232 



Note on the Spiti Fossils. 

 KATHORS. 



[No. 3, 



1050. Chandra Deva, 

 1080. Madana Pala, 

 1115, Govinda Chandra. 

 1165. Vijaya Chandra. 

 1175. Java Chandra. 

 1193. Muhammadan conquest. 



Note on the Fossils in the Society's Collection reputed to le from 

 Spiti.— By T. Oldham, Mq., F. E. S., Sfc, Sfc. 



In the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for the present 

 year (1863), page 124, a paper is published descriptive of some of 

 the fossils collected by Dr. Gerard in the Spiti district in the North- 

 Western Himalaya, which fossils had been in the Society's Museum 

 for many years, having been presented by Dr. Gerard in 1831. 



The paper referred to, is said to be a ' revised copy' of one read 

 before the Society in November, 1861. The original paper, of which 

 a brief abstract was given in the Journal of the Society, 1861, page 

 418, had been ordered for publication by the Council of the Society, 

 but some delay occurred in the preparation of the plates to illustrate 

 it, in consequence of the author having temporarily left India at the 

 time, and it was not issued. Meanwhile changes in the author's 

 views having taken place, he first desired that the paper should be 

 issued as originally drawn up, with a postscript, but subsequently on 

 his return to India he states that he ' withdrew' the paper and ' modi- 

 fied' it into its present form in which the conclusions arrived at are 

 in several important respects just the opposite of those originally 

 announced. 



This was indeed, as the author says, "A very considerable altera- 

 tion ;" but the paper in its present form never having been submitted 

 either to the Council, or to the Society, having been in fact with- 

 drawn, and so altered without the sanction of the Council having been 

 obtained, there has been I regret to say, no opportunity, previously to 

 its publication, of communicating with the author. 



It is not my intention to discuss in any way the correctness or in- 

 correctness of the identification of species in the collection. This 



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