( 108 ) 
collection, A . Kobelli , which is possibly only a variety of 
A. bifrons. The matrix of this is described as a black 
geode, while that of Dr. Gerard's (questionable) specimens 
is a blue calcareous shale, identical with that of authentic 
Whitby fossils. 
Mr. Oldham, in the paper referred to above, adduces the 
existence of A. comm.unis , &c., in the Oxford Museum, as 
independent evidence to the authenticity of the fossils rejected 
by me, an aspect in which I am unable to accept them, unless 
it can be proved that these fossils (which are stated to have 
been obtained by Dr. Gerard) were forwarded to England at 
a time or under circumstances which preclude the possibility 
of the intermixture having taken place in the Asiatic So¬ 
ciety’s Museum or elsewhere, before the specimens were 
despatched. This important point appears to have been over¬ 
looked by Mr. Oldham in his published paper, and I accord¬ 
ingly endeavoured, through the kind agency of my friend 
Professor Maskelyne, to obtain some information upon it. 
Professor Phillips’ note which I received in reply is given 
below ;* I should infer from this that Professor Phillips is by 
*“ Notes on Himalayan Fossils in the Museum at Oxford; June 2nd , 1864. 
By Prof. John Phillips. 
“ About 30 years since I sent from York to Calcutta a considerable series of 
the fossils of Whitby and some other tracts. The specimens were selected from 
the duplicates of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and were presented by 
that institution to some individual of position in Calcutta, whose name I cannot 
remember (it seems to me to have been Patterson), but could find out. Whether 
the collection was carefully kept separate at Calcutta, I know not; but some 
years afterwards, on being shown in England a specimen of A. communis, said to 
be ‘from the Himalaya/ I at once conjectured that the Yorkshire collection 
might have given forth this offset, so like—so absolutely like—in form, colour, 
and accompaniments of shale or ironstone. The same astonishing resemblance 
occurs in regard to these specimens in the Oxford Museum, especially in regard 
to the Ammonites communis and A. bifrons ( Walcottii), which are very common 
at Whitby. 
“ On the other hand, the other fossils in this collection do not offer any 
especial analogy to Yorkshire types; some are of Oxfordian shapes, and of 
the Belemnite in particular, it is unknown in Yorkshire, but a good deal like 
some found in the South of England, as to form ; not, I think, as to conserva¬ 
tion, &c. 
“ Among the fossils we note as of Liassic age, Ammonites communis. 
