12T0 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dec. 



the act of forming, just as we might suppose the Missisippi, now rolling fragments 

 of coal into the Gulf of Mexico, to be deposited in coal beds now forming there. 

 This is a lapse of time at which the imagination is startled, but if the accounts given 

 by Mr. Williams that these balls are found of all sizes up to 18 inches or more in 

 diameter in coal beds, be correct, there seems no other way of accounting for them, 

 for they are distinctly rolled, or at least rounded fragments formed like the other 

 coal in layers. Mr. Homfray, I observe, has noticed these balls as rolled by the 

 attrition of water, but the question of how they can have been deposited, is one of 

 first interest with reference to the time we have hitherto supposed necessary for the 

 formation of coal and its superincumbent strata. 



Economic Geology, — We have received from our always active contributor, Cap- 

 tain Sherwill, two specimens of lead ore, of which he says : — 



" I send by steamer as it is too heavy for banghy, two lumps of Antimony ore 

 embedded in a decaying or oxide stained quartz roclc, which is found to the south 

 of Bhagulpore. As I am busy from morning to night with business connected 

 with my survey, I must defer furnishing any information I may possess upon its 

 locality, extent, &c." 



This ore contains a portion of Antimony and of Arsenic, but a much larger one 

 of lead, so that it is much more properly a lead and not an antimony ore. With- 

 out destroying the specimens we cannot obtain a good piece for analysis, and I have 

 thus only noticed it temporarily (intending to refer to it again ) but desirous that 

 our friend Captain Sherwill should have his discovery announced, assuming that 

 it is a new locality, which I believe it to be. 



Library. 



The following books have been received since the last meeting : — 



Presented. 



La Rhetorique des nations Musulmanes d'apresle traite Persan, intitule Hadayic 

 ul-Balagat, par M. Garcia de Tassy. — By the Author. 



The Calcutta Christiau Observer for November, 1817. — By the Editors. 



Meteorological Register kept at the Surveyor General's Office, Calcutta, for the 

 month of October, 1847. — By the Officiating Deputy Surveyor General. 



The Oriental Baptist, for December, 1847. — By the Editor. 



The Upadeshak, No. 12. — By the Editor. 



Exchanged. 

 Journal Asiatique, Nos. 43 — 4. 

 The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, No. 207. 



Purchased. 

 The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, No. 132. 



The Curator in the Zoological Department gave his usual report on 

 the ncqiusitions to the Museum during the past month. 



