May, 1845.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. liii 



P. S. In your letter dated the 4th August, 1844, you allude to a paper of queries re- 

 garding the volcanic islands on the coast ; this paper I never received, and I fear I shall 

 scarcely be able to proceed to the islands this season ; but if you will kindly transmit the 

 queries, they may induce me to go, and show me also what you require." 



Captain J. Abbott, B. A. has obliged us with a paper on Kunkur, with specimens con- 

 taining his views on its formation, which will doubtless be printed in the Journal, as 

 offering, especially, views formed on the spot and in the alluvial soil : to which I refer 

 more particularly, as Captain Newbold has lately favored us with his views principally 

 from the Kunkur fields in the great trap formation of Central India. 



Through Captain Baker, B. E. we have received a letter from Lieutenant Blagrave 

 which should have accompanied his boxes of Scinde fossils and fish. It is as follows : — 



To the Secretary to the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. 



Sir, — I have the pleasure of sending you a few fossil shells and zoophytes found in the 

 neighbourhood of Roree, Tatta, and Kurachee, also a few recent sea shells found in the 

 tops of the sand hills in the vicinity of the Ullah Bund, and some fish from the Sindra 

 lake. As I hear that the Society are publishing Sir A. Burnes' illustrations of the fishes 

 of Scinde, some of these may be new, as I believe he got none of the fishes of the Sindra 

 lake, and thought that none existed in it on account of the extreme saltness of its waters ; 

 but when I visited it, in July last, the banks were strewn with fish and water insects 

 evidently thrown upon the shore by some recent storm, along with several small dead 

 birds and thousands of locusts, which had evidently pei'ished in trying to cross the lake. 

 There were several other kinds of fish both large and small, which I had not the means 

 of carrying away with me ; many quite new, at least to me ; however, if I re-visit that 

 neighbourhood, I will make a collection for the Society's Museum. I had intended 

 sending a collection of recent shells from the beach at Clifton, (Kurachee) along with 

 the fossil ones, for comparison, but I have had no time to make the selections or even to 

 look over the fossils, among which there may be a lot of trash ; but should I be here 

 another year, should the Society wish it, I will endeavour to make a good collection of 

 both for them. I shall be employed in surveying the hills on the western boundary during 

 the cold weather, and if I find anything worth sending will do so. Can you give me any 

 hints for analizing soils, as I think it would be to the advantage of Government were the 

 different kinds of soils in Scinde known, and oblige, Yours truly, 



1st October, 1844, Camp Kurachee. T. C. Blagrave. 



From Mr. Conductor Dawe we are apprised of the dispatch of five chests of fossils 

 selected by him, under Captain Baker's directions, from the remains of the Dadoopoor 

 Museum, which are on their way down to us. 



We have to announce also two more papers of great importance from Capt. Newbold, 

 being " Notes on the Geology of the Southern Mahratta Country," and " Geological 

 Notes across the Peninsula," which will no doubt find an early place in our Journal. 



Museum Economic Geology. 



We have received from Captain Sherwill a box of stones for trial as lithographic stones 

 from the table-land of Rhotasghur, but I fear most of them will be found too siliceous 

 or too thin. Many indeed are evidently defective, but some promise well, and I shall take 

 steps to have them fairly tried. 



Major Williams of Kyook Phyoo, who some time ago sent us a minute specimen of 

 a stone called Samy stone in the West of India, as having been sold to his brother by a 



