the South side of the valley ; on the North 

 about, 15 feet. 



4. Volcanic ash containing quartz pebbles, thicker 



on the South side of the valley than on the 



North, 5 to 15 „ 



5. Ferruginous gravel and sandy clay, containing 



quartz pebbles of small size, and numerous 

 concretions of peroxide of iron, the iron ore 

 of the country. Variable in thickness, 1 to 4 „ 



6. Coarse sand mostly yellowish with white specks. 



It contains pebbles in places. Upwards of 100 seen. 



It is evident that the ash bed, No. 4, is of the same general age as 

 the sands above and below, and that it was deposited in water is 

 clear from its containing quartz pebbles. There can, therefore, be 

 no doubt that it records an eruption of the mountain, perhaps with 

 an east wind blowing, at the time when the lake or estuaiy, which 

 then surrounded Puppa,, was being gradually filled up by sandy 

 deposits. There can be also little question as to the identity of the 

 beds of the above section with the sands and conglomerates con- 

 taining fossil wood and mammalian bones at Yenankhyoung, Pagan, 

 &c. Fragments of fossil wood evidently derived from these deposits 

 are found about Puppa, and to complete the evidence, I found a piece, 

 not rolled as such blocks are in the more recent gravels, in situ in 

 the ash bed itself. 



The period during which Puppa was in action was therefore, in 

 parts at least, not later than that of the deposition of beds contain- 

 ing remains of Elephas, Mastodon, Phinoceros, Hippopotamus, and 

 Puminants. The geological age of these beds has, with some doubt, 

 been considered to be Miocene, but from their general fauna, and 

 especially from the abundance of bones of Bos and Cervus, a more 

 recent date may, I think, with at least equal probability, be assigned 

 to them. There can be no question but that the fires of Puppa 

 have long been extinct ; its thick coating of jungle and grass, and the 

 existence upon it of species of plants and animals, which, for want 

 of a suitable habitat, cannot exist in any neighbouring locality, and 

 the evidence of the effects of subaerial denudation on its surface, 



2 g 2 



