290 Discovery of Fossil Bones in Western India. [May, 



3rd. Yellow and whitish clay, with nodules of sandstone. 



4th. Conglomerate as above. 



5th. Siliceous sandstone with a few fossils. (Calcareous. — Ed.) 



6th. Conglomerate. 



7th. Indurated clay more or less compact. 



8th. Conglomerate, in which the best, and I may say nearly the 

 whole of the fossil remains have been discovered. 



The deepest strata of conglomerate are about 3 feet, but they gene- 

 rally do not run more than 1 8 inches to 2 feet, and for the most part 

 lie horizontal. On the western side of the island, however, the strata 

 are much disturbed, being fractured, and dipping at an acute angle to 

 the east ; on the southern end of the island, sandstone appears below 

 the fossil stratum of conglomerate, dipping to the north at an angle of 

 25 degrees. 



There is a tradition among the inhabitants of Gogah, that the island 

 of Perim was formerly joined to the main land, by means of a stone 

 bridge, which has, in the course of time, been destroyed ; remains 

 of some buildings are still to be seen, running into the sea in the shape 

 of piers, &c. It must have been a very stupendous undertaking, for 

 there is a channel now between the land and the island of the depth of 

 75 fathoms, and nearly 500 yards in width. 



On the island there are the remains of a considerable fort, and 

 buildings of Hindu architecture, for I observed in an old temple that 

 had tumbled down, the broken figure of Buddha rudely sculptured in a 

 sitting posture ; also the remains of a large tank wall, and bauli. Among 

 the other curiosities of the island are two elephants cut out in the 

 rock ; they are covered now by the sea except at very low water ; one 

 is finished, and I should say, measured about 10 feet long by 8 or 9 

 feet high. Capital fresh water is procurable on the island, 20 feet 

 below the surface; it is found below the stratum of sandstone. 



I will here enumerate the varieties of specimens of fossil remains, 

 which I think have been found. Teeth of mammoth ; ditto mastodon, 

 palseotherium, hippopotamus, or rhinoceros, and a number of other 

 smaller animals. The head of some large saurian animal ; part of 

 a tortoise ; ditto of elephant's tusks. Femora, vertebra?, and other 

 large bones ; one shell in siliceous sandstone, and the half of a deer's 

 foot. With this vast variety before me, it requires a person much better 

 qualified than myself in the art to say to what particular animal the 

 different specimens belong, and I therefore forward them with the 

 hopes of hearing the opinion of the scientific in Calcutta. 



It has occurred to me, on reading over the Journal for Aug. 1834, 

 that the conglomerate in which the fossil remains in the valley of the 



