1855.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 365 



The following is an extract from a letter dated 5th April last, from Mr. 

 Hislop, which announced his intention to send these fossils. 



"In an account of the proceedings of your last meeting (March 7th,) 

 I was glad to notice the addition to your Museum of a fossil stem 

 and leaves of Cycas from the Rajmahal hills, presented hy Mr. Watson 

 -r— also the announcement, hy Captain Saxton, of the discovery of fossils 

 in the Gungpore Rajah's territory. We have from here several stems, 

 more especially in the laminated sandstone underlying, what used to 

 be called in Peninsular India, the diamond sandstone, the former of 

 which is the equivalent near the city of Nagpore of the coal fields in 

 the North of this Province, and on the banks of the Damuda and other 

 parts of Bengal. If you could kindly obtain an outline drawing of 

 the stem for me to compare with those here, I should feel much ob- 

 liged to you. Could you also give me some idea, either by a drawing 

 or written descriptions, of the genera of the Gungpore fossils 1 If you 

 have in your Museum any other Indian sandstone and coal organisms 

 over and above those published by McClelland in his geological survey, 

 I should be much indebted to you, if you would have the goodness to 

 favour me with a sketch of them for the purpose of comparison. What 

 is Pustularia Calderiana, said to be found on the Damuda coal field ? 



" Have you got any shells from the limestone found in connexion 

 with the trap of the Rajmahal Hills which Capt. Sherwill considers a 

 fresh water deposit ? 



" As a sort of specimens of the rough sketches that would be 

 useful to me I send you some hasty outlines of several of the fossils 

 discovered here in our laminated sandstone and coal. Besides these 

 Jurassic remains, which all appear to indicate fresh water deposit, we 

 meet in a lacustrine stratum, generally underlain and overlain with trap, 

 with an abundance of tertiary organisms, such as small bones, fish scales, 

 the elytra of beetles, Entomostraea and Mollusca ; and fruits, seeds, 

 leaves, roots, and trunks of trees. These are, for the most part, so minute 

 and numerous that it would take longer time to copy them for you, 

 than I am able to afford. My colleague, the Rev. Mr. Hunter and 

 myself have had packed up in a box for the last year a selection of 

 oolitic and tertiary fossils for your Museum, but we have not been 

 able to hear of any convenient mode of transmission to Calcutta." 



2, From J. Pontet, Esq. Rajmahal, impressions of Ferns (Pecop- 



3 b 2 



