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doubt to cheat us out of the original—an object of some value in the eyes of the Chinese diplomatists, who are always anxious to withhold authenticated papers, for fear of furnishing documents that may some day be brought forward in evidence against themselves—a use to which no unsealed documents can be applied, according to Chinese law and practice. The possession of this copy enabled us to prepare a final communication to the Viceroy, and in order to secure the delivery into our hands of the original, the ship was dropt up with the flood abreast of the junk fleet, and her broadside brought to bear upon them. There were 19 vessels in all on the spot; but all the smaller ones immediately got under-weigh, and passed within the forts. When we went on board the admiral of the station, we learned that the orders of the Viceroy were addressed to the admiral of Haetan, who was on board another junk. He and the envoys from Fuhchow were sent for; but it was some time before they made their appearance. Our host, in the mean time, appearing very uneasy and dispirited, we asked what was meant by saying that we were afraid of going on board his ship. Some of us had been there on each day since our return. It was obvious, that fear of retaliation had prevented him from renewing his visits since we came back; but if we thought it right to retaliate it, we should not have imitated the treacherous and cowardly conduct of his countrymen, but openly brought our ship to fight the whole of theirs, and he must be perfectly aware, that as she then lay she could sink his whole fleet, and destroy every one on board. But this was not our object. The government had implicated itself in the business by inventing such a string of notorious falsehoods in defence of the conduct of its officers, and we should leave it to our Government to obtain for us the redress which theirs refused to our simple and respectful application.-The original letter of the Viceroy and his colleagues having been at last produced and taken possession of by me, I returned the copy sent in the morning. We were promised our supply of provisions as soon as we got underweigh. The final reply to the Viceroy, along with my second petition, under a fresh cover, were now placed in the hands of the principal envoy, who pressed me hard to receive them back, and even followed me out, as if he intended to throw them after me into the boat. Judging apparently that this would be of no avail, he kept them till evening, and then sent a small fishing boat with them to the ship. The fisherman, however, being warned off, carried them back, and we saw no more of them. On the 18th and 19th, we gradually dropped down to the outer bay. No provisions were ever sent us.

IV.-Selected Specimens of the Sub-Himálayan Fossils in the Dádupur Collection. By Lieut. W. E. BAKER, Engineers.

The discovery of the existence of fossil organic remains, in the vicinity of the village of Ráyawála, and in the Markanda pass, has led to the examination of the tract of tertiary hills lying between the river Jamna and Pinjor. From different points on this line, specimens have been obtained, and the fact of its richness in such relics fully established.

The greater number of the specimens in the Dádupur collection, are from the hills lying between the Markanda pass and Pinjor. The calcareous sand-stone prevalent in these formations has usually appeared as the matrix containing them; an exception, however, occurs in the neighbourhood of Dúdgarh, where the matrix, instead of sand-stone, is a red indurated marl, in which not only the remains of Mammalia and Reptilia are found, but those of Mollusca also. The native collector reports them to occur together, and along with the shells, produced fragments of bones and vertebræ of Saurians. Having as yet had no opportunity of visiting the place, I can neither corroborate his statement, nor particularise the site of the deposit. The shells appear to belong to fresh water species; they are not abundant, and are generally in a bad state of preservation. The red marl is with difficulty disengaged from the specimens; any attempt to separate the shell from the matrix, being usually at the expence of the epidermis, and too frequently at that of the valves themselves. Nos. 45, 46, 47, 48, (Pl. XLVIII. ↓ size,) shew the usual state of the specimens; the varieties are few in number, but the determination of fossil species requires so much experience and nice discrimination, that no apology will be requisite to excuse silence on this interesting point. A selection, which is to be placed at your disposal, will, it is hoped, afford the means of determining the question. The univalves bear a small proportion only to the bivalves, being in the ratio of 1 to 100; it must, however, be remarked, that the quantity hitherto collected being small, the above proportion might be materially affected by an inconsiderable increase to the number of specimens*.

* We have ventured to preface Lieut. BAKER's enumeration of the principal Sub-Himálayan fossils of the Dádupur collection by the above extract from a paper previously drawn up by his friend and coadjutor Lieut. DURAND, on the remains of the hippopotamus of the same field, for the sake of pointing out the locality in the extensive range of lower hills, whence they have been exhumed. Lieut. DURAND'S beautiful drawings, being, from their size, better adapted to the pages of the Researches, will, in the first instance, receive publication in

The accompanying plates contain drawings 4th the natural size of a few of the Sub-Himálayan fossils in the Dádúpur collection, viz. selected specimens of the remains of the horse, the hog, ruminants and carnivora.

To save a lengthened description, and the use of technical terms, with which I am not familiar, as well as for the sake of ready comparison, I have accompanied my drawings of several fossils by those of the corresponding bones of their existing analogues.

I

may here remark, that the greater part of the fossil, as well as of the recent bones, were sketched with the assistance of the Camera Lucida, and allowing for the slight errors incidental to that instrument, I believe them to be correct plans and elevations," if I may

use the term, of what they are intended to represent.

The fossil horse-Pl. XLV. figs. 1 to 19.

The remains of this animal, now in our collection, are amongst the latest of our acquisitions; and as many of them present a marked difference from the fossil horse, described by CUVIER, which appears not to have been distinguishable from the existing species, I have been induced to figure nearly all our recognized bones of this genus.

Fig. 1 represents a fragment of a left molar of the upper jaw; though a mutilated specimen, it clearly shews the same complicated flexures of the crown, compared with fig. 2, which is the fourth left upper molar of the existing horse. Fig. 3, shews the fourth and fifth molars of the left lower jaw of the fossil, and fig. 4, the same teeth of the volume now in the press, along with the highly interesting description of the Sivatherium, by Messrs. FALCONER and CAUTLEY.

66

The shells of the red marl, alluded to above, are perfectly identical, both in form and state of preservation, with those we received with the collection of Ava fossils from Colonel BURNEY. No drawing is given of these shells in Professor BUCKLAND's account of the Burmese Mastodon, and he remarks, that "neither the insulated concretions from Ava, nor those adhering to the bones, contain traces of any kind of shells;" but on noticing the peculiarities of the tertiary strata in the neighbourhood, he says, among the most remarkable of these strata is a fresh-water deposit of blue and marly clay, containing abundantly shells that belong exclusively to a large and thick species of Cyrena?" This doubtless coincides with figs. 45, 46, of our plate and further, "also a dark-coloured slaty lime-stone, containing shells which Mr. SOWERBY has identified with some that occur in our London clay. There is also, from the hills opposite Prome, granular yellow sandy lime-stone, containing fragments of marine shells, and much resembling the calcaire grossièr of the environs of Paris." This I presume alludes to the spiral univalve, fig. 44, which I find precisely among Colonel BURNEY'S specimens, and which much resembles the principal shell of the calcaire grossièr.-ED.

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