502 Note on the Fossils from the [Sept. 



described as human are such. Two of these are represented in the 

 accompanying plate as figs. 20 and 21. The former, supposed to be 

 the head of a human femur, is more likely to be the core of the horn 

 of some large deer ; the other is far too uncertain to be identified. 

 The teeth and remains of the camel have been subsequently disavowed 

 by the discoverer himself (see page 278), and are found to be all 

 of the bovine genus. 



We may then conclude, that the fossils now found in the bed of the 

 Jamna, entangled among the rocky shoals, have been washed thither 

 from some locality in which they were originally imbedded and fossiliz- 

 ed. From Mr. Dean's account, it is probable, that they were enclosed 

 in the present bank, and have fallen in on its being cut away by the 

 gradual action of tha river. Should this however not prove to be the 

 case, and search for their home be inquiringly extended to a distance ; 

 it is not necessary, as I had at first suggested, to travel back all the 

 way to the ample store-house of fossils in the Sewalik range of the 

 Lower Himalaya, whence such fragile materials could hardly be sup- 

 posed to arrive with any vestige of form ; for Lieut. Vicaky has pre- 

 sented us with a nearer locality in the banks of the Betwa river*, and 

 Mr. Benson, from personal knowledge, confirms the probability of 

 this spot having been the source of the deposit in the rocks of the 

 Jamna. I myself incline to believe that both places have their fossils, 

 and that many more may still be found here and there where natural 

 sections of the alluvium have been formed by rivers, although to ex- 

 pect to fall upon them in the digging of wells would be as chimerical 

 (to use a homely proverb) as searching for a needle in a bundle of hay. 

 There is in every respect a complete analogy between the fossils 

 of the Jamna and those fortuitously discovered by Crawfurd under 

 the banks of the Irawadi in Ava. Their preservation is equally owing 

 to their impregnation and conversion into hydrate of iron. The 

 words of Professor Buckland would probably apply as well to the one 

 as to the other : 



" At the bottom of the cliff, the strand was dry, and on it were found speci- 

 mens of petrified wood and bones, that had probably fallen from the cliff in the 

 course of its decay : but no bones were discovered in the cliff itself by Mr. Craw- 

 furd and Dr. Wallich : nor were they more fortunate in several places where 

 they dug in search of bones in the adjacent district. This district is composed 

 of sand hills that are very sterile, and is intersected by deep ravines : among the 

 sand are beds of gravel, often cemented to a breccia by iron or carbonate of lime ; 

 and scattered over its surface, at distant and irregular intervals, were found many 

 fragments of hone and mineralized wood ; in some instances lying entirely loose 



* See Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, 1st April, 1835, page 183. 



