GLEANINGS 
IN 
SCIENCE. 
No . 33. — September , 1831. 
I , — On the Organic Remains found in the Himmalaya . — 
By Capt. J. D. Herbert, Dep. Sur . Gen. 
[Read before the Physical Class Asiatic Society.] 
The more elevated portions of the earth’s surface have always in a particular 
manner attracted the attention of geologists, in consequence of the greater develope- 
ment in which rocks are there found. The level plains are every where composed 
of vast accumulations of the more recent debris, which conceal in a great measure 
the nature of the materials forming the crust of our globe : in mountainous 
countries only it is that the nature and order of the strata can be observed. In 
level countries these are hid from our view by the thick coating of rubbish with, 
which the destructive agencies always at work have gradually covered them. 
The greater the elevation the greater has been supposed to be the interest 
attached to geological investigations j yet this is not always the case. When the 
Wernerian theory was in vogue, the occurrence of marine organic remains at great 
elevations was necessarily considered a point of considerable interest j but since 
other views (to say the least, equally probable) as to the possible origin of the 
present inequalities of the earth’s surface have become current, the occurrence of 
^ch phenomena at this or that elevation has ceased to form a discussion of the 
sa me interest. 
But though the question of the altitude at which shells are found has lost much 
°f its original interest, it does not follow that no interest of another kind may not 
a dach to it. In fact, from the zeal and perseverance with which the history of 
fossil remains has been recently pursued in Europe, many points of inquiry have 
s Prung up which are calculated to Interest the geologist in a very high degree. By 
Com paring the shells found in the same rocks at different places and again in 
different rocks, much of the obscurity which had concealed what is called the order 
°f superposition in the newer strata has been dissipated, and a strong light thrown 
0n this most interesting branch of geology. In this way fossil remains have come 
to he considered as the most certain means of determining the true place of a for- 
mation in the general order of superposition ; and mineral composition (in which 
mdecd it was always known there was great latitude), is again frequently altogether 
° V er ^°°ked. Thus the lias of the Alps could never be recognised by a common ob- 
' )6n er as the same formation with the lias of England ; but the fossil remains 
