1840.] 



Geological Features of the Himalayan Mountains. 



331 



the digging, they found teeth of crocodiles; shells of tortoises; teeth, 

 apparently of squalus; and bones and teeth of a pachydermatous 

 animal, apparently Anthracotherium, The lignite lies between two 

 beds of marl, or clay conglomerate ; and in the upper of them the re- 

 mains were found. Lieut. Durand, in September 1834, met with this 

 marl, or clay conglomerate, on the north face of Nahun, with toitoise, 

 Saurian, manumal, and fish remains. 



i3ut this discovery was eclipsed by that of the more extensive and 

 important deposit of remains of fossil mammalia on the same range of 

 hills to the westward of the Jumna, to which the duties of the C mal 

 officers often led them. Attention was directed to this by Lieut. Baker 

 having had given him, by the Nahun rajah, the fossil tooth of an ele- 

 phant (Elephas primigenius) which had been picked up at Sumrotee, 

 near the Pinjore valley. Lieut. B. proceeded to the Ambwalla Pass, on 

 the western side of the Jumna, and found a large bone of some huge 

 animal; Capt. Cautley, with his characteristic zeal, immediately joirted 

 Lieuts. Baker and Durand ; when they carefully examined the ravine 

 and slip, and brought away from the upper strata of sandstone seven 

 fragments of bone, some of very large elephants, and the tibia, appa- 

 rently, of a camel. A thin bed of blue clay, or blue marl, underlying 

 the sandstone, and dipping at an angle of 20° to 30*, was found full of 

 fresh water shells, as of Planorbis and of Paludina, v. Journ. As. Soc, 

 iii. p. 393.* Specimens were also procured from other parts of the 

 range, proving that from the Jumna to the Pinjore valley these moun- 

 tains abound in fossils; and, in March 1837, Dr. Falconer announced 

 the discovery of a few of the same fossils near Hurdwar, and in large 

 quantities to the eastward of the Ganges in the low hills which skirt 

 the province of Kemaon. Since then, the progress of discovery 

 has been rapid, and is fully recorded in the works quoted. A more 

 particular account of the localities, with sections of the mountains, is 

 given by Capt. Cautley, in his paper read to the Geological Society 

 (9th March 1836), and published in the Transactions, 2d Series, vol. 

 v., p. 267, to which I gladly refer, and have only to give a brief enu- 

 meration of the genera and some of the species which have been disco- 

 vered in the Sewalik hills. Capt. C. states particularly, that to the 

 westward of the Jumna these hills are less abrupt; gravel beds are 

 less frequent and abundant, and they are composed of varieties of clay- 



* Though the Author refers to the Journal of the Asiatic Society, &c. as showing the 

 publication of the information, yet he quotes chiefly from letters addressed to him by 

 Capt. Cautley, and which are those referred to by Mr. Lyell in his address in presenting 

 the Wollaston medal, in 1837, to the Author, to be forwarded to Capt. Cautley and Dr. 

 Falcouer. 



