1839.] of the country extending between Bhar and Simla. 1043 



stated to us, that in the first locality, bones of fossil animals have 

 been found, either imbedded, or in the neighbourhood. If the 

 first statement should turn out to be correct, of which however he 

 is doubtful, it may probably be the means of allowing us to draw 

 conclusions in regard to the age of these deposits generally throughout 

 the Himmalehs. To these transported soils we therefore beg to direct 

 the attention of observers ; of the latter, or untransported soil, we have 

 of course abundance of examples. In many places it is of great thick- 

 ness, as has been shewn by some sections lately made at Simla on the 

 road from Subbathoo to the village of Draw, it also occurs in many 

 places, of great thickness. This kind of soil is formed by the decom- 

 position of the subjacent rock, or rocks and vegetable matter, and con- 

 tains in general imbedded angular fragments of the rocks which occur 

 in the neighbourhood. In regard to boulders, it may be stated, that 

 there are two kinds, which may be denominated natural and artifici- 

 al, the former produced by decomposition, the latter by attrition. To 

 account for boulders in many cases on the summit of mountains, 

 many erroneous statements have been made, and absurd theories 

 proposed, which would have been avoided if the author had paid at- 

 tention to this, and examined the mineralogical characters of the boul- 

 ders, and of the rocks in situ; for instead of finding that the boulders 

 had been brought from a distance, it would have been discovered, that 

 they were in their original position. In trap and granitic districts, 

 these natural boulders are frequently met with ; in the former, caused 

 by the oxydation of the iron, which enters more or less into the 

 composition of all traps, and frequently in its least oxydized state. 

 and thus tends to combine with more oxygen ; in the latter, by the 

 decomposition of the alkali of the felspar (generally potassa) a substance 

 frequently found in the felspar of granites;* the earth which remains 

 is the celebrated Porcelain earth. To find trap on the ground scale 

 exhibiting the columnar structure, and each of the columns composed 

 of a series of balls, is not unfrequent. It is in these districts we 

 meet with so frequently natural boulders of trap ; if we examine 

 minutely into the structure, we shall find that the concretions are 



* Analysis of rocks is a subject, which has as yet engaged but little attention; we 

 are glad to see that one chemist in this country (Professor O'Shaughnessy) is paying 

 some attention to the subject; it will amply repay his trouble, opening up a wide 

 field of discovery, and at the same time giving to geologists the means of validating or 

 refuting many of the theories, in regard to the formation of rocks which have been 

 advanced. We hope therefore the Professor, who in his splendid laboratory ha? 

 every thing at his command, will take the opportunity of conducting operations 

 upon a more extensive scale, and at the same time give quantitive analysis. 



