26 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
to us by the natives at our residence, and which 
therefore were probably procured at some other 
spot. No vestige of fossil shells was to be 
seen any where in the immediate neighbour¬ 
hood. On the opposite side of the brook, and 
not distant a hundred yards from the bed of 
shells, a section of one of the hills was laid bare, 
which consisted of indurated sand and calcare¬ 
ous sandstone breccia, which afforded a good op¬ 
portunity for determining this spot. The depo¬ 
sition of shells, therefore, was evidently very 
partial, or at least was broken and interrupted 
by other formations. 
After satisfying ourselves respecting the shells, 
we returned to the Man-lan hill, and, under the 
direction of our guides, took a southerly direction 
among the hills and ravines in this quarter, in 
search of fossil bones. After proceeding about a 
mile and a half or two miles, several specimens 
were shown to us; and we soon picked up ten 
or a dozen fragments, seemingly belonging to 
the same large animal which I have already 
mentioned. We found them between the hills, 
in gravelly soil, nearly on the surface, and not 
in the deepest ravines. We attempted to dig 
for others, but our search was not successful; 
indeed, we had neither means nor time to 
prosecute it with any prospect of success. The 
fossil wood was met with wherever we passed; 
but it increased in abundance as we approached 
