1831.] 
found in the Himmalaya, 
271 
With the exception of these particulars, all that we know or have heard of organic 
remains in the Himmalaya, we owe to the spirit and persevering enterprize of Dr. 
Gerard. His repeated visits to the different places where these remains are to he 
found must have made him fully acquainted with all the circumstances. As one 
of the most interesting of his collections has been recently under the consi- 
deration of the Class, and as all his letters accompanying them have been read 
at our meetings, it would be at once useless and impertinent in me attempting 
a history of his labours and discoveries. I may however state, if it be only 
to connect these collections with the others, that they consist of Ammonites 
and Belemnites like the others, and in addition of Orthoceratites ; that like them 
they come from beyond the region of the schists, which succeed to the Himmalaya 
gneiss in going northward j ancl that, in addition to the above, there are what 
I have seen in no other collection, rocks apparently formed entirely of shells, 
and containing several species in the most perfect preservation. These latter 
I need not say are those which have been made the subject of a recent report 
read before the Class. Dr. Gerard has however, I believe, never met with any bones. 
I may conclude this meagre notice with the expression of a hope, in which I am 
sure the Class will join with me, that Dr. Gerard will shortly be able to 
communicate to us the particulars of his discovery as to locality, &c. and that 
by this means there be assured to him the honor of being the first discoverer, 
which considering his indefatigable zeal in the examination of the tract in 
question and the many years of his life he has devoted to it, we should be sorry to 
see snatched from him by a later observer, who was indebted for his knowledge of 
the phenomena, and his examination of them, to the liberal and communicative 
spirit which Dr. Gerard has always manifested. 
Note by the Secretary. — The accompanying plate, has been etched from 
the more finished drawings of Dr. Gerard s fossil shells, prepaied to be 
printed with the Rev. R. Everest’s memorandum upon them in the Asiatic 
Researches. These organic relics are generally in so mutilated a state that 
few of the characteristic types are discernible, and the difficulty of naming 
them is increased by the want of works of reference on fossil conchology. 
Much uncertainty therefore still prevails in the names assigned, and it is 
hoped by circulating the figures in the Gleanings to elicit further opinions 
on tbe subject from those who make conchology their peculiar study. Those 
also who reside among the hills may, by seeing what species the cabinet of 
the Society possesses, be better able to select fresh varieties, and complete 
in time this interesting series of Himmalayan fossils. We address ourselves more 
particularly to Dr. Gerard, to whom we already owe so much, and who has 
promised a geological section of the Spiti valley, in which they were discovered 
by himself. 
References to Plate XVII. 
1* (a) Numerous blocks of gray siliceous limestone — (or calcareous tufa, 
containing 50 per cent, of reddish sand), filled with shells and casts of a small 
inequivalve eared bivalve, resembling the small Pecten of the Y ork lias. 
& and c are mutilated specimens of a larger variety of pecten, probably the same 
shell in a more advanced state. 
2* (a) An unequivalved bivalve shell with a deep furrow on the back, the su 
stance of which is generally changed into crystalline carbonate of lime, and in 
a single specimen into ironstone ; it is imbedded in a hard slate of a dark e iay . 
tbe lower valve is frequently crushed as in figure 2 [f). Mr. Everest supposes 
