"معاملات الجمعية الجغرافية في بومباي، من يناير ١٨٤٧ حتى مايو ١٨٤٩. تحرير السكرتير. المجلد VIII." [‎٦‎٨] (٤٩٦/٨٤)

1 * * *
1XV111
In the paper by Capt. FuIljames,on the Present State of the Seaboard of the Runn
of Cutch, and the inaccuracies of the maps and charts of the Runn, it was stated that
a boatman had assured him that some fifteen or twenty years ago he and some others
had found a large quantity of bones, which the natives believed to have been those
of giants: they were described as being as hard as stone, and had from this been
inferred to be fossil. One, believed to be an arm bone, measured, from the elbow
to the wrist, above five feet. Captain Fulljames said he thought it probable they
might have been the remains of some extinct marine animal. The Secretary wa s
directed, in thanking Capt. Fulljames for his paper, to request him, if possible, to
obtain specimens of the bones. He was one of the first who had supplied the Brit
ish Museum with fossils from Perim, and the task might therefore with peculiar
propriety be committed to his hands. It was difficult to imagine any limb of the
enormous dimensions spoken of, at all resembling a man’s arm, to have belonged to
a marine animal: to whatever animal it belonged, the specimen, if truly described,
must be considered stupendous.
In laying the letter of Captain Kempthorne before the Society, the Secretary
stated that something similar to this had been met in with by him in 1840, of which
the following notice had already been printed :
“ In May 1840, when about one-third across, the aspect of the sea suddenly chang
ed upon us,—and at once seemed as if oil had been poured upon its surface. It was
still as a millpond, and of a brownish soapy hue. The water on being examined
was full of little fibrils—like horse-hair cut across, in lengths of the 10th of an inch
or so. A wine-glass full of it contained hundreds of them. The
accompanying diagram exhibits the aspect presented by them
under the microscope. They were to all appearance spawn, or
creatures of some sort in an embryotic state. I kept them for
days, in hopes that they would develope themselves, and drew
up fresh specimens of the water so long as it remained discolour
ed. But no symptoms of life were manifest, and decomposition
speedily ensued. In the dark they were not luminous. We
sailed through them for about five hours, so that they probably
extended over a surface of 500 miles what myriads of living
things were there ! The officers of the ship told us that similar
appearances were not unusual; and that one much more remarkable than this was
sometimes to be observed, when the sea seemed for hundreds of square miles white
and milky, so that it was at times difficult to believe that the vessel was not on the
point of getting aground.’*
In all likelihood the luminous appearances in the sky described by Captain
Kempthorne was merely the reflection by the clouds of the light from the sea.
It was a curious fact, that on the same day an earthquake had been felt at Calcut
ta, a thunderstorm had occured at Delhi, and heavy rain fallen all along the line
of the Jhelum and Chenaub from Rhotas to Mooltan. It was very possible that
these phenomena might bear no relation whatever to each other; but whenever
such coincidences occurred, it was proper that they should be remarked : connec
tions might by and bye come to be traced betwixt them which at present were not
suspected.