1835.] On the Arborizations of the S6n agates. 507 



adhering to the antler at the time when I undertook to clear away 

 the sandstone with which they were all partially covered up. 



The fragment (fig. 4) consisting of one of the occipital condyles of 

 a large ruminant, was obtained afterwards from the same person who 

 brought the others, and who stated that he had found it in the same 

 spot. I purpose availing myself of the first opportunity of visiting 

 this pass, where, from the admirable state of preservation of these 

 specimens, I hope to meet with others equally perfect. 



The axis (fig. 1) must have belonged to a very large ruminant, 

 being in linear dimension about double the size of the corresponding 

 bone of the common bullock of Hindustan. But supposing it to have 

 belonged to our elk, it would appear that this individual at least did 

 not in size equal the elk, of which the remains have been found in 

 Europe. 



Besides the specimens represented in the plate, there are in the 

 Dadupur collection, many fragments of bones, more or less perfect, 

 of gigantic ruminants : amongst others, cervical vertebrae, far exceed- 

 ing in size that represented in fig. 2. 



Another year will, I hope, give us a more perfect acquaintance with 

 the former possessors of these huge fragments ; in the mean time, it 

 may be worth while to note the discovery of the first undoubted remains 

 of the elk, as I am not aware that this animal has been hitherto found 

 in a fossil state in India. 



Dadupur, June 9th, 1835. 



VII. — Note on the Vegetable Impressions in Agates. By Mr. J. Ste- 

 phenson. 

 [In a letter to the Editor.] 

 A few of the scientific gentlemen of Calcutta, who have seen 

 specimens of my collection of agates from the Sone river, having im- 

 bedded the organic remains of plants, have doubted the existence of 

 such remains ; asserting (agreeable to the old notion), that the appear- 

 ances are ceased by metallic oxides, merely assuming arborescent forms, 

 I am well aware, that long cherished opinions are difficult to eradicate, 

 and most people are tenacious of parting with what they have hugged 

 as truths for half a century. I well remember when Sir Humphrey 

 Davy explained Lavoisier's beautiful theory of combustion, that a 

 good many of my contemporaries would not be convinced, though 

 demonstration stared them in the face; and it was only after years of 

 argument, that they were compelled, at last, to embrace the new and 



