PART 4 .] 
Theobald: Bede with fossil wood m Burmak. 
88 
conglomerate is seen dipping 30° south-east in which I noticed the tusk of a small elephant, 
hut too friable to be extracted from its hard matrix, together with other bones, all in a poor state, 
and more or less injured by rolling about on a coarse shingle before their final consolidation. 
Next to the presence of silicified wood, a remarkable development of concretionary 
peroxide of iron seems to characterise the sand I am describing. The ore occurs occasionally 
as a thin band, up to perhaps a thickness of three inches, breaking up or jointing into 
rhomboidal concretionary masses of different sizes and shapes. More usually the ore occurs 
in the form of variously shaped concretions from one to four inches in length, though occa¬ 
sionally even larger. These concretions are found in both the sand and conglomerate, to 
which last when numerously developed they impart a peculiar varnished look, which might 
sometimes be almost styled (but for the technicality of the term) viscous or slaggy. The 
more usual shape of these concretions is flatfish oval or amj-gdaloidal, but they occur spherical, 
cuboidal, cylindrical, with both flat and hemispherical ends, discoidal and any intermediate 
form, but always symmetrically proportioned, and the result of a segregative action or pro¬ 
cess in the clayey and ferruginous components of the bed when in a plastic condition. Of 
whatever shape however, their structure is extremely uniform, consisting of an external crust 
of concentric layers of brown haematite surrounding a kernel of pure white or yellowish 
clay, lying loose and shrunken in the interior. 
Externally these nodular concretions are roughened from the adhesion of tile sand enve¬ 
loping them, but this rough crust scales off' readily, leaving their surface perfectly smooth. 
Internally they often present a blistered appearance from the mammillary crystallization 
of Limonite which lines them, becoming on exposure to the atmosphere and rain lustrous and 
varnished. Where the bed has been of too harsh a character to permit the regular segre¬ 
gation of the ore, it is found lining sinuous cavities in the coarse matrix, leaving Hat, 
approximating walls, evidently produced by shrinkage, which gives such portions a very 
peculiar aspect and one which simulates a viscous condition. In some places even a botryoidal 
structure is induced where the rock is less coarse.* 
The thickness of this upper sand cannot be closely estimated, hut 40 feet is probably 
more than the average thickness of what now remains of it. 
(b ).—Below the last described sand occurs a deposit of very uniform character composed 
of pale silty clay which passes upwards into the overlying sand. This silty clay is very 
fine, thin bedded and homogeneous, with merely a few strings of sand here and there, and 
an occasional small pebble in the sand. It is everywhere seen at the base of the last bed 
into which it seems to pass, though their respective characters constitute a good means of 
demarcation between them. It is entirely devoid, as far as observation goes, of organic 
remains. A good section of this silty clay is seen south of Thanat-ua, between Alan-mio 
and Kiungale, but the bed presents no special point of interest. 
It is also largely exposed in section If miles east of Talok on ascending out of the 
stream (previously noticed as unmarked in the map), but it merely presents the same uniform 
character and absence of fossils, which distinguish it elsewhere. Where the upper sands have 
been completely denuded so as to leave exposed a large area of this bed, an undulating country 
is the result, possessing a marked character. The surface of the country does not them 
greatly differ in appearance from that seen within the area of the alluvium, and it would not 
♦ Under the Burmese rule this ore was extensively smelted, but, no furnaces are now anywhere at work in the 
district, iiemams of furnaces which were merely rectangular kilns, cut in the firm alluvial day of some steco 
bnuk, which gave easy access at top for replenishing ore and fuel, and below for withdrawing the products are 
numerous about Shuebnndor, Kiungald, and Yebor, together with slag-heaps, sometimes of no inconsiderable 
dimensions. Throughout the area of these upper sands, however, slag may he found here and there scattered about 
as the iron-workers shifted their seen# Of operations from spot to spot, wherever charcoal and ore was for Sie tin!# 
most plentiful. The works must have in many eases been conducted in the dry season only, as the hearths of some 
furnaces still standing open into the beds of streams which during rain would certainly have found an entrance 
to them. The blowing apparatus was probably the effective vertical cylinder bellows formed of large bamboos still 
in use in the district by blacksmiths, but the oldest inhabitant could give mo no particulars of the inanulhcture 
as none of the elass of iron-smelters now remain in the district. The introduction of English iron and steel Ins 
doubtless been the mam cause of the abolition of this branch of industry, aided bv the harsh and injurious system 
of the Burmese officials during the early struggles with the British, but in some places it was alleged that the* iron¬ 
workers had fled the country to avoid lining forcibly transported to Calcutta to make iron for the terrible foreigners 
This may seem very absurd, hut those who know the ingrained credulity and ignorance of Asiatics will be inclined 
to give some weight to tile reason stated, though it is probable that this Tear, stronyly as it may once have operated 
is no longer felt, though the state of the market and the price of iron now ruling hi Pegu prevents the resuscitation 
oi me traae. 
