think that the large brown stone with the square cross-section, one end flat and the other rounded, may have been fashioned artificially. He remarks 'The scratches on one of the rounded edges look like traces of the treatment for rounding off this edge, and seem too closely parallel to each other to be of natural origin.' * * * The rest of us think that none of the stones could be definitely regarded as of artificial origin. The scratches on the edges of the specimen noticed are more likely the effect of lamination planes.'

دو

As regards the specimens of group (2) Dr. Pascoe says "they are all typically wind-polished, and the wedge shape is probably the result of oblique jointing or cleavage. Their noticeable smoothness is due to the action of wind."

As

regards group (3) he says "the other three specimens, pyramidal or sub-pyramidal in shape, are all very interesting to us in that they appear to be typical dreikanters.' A dreikanter, as the name implies, is a stone with three edges separating three well-marked faces ending in a point. The stone rests upon one of these faces, while the other two are formed and polished by sand driven against their surface by wind action. Should the stone become turned over, the basal surface is exposed and polished in a similar way, while one of the original upper faces forms the basal face and is protected. The end of the stone remote from the prevailing wind direction is generally rounded or irregular. Of the three stones you sent, one has reached an advanced stage, and is a beautiful specimen of a dreikanter. Dr. Fermor first called my attention to this fact. One of the faces is considerably rougher than the other two and is evidently the basal face on which the stone rested. The point is quite sharp, while the other end of the stone is typically rounded.

All are beautifully polished."

*

*

While the theory of any neolithic origin of these stones is thus not confirmed their forms are sufficiently curious to justify their preservation in the collection. As the tube-well boring on this site have been carried out by a system of water-flush,

any sharp distinctions between different strata passed through by the drill must be to a certain extent obliterated, but by the courtesy of Mr. Hasan Imam the results obtained can be compared with those of two eight and-a-half inch dry borings at Bankipore carried down to 30 and 300 feet at Hasan Manzil and Fraser Road respectively. In all main features there is remarkably close agreement between the two sets of borings. They show that the thickness of the bed of alluvial clay immediately below recent earth-formation is about 180 feet, thus extending to a depth about forty-five feet below the present level of the sea. The quantity of kankar mixed with the clay increases at the lower depths, and the stratum is interrupted by two beds of sand, each about ten feet thick, about 100 and 150 feet below the surface. The clay rests on another bed of sand quite sixty feet thick, fine above but gradually getting coarser lower down. At a depth of 250 feet the first signs of gravel or pebbles occur, and thence down to the end of the borings layers of gravel and sand alternate.

uniformity of the bed

The great thickness and comparative of clay at Patna seem to indicate that the chances of discovery of any proto-historic settlement in this neighbourhood are remote. No indications of animal life were noticed in the Patna College borings, but at Fraser Road the drill brought up from the first layer of gravel, between 240 and 260 feet below the surface, three small bones. These have been kindly examined by Dr. Pilgrim of the Geological Survey, who states that one conveys nothing except that it is a vertebrate bone fragment. The second is a vertebra of a crocodile and the third is the left naviculo cuboid bone (i.e. one of the left hoof) of an ox. It is just barely possible though not likely in Dr. Pilgrim's opinion that a careful study of the last-named specimen might give some indication of specific value.

It seems that even at this depth the strata met with correspond to a fresh-water period of comparatively quite recent

I understand that Dr. Banerji-Sastri has recently discovered remains of this nature at Buxar, twenty-two feet below the Mauryan level.

geological antiquity and there is no sign of any salt water influence to support the theory that the Ganges valley once formed an arm of the sea between the Vindhyas and Central Asia. This could hardly be expected, for at Lucknow a boring carried to a depth of nearly 1,000 feet showed no sign of an approach to the bottom of the alluvial formation, while even at Calcutta a boring "reached a depth of 481 feet without signs of either a rocky bottom or marine beds, while fragments of fresh-water shells were found as low as 380 feet below the surface."