1835.] Note on the Asurhdr of the Rdjmahal Hills. 707 



IV. Carnivora. 



17. Felis. (Spec, large : No. and character undetermined.) 



18. Canis. (Species undetermined.) 



19. Hyaena. (Species undetermined.) 



20. Amyxodon. (Nob.) 



1. A. Sivalensis. (Nob.) 



Indications of other genera. 



V. Reptilia. 



21. Crocodilus. 



C. Bi/orcatus P 



22. Gaviala. 



G. Gangetica ? 



23. Emys. (Several species undetermined.) 



24. (Triouyx. (Several species undetermined.) 



VI. Pisces. (Heads, vertebrae, &c. of unknown fishes.) 



VII. Testacea. (Univalves and bivalves undetermined.) 



XIII. — Note on the Asurhdr of the Rdjmahal Hills. By Capt. H. Tanner. 



[The following letter has reference to an extract from Buchanan's geological 

 account of the Riijmahal hills, to which the Editor drew attention on the cover 

 of the May number of the Journal, in consequence of a report having reached 

 him that fossil bones had been discovered in the same range of hills towards 

 Burdwan. This present information removes any hopes of meeting with the 

 expected fossils, and may save the trouble, of further search ; for reference sake 

 the passage is here reprinted : 



" The other calcareous matter, in mass, is called asurhdr, or giant's bones. 

 The greatest quantity is found at a place, in the centre of the hills, called asurni, 

 or the Female Giant. As the lime, produced from this substance, is whiter and 

 better than that made from the nodules, a great part has been removed. It oc- 

 cupied a space, on the surface of the declivity of a hill, about 40 or 50 yards in 

 length ; and from the bottom of the hill, extended upwards, from ten to forty 

 yards, and seems to have formed a crust from 2 to 3 feet thick, covered by a 

 thin soil, filled with loose masses of stone. It has evidently been fluid, or at 

 least gradually deposited from water, as it has involved many fragments of stone, 

 some earthy matter, and a few univalve shells, of a species with which I am 

 not acquainted, and cannot therefore say, whether they are a marine or land 

 production*. The masses of stone that had been involved vary from the size of 

 the head to that of a walnut, and the asurhdr, or calcareous tufa, does not ad- 

 here very firmly to them ; so that in breaking, the mass being very hard, these 

 nodules are generally shaken out. Near the quarry 1 saw no rock ; but all the 

 fragments involved, and those under the calcareous matter, are of a dark-coloured 

 siliceous matter. In this place I saw appearances that, in some measure, justify 

 the native name ; for one piece of the asurhdr contained what had very much 

 the appearance of a flat bone, with a process projecting at one end. I also ob- 

 served a curious impression, a semi-cylinder, about three inches in diameter, and 

 18 inches long, not quite straight, and exposed to view, as if, by breaking the 

 rock, the other half of the cylinder had been removed. The surface of the 

 cavity was wrinkled with transverse folds, like the inside of an intestine, but 

 may have possibly been the bark of a tree, although I have seen no bark with 

 such wrinkles ; I rather suppose that this has been tne impression of some 

 marine animal. The greater part of this asurhdr, as I have said, has been 

 burned by Mr. Christian, a Polish merchant of Monghyr, who, I am told, owing 



* I have since found these shells in the rivers of Gaya. 



