202 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 2. 



carbonized bark is sometimes tolerably thick, varying from one inch 

 to \\ inch, occasionally very thin, and often absent altogether. 



" The central portion of these stems is invariably composed of hard 

 sandy layers, of which the fissures and divisional planes are coated 

 with carbonate of lime. 



" These stems are frequently much worn and rounded, and have 

 evidently been carried for some distance, and deprived entirely of 

 their bark and external covering before being imbedded. In other 

 cases there is nothing save the position of the stems in the rocks, to 

 shew that they have not been imbedded where they grew. 



" I did not find a single instance of an upright stem ; all are on 

 the planes of bedding of the rock or but slightly divergent from 

 these. 



" These stems vary much in size, being from a few inches to ten 

 and even fifteen feet, of which length I measured one. Of this, 

 the thickness in the centre was seven inches, and its breadth one 

 foot three inches, being considerably flattened. One portion of this 

 large stem, was altogether without any carbonized or coaly integu- 

 ment, while in other parts this coaly envelop was more than one 

 inch in thickness. The series of rocks in which these stems 

 occur is of very considerable thickness and consists of a number of 

 alternating beds of coarse chirty shales, and thick masses of 

 grey, and brownish sand-stones, generally highly micaceous. There 

 are but slight traces of calcareous matter throughout, lime occurring 

 only in earthy calcareous nodules, in a few of the shaly beds. The 

 whole group is not less than 4000 feet in thickness, and throughout 

 dips at considerable angles to the north, and north-west, never less 

 than twenty degrees, but generally ranging from forty-five to sixty. 



" Through the greater portion of this extensive series, but invaria- 

 bly in the coarser, and more pebbly sand-stones of the group, occur 

 the stems which we have noticed, and in the formation extending 

 along the base of the hills into the Bhotan territory, these stems are 

 found in the same rocks, occurring along the bed of the Teesta as 

 well as along the bed of its tributary the Sivok ; and no doubt, 

 continue to the eastward also ; indeed they appear slightly more 

 abundant and larger in the Teesta, than in the Sivok.* 



* Sivok, and Chawa or Chiwo, the two names by which this Nuddee has been 



