Memoranda on the Geology of Sikkim, 531 



them to their present places, and gave them their exist- 

 ing forms. 



On the Teesta, I observed an arrangement of boulders 

 which it is difficult to account for. The stones near the river, 

 and within reach of its highest floods, bear the usual rounded 

 shape of water-worn stones, while those above the reach of 

 the highest floods that now ever occur as I conceive, are of 

 an angular shape, and lie piled as a wall of say six or eight 

 feet high, in which position they seem to have settled for a 

 lengthened period. 



The Sikkim hills being characterized by a scarcity of lime, 

 it may be worth while noticing, that the country is at the 

 same time remarkable for the limited nature of its concho- 

 logy. The species not only are few in number, but the indi- 

 viduals belonging to any given species are at the same time 

 very scanty. Now it may be asked, is the reason of this 

 deficiency in this class of animals owing to the want of 

 material necessary for the formation of shells, or, is it an ac- 

 cident to be accounted for on some other unknown princi- 

 ple ? Certain it is, there is no want of birds in the country, 

 and of course they must have the means of finding material 

 for forming the shells of their eggs, yet this too may be effect- 

 ed by the greater power of locomotion in birds than in 

 mollusca, and in their capacity to go to more remote dis- 

 tances in search of substances that may afford the means of 

 producing a requisite covering for their eggs. Quadrupeds 

 too thrive in the country, and are not stunted in growth, nor 

 to appearance inconvenienced in any way by want of a sup- 

 ply of matter to form the bones of their structure. 



One other observation which it occurs to me to make here, 

 is, that the valleys about Darjeeling are generally not insalu- 

 brious at any season. The natives say, they are never affect- 

 ed by fever by going any where in them, except in the rains 

 to a small extent. The hills are steep, and the rain which 

 falls on them, though very abundant, runs quickly off them 5 



