1843.] Asiatic Society. 52 1 



" The Volcano is still in a bubbling boiling state, the orifice not larger than a tea 

 cup, and there is a" hot slimy fluid to be dipped up at the surface, but no vapour or 

 noise is emitted, and it is otherwise quiet." 



These specimens will I hope enable us to furnish a complete set of them to several 

 Societies, to whom I doubt not they will be objects of much interest, as they will be 

 enabled to compare them with the products of the Mud Volcanos of South America. 



Captain Boys of the 6th Light Cavalry, Assistant to the Commissioner of Kemaoon, 

 who has already obliged us with a paper on the genus Paussus, and promised us a 

 selection from his geological collections, being about to proceed on a trip towards 

 some of the Thibet Passes, I have been able to be of some little assistance to him in 

 the way of procuring books, instruments, &c, and by permission of the Secretary I have 

 informed him, that the Society will be happy to repay any extra expenses he may 

 incur in taking on men and jooboos, for the purpose of sending back to the nearest 

 inhabited spots, as he proceeds on his journey, the specimens he may collect, requesting 

 his attention particularly to the deposits of various organic remains at great heights, the 

 formations in which these are found, and the glacial phcenomena of which so many 

 traces, and upon such a stupendous scale, must exist in those mountains and the 

 lower ranges. By this arrangement we trust to obtain, with a very trifling expence, 

 not only an assortment of specimens for our Museum, but some for exchange with our 

 friends at home ;* for in India the great defect in these matters is, that amongst our 



* The Curator here read the following extract of a letter received that day by dawk from 

 Captain Boyes, as follows : — 



H. Piddington, Esq. 



Almorah, May 27, 1843. 

 Your last three notes have been duly received, and I now return you my be>t thanks for the 

 kindness with which you have troubled yourself on my account. Your last note, respecting the 

 sculls will meet with every attention I can give it, but I much fear that this proposed trip will 

 not afford many specimens, as the natives either burn or consign them to the rapids. The route I 

 have determined on is to go from this to Melum, across the Jowahir Pass, and if possible, return by 

 Neetee. I have been induced to this in a great measure by your former letter, which seems to 

 shew, that Captain Weller's Journal refers to some interesting points regarding the ammonite 

 deposit, and I also wish more attentively to observe the country about Neetee and Mullairee. 

 Last year when at the latter place, which is some 16 miles on this side the Pass, I obtained a few 

 specimens of Fossil Shell, (either Terebratulse or Pecten,) which I would wish more thoroughly to 

 investigate, as I believe it is an opinion that no Fossils occur on this side the range. The mountain 

 behind Melum, both on its Southern, S. E. and S. W. faces, is compossed of Limestone, containing 

 myriads of the above-mentioned Fossils, but the rock is so hard (even to giving fire with the steel) 

 and the shells so closely wedged, that a stricter search and more time than I then had (I was only 

 one day there) is necessary to produce a worthy result. The crags forming the ridge of the moun- 

 tain (called Choping-ka-danda,) are formed of Clay Slate, which appears to have been upraised 

 through the shelly deposit. The strata of the latter, as far as I could observe, are horizontal. I 

 send by Dawk Bhangy the specimens I there collected, and hope that this trip will produce something 

 more acceptable. Dr. Jameson informs me, that the specimens are all of them too small for practi- 

 cal purposes, which rather surprised me, as most of them are at least half a pound in weight ; this 

 fault I shall avoid in future, but having to carry them about myself, I could not well take larger 

 specimens, which I shall now be enabled to do from the Society's assistance of the joboos or coolies as 

 may be. I should have been delighted to have gone to the Gungtung Pass, but the distance from 

 this precludes the possibility; there are however many interesting points in my present route, any 

 one of which will amply repay the trouble incurred." 



