274 On the Strata of the Dudb Alluvium, [Mat, 



The position too of the rocks shewn in section, (fig. 1, PI. 21, of 

 Vol. II.) as containing fossils, is such, as I should have given them, 

 had an elevation of the bank of the Jumna been required of me. Of 

 course, I have had no opportunity of comparing the specimens from 

 the above places ; but from their general coincidence in position, and 

 the fossil remains found in each, I am led to believe an intimate 

 connexion exists between them in date, formation, and structure, and 

 if, Sir, you think I have satisfactorily shewn the system of the deposit 

 kankar formation in the Jumna, I think the same description would 

 apply to similar formations in the Nerbadda. 



Zrdly. Of the Kankar Shoals. 

 These are composed of every variety of substance that is ever in 

 motion in the Jumna, the most common of which are broken bricks, 

 bones, shreds of earthen vessels, wood, fragments of granite, sand- 

 stone, quartz, agate, water pebbles, petrified clay, and composition 

 shingle, of every variety of mixture that the clay of the surrounding 

 country and sand of the Jumna will admit of. This last bears a pro- 

 portion of four-fifths to the whole, which being mistaken for kankar, 

 (of which the quantity is very trifling,) has occasioned the misnomer 

 of kankar shoals. 



It is among this heterogeneous assemblage of substances, that the 

 best specimens of petrifaction are to be found. Bones, however, in 

 every stage between freshness and a state approaching the hardest 

 stone are procurable by turning over the surface about a foot deep ; 

 but I imagine, in fact I have ascertained, that not only more perfect, 

 but a considerable abundance of the best specimens would be found 

 at greater depths ; as, during levels of the river sufficiently high to 

 cover these shoals, the fragments near the surface are subject to vio- 

 lent attrition, and bones and other fragile substances, to total demoli- 

 tion, from the masses which are at such times continuallv rolling over 

 them. Numerous instances occur in some of these shoals to support 



Buchanan's MSS. published in the Gleanings, vol. iii., where also its 

 characteristic of containing " giants' bones" is preserved in the very name of 

 the place, AsurJiar .— this circumstance has been brought to our notice lately by 

 Mr. Stephenson, who has lately learnt that a gentleman at the Burdwan colliery 

 has collected a number of fossil bones, and shells from the sides of other hills of 

 the same range. Being very anxious that this field should be again and more 

 thoroughly explored, we have republished the passage from Dr. Buchanan on 

 the cover of the present No., and would direct the particular attention of our 

 correspondents at Monghyr, and of the engineers engaged on the Rajmahal canal 

 survey, to the whole line, which will probably prove as prolific as the Nerbadda or 

 the Jumna. It may also afford proof against Mr. Dean's account of the formation 

 of the conglomerate, and introduction of the bones within it by the action of th« 

 river. — Ed. 





