268" Cn the Strata of the Dudb Alluvium, [May, 



thrown over this hed of kankar with sufficient force to break it up 

 partially, and the remains present a number of detached masses pro- 

 truding across two-thirds of the river, from the right bank, standing 

 from four to five feet above the surface of the water at low levels, ex- 

 posing the whole thickness of the bed, which varies between three and 

 five feet, and an average of two feet of its substratum a stiff clay, and 

 between them deep channels are worn. The action of so rapid 

 a stream on all sides of these bases of clay (the supports of the 

 superincumbent kankar) is gradually but surely reducing them, and 

 in the course of time, becoming too feeble to support its weight. The 

 kankar will be deposited in the bed of the river some 12 or 14 feet 

 lower than its present position. 



These masses, which vary from a few feet to many yards in size, 

 are externally very compact and hard ; but on penetrating 18 inches, 

 it will be found, tbat they maintain inside this crust a similar appear- 

 ance and quality with any bed that might be opened in the centre of 

 the Duab, namely, the interstices between the nodules being filled 

 with a loamy clay, and having every appearance of having been un- 

 disturbed since the formation of the bed. 



It was on the strength of the unsuccessful search I have insti- 

 tuted in and under such strata as this, that I hazarded the opini- 

 on that I should consider the slightest discovery of fossil (animal) 

 remains at a level corresponding with the deepest parts of the river, as 

 the merest possible accident : perhaps I should have rather said, fossil 

 remains may possibly be found in the Duab general alluvium ; but it 

 must be under parallel circumstances with those producing the Jumna 

 fossils, as it is impossible to suppose that during the accumulation of 

 this immense formation that such a space was void of animal life. 



The question mooted by Griffiths in speaking of the fossil remains 

 of elephants, " Can we suppose that none are buried there (in climates 

 to which the elephant is native), or that the bones have been decom- 

 posed by the force of heat;" chimes so much in tune with the idea 

 that possessed me on examining every excavation in the Duab to 

 which I could get access, previous to being acquainted with the sec- 

 tion formed by the Jumna, that even now I should feel little difficulty 

 in asserting, that unless some sufficient body intervenes between or- 

 ganic remains and the decomposing power of the sun's rays, soon after 

 their assuming a morbid state, no vestige of them ultimately remains. 

 Experience has proved that they are buried, fossilized, and petrified 

 within the limits of this general alluvium ; but in my opinion they are 

 not even cotemporary with this formation, but of a date more recent : 

 for with such an ample section before us, as is presented by the Jumaa, 



