Nov. 1845.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. cxvii 



some mud (indurated) deposit on a sandy shallow off the coast, eight or ten miles north 

 of Cochin. I set people there also and I have been most successful — I have found no more 

 of the slabs, because if any they have not gone deep enough, i. e. to five or six feet, but 

 I have found them to abound in the upper stratum of loose detached pieces and nodules, 

 at a depth of one and half or two feet in the mud or clay on the shores of the Breakwater. 

 All these have the strongest resemblance in form to fossil bones. 



I have packed up in a box a small collection of all the varieties I have yet found, and 

 dispatched it lately to Madras to go by an early steamer to Calcutta. The enclosed sketch 

 of the appearance of these bone-like fossils ? is by a medical friend who examined them 

 when passing Trevandrum. I have more recently collected a great number more— and 

 will forward them to you if desired. 



I will also now forward to you by post a few small specimens, with a little sketch of the 

 tract where they are found, together with a rough drawing or etching of some of the slabs 

 and more remarkable nodules. 



The more compact limestones, as I have already noticed, are found on the shores of the 

 Breakwater. On the sea beach are found abraded corals, and small flat pieces of 

 stone, some very much like the laminae of the large massive slabs of the canal, others a 

 conglomerate of minute shells, gravel, sand, and the small grains or particles of the 

 coarse limestone. Indeed the particles of the coarse limestone seem to form the cement. 



1'he sea beach varieties are found at upwards of forty miles north of Cochin, but they 

 do not appear to extend above three or four miles in a southerly direction, all of which 

 seems to strengthen the supposition that the deposit is limited, forming abed or stratum 

 conformable to the general direction of the primary rocks of this coast. 



One of the first objects of my seeking or discovering this limestone was to try its proper- 

 ties as a cement, and it seems to possess all the essential of the most perfect water cement. 

 Properly prepared and formed into a small ball without sand or any thing but water, if 

 thrown into water it hardens in a few minutes, in the air it hardens almost instantaneously 

 It answers perfectly to Col. Pasley's description of the best water cement. We have no. 

 experience here however, and I shall therefore send some for experiment to Madras, to 

 Capt. Smith of the Madras Engineers. 



This is a hasty and imperfect account, I will endeavour to send you a more correct 

 one hereafter. 



W. CULLEN. 



Cochin, July, 1845. 



Sketch. 

 1. like the Scapula or shoulder blade. 

 1. like the Femur or thigh bone. 



1. like Os Innominata, or one side of the Pelvis. 



2. short ends like the Tibia and Fibula of hind legs. 

 2. ditto like the knee bones of the fore legs. 



1. short piece like the great Trochanter or end of the thigh bone forming the hip joint. 

 1. large piece (hollow) apparently petrified wood. 



building, a discovery perhaps equally interesting, but I have never heard of thatstone used 

 in building in Malabar. I was delighted therefore on finding traces of it in the prolonga- 

 tion of the line. 



