Transactions of the Geological Society. 
J 83 
A?' a public officer of high rank, as representative of the Governor General of 
British India, Mr. Crawford must have possessed facilities which no unassisted pri- 
vate individual can ever possess. And vet it is curious to remark how much the 
discovery was owing to chance, and how nearly it was missed. “ An accident that 
delayed for some days the steam boat in which Mr Crawfurd was descending this 
river, allowed him to land, accompanied by Dr. \\ alliclt, and hr investigate the struc- 
ture of the country foosomc miles onthe north-east of VVestmasut. The accident arose 
from the shallowness of the water when the steam boat was descending, which, for- 
tunately for geology, caused it to run aground near the wells of petroleum, where 
the left 'bank of the river presents a cliff of several miles in length, generally perpen- 
dicular and not exceeding eighty feet in height. At the bottom o t the cliif the strand 
was dry, and on it were found specimens of petrified wood and font's, that had 
probably fallen from the cliff in the course of its decay ; but no bone was discovered 
in the cliff itself by Mr. Crawfurd and Dr. Wallieh ; nor were they more fortunate 
in several places where they dug in searcli of bones in the adjacent district, ibis 
district is composed of sand hills that are very sterile, and it is intersected by deep 
ravines : among the sand are Ih-iIs of gravel often cemented to a breccia by iron 
or carbonate of lime ; aud scattered over its surface at distant and irregular inter- 
vals were found many fragments of bone and mineralised wood, in some instances 
hung entirely loose upon the sand, in other cases hall buried in it, with their up- 
per portions projecting, naked, and exposed to the air ; they appear to have been 
left in this condition, in consequence of the matrix of sand and gravel that once 
covered them undergoing daily removal by the agency of winds and rains, aud 
they would speedily have fallen to pieces under this exposure to atmospheric action, 
had" they not been protected by the mineralisation they have, undergone, 
“ On examining many of the ravines that intersect this part of the country, and 
which were at this time dry, the same silicilied wood was found projecting from the 
sandbanks, and ready to drop into the stream ; from the bottom of which the tra- 
vellers took many fragments, that hud so fallen during the gradual wearing of the 
hank, and lay rolled aud exposed to friction by the passing waters. Some of these 
items were from fifteen to twenty feet in length, and five feet in circumference. 
These circumstances show, that the ordinary effect of existing rains and torrents is 
only to expose and lay bare these organic remains, and wash them out from the 
matrix to which some other and more powerful agency must have introduced them.” 
“Of the total number of boues iu this collection, about one-third have suffered 
from friction ; and of the remainder, nearly all appear to have been broken more or 
less, before they were lodged in the places where Mr. Crawfurd found them irre- 
gularly dispersed. Many fragments also of the ivory have been rolled considerably j 
but no one specimen of that substance, or indeed of any bone in this collection, 
has been reduced to the state of a perfect pebble : from this circumstance we may 
infer, that the waters which produced the rolling these have, undergone, were not in 
The proportional number of bones belonging to each of these animals may be 
Order Pachydermata 
Mastodon latidens 
elephantoides 
Ruminantia 
Hippopotamus 
Sus 
Rhinoceros 
Tapir 
Bos 
Class REPTILIA. 
Order Chelonia 
Sauria 
Trionyx 
Emys 
Leptorynchus 
Crocodiltis vulgaris 
stated as follows . 
150 Ox, deer, and antelope 
10 Gavial, and alligator 
2 Emys 
1 Trionyx 
1 
20 
50 
20 
10 
Mastodon 
Rhinoceros 
Hippopotamus 
Tapir 
Hog 
