1836.] Discovery of Fossil Bones in Western India. 2S9 



separated the little island from Kattiwdr. Having no opportunity to 

 leave this for either Persia or the Cape, I may still perhaps be able to 

 go to Perim and Gogo, to trace the fossils on the main land of the 

 peninsula." Hugel. 



Since the above was set in type, and just before striking off the 

 sheet, I have been favored with the subjoined additional information 

 from a new correspondent, Lieut. Fulljames, which I hasten to make 

 known through the Journal, while I venture to assure him the thanks 

 of the Society for his projected exertions to enrich its museum. "Who 

 will not become an enthusiast amid such discoveries ? It is but four 

 years since the existence of strata containing fossil bones was denied 

 in India, or at least supposed to be confined to Assam and Ava. We 

 are proud to think that the Journal has been in some measure the 

 humble means of stimulating the search which has been thus crowned 

 with success in so many quarters. — Ed. 



" On my arrival in this part of the country in the month of April, I 

 heard a report that some bones, turned into stones, as the natives 

 called them, had been discovered on the Island of Perim in the Gulph 

 of Cambay, and in latitude 21° 39'. 



I lost no time in going there to see if the report of fossil remains was 

 correct, and although I do not pretend to be a geologist, or to know 

 much about fossil osteology, still I consider my labours most amply 

 repaid, by my first visit to the island ; for I obtained a most perfect 

 specimen of the teeth of the mastodon ; one also that I think belongs 

 to the palaeotherium ; and the femur, vertebrae, and many other bones 

 belonging to mammiferous animals now extinct. 



Being well aware from the perusal of your scientific Journal, how 

 highly, and I might say justly, remains of this sort are prized, I shall 

 take the liberty of forwarding to the Society for their acceptance a box 

 containing specimens of these fossil remains. 



The formation in which they were discovered is a tertiary conglo- 

 merate, composed of nodules of sandstone, indurated clay, and a small 

 proportion of silex, cemented together by a yellow clay ; most of the 

 fossil remains have been exposed to view, by the sea having washed 

 off the upper part of the matrix, but still they are firmly attached to 

 the rock, and the only way they were to be obtained, without breaking, 

 was by stone-cutters carefully working all round them ; large quantities 

 of petrified wood were lying about in every direction. 



The following is a list of the strata as they appeared to me, com- 

 mencing from the surface, viz. 

 1st. Loose sand and earth. 



2nd. Conglomerate, composed of sandstone, clay and silex. 

 2 p 



