Records of the Geological Survey of India

Geological Survey of India · 1869 · International

Historic records and bulletins from the GSI — one of the world's oldest geological surveys. Documents Indian coal, iron, gold

This 1869 document, Records of the Geological Survey of India, is preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library for research and reference. Original source: archive.org.

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Museum Victoria

Records

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Geological

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Survey

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India.

Vol. Vii.

On Deposit

From

The Library Parliament Of Victoria!

Thomas Oldham, Ll.D., F.R.S.,

Superintendent Of The Geological Survey Of India

Calcutta ;

Feinted Foe The Government Of India London : Teubnee And Co-

Contents.

Number 1.— February.

Annual Report of the Geological Survey of India and of the Geological Museum, Calcutta, for the year 1873...

A brief account of the geological structure of the Hill-ranges between the Indus Valley in Ladak and Shah-i-dula on the frontier of Yarkand territory, by Dr. F. Stoliczka, Geological Survey of India, Naturalist attached to the Yarkand Embassy ...

Notes on some of the Iron Ores of Kumaon, bt Theodore W. H. Hughes, a. r.s. m., f. g.s., Geological Survey of India

Note on the raw materials for iron smelting in the Eaniganj Field, by Theodore W. H. Hughes, a. r. s. m., f. g. s., Geological Survey of India ...

Note on the habitat in India of the elastic sandstone, or so called Itacolumyte, by Mr. H. B. Medlicott, Geological Survey' of India ...

Geological Notes on part of Northern Hazaribagh, by- F. R. Mallet, f. g. s., Geological Survey of India

Donations to Museum ... ... ... 44

Accessions to Library ... ... ... 45

Number 2.— May.

Geological notes on the route traversed by the Yarkand Embassy from Shah-i-dula to Yarkand and Kashgar, by Dr. F. Stoliczka, Natural ist ATTACHED TO THE EMBASSY

Note regarding the occurrence of jade in the Karakash Valley, on the

SOUTHERN BORDERS OF TuRKISTAN, BY Dr. F. STOLICZKA, NATURALIST ATTACHED TO THE YARKAND EMBASSY

Notes from the Eastern Himalaya

Petroleum in Assam, by Theodore W. H. Hughes, a.r.s.m., f.g.s., Geo logical Survey of India

Coal in the Gabo Hills, by Me. H. B. Medlicott, Geological Survey of India

On the discovery of a new locality for Copper in the Narbada Valley*, by V. Ball, Esq., m.a., Geological Survey-of India

Potash -salt from East India

Notes on the Geology of the neighbourhood of Mari Hill Station in the Punjab, by A. B. Wynne, f.g.s., Geological Survey of India ... Donations to Museum ... ... 74

Accessions to Library ... ... .. yg

Page-

Number 3.— August.

Geological observations made on a visit to the Chaderkul, Thian Shan

RANGE, BY Dk. F. StoLICZKA, NATURALIST ATTACHED TO THE YaRKAND

Page.

Embassy ... ... ... ... ... ... 81

ON THE FORMER EXTENSION OF GLACIERS WITHIN THE IvANGRA DISTRICT, BY

W, Theobald, Geological Survey of India ... ... ... 86

On the Building and Ornamental Stones of India, by Y. Ball, m. a.,

Geological Survey of India ... ... ... ... 98

Second note on the materials for iron manufacture in the Raniganj Coal-field, by Theodore W. H. Hughes, a. r. s. m., f. g. s., Geological Survey of India ... ... ... ... ... ... 122

Manganese ore in the Wardha Coal-field ... ... ... 125

Donations to Museum ... ... ... ... 126

Accessions to Library ... ... ... ... 126

Number 4.— November.

The Auriferous Rocks of the Dambal Hills, Dharwar District, by R. B.

Foote, f.g.s., Geological Survey of India ... ... ... 133

Remarks on certain considerations adduced by Falconer in support of the antiquity of the human race in India, by W. Theobald, Geolo gical Survey of India ... ... ... ... ... 142

Geological Notes made on a visit to the coal recently discovered in

The Country Of The Luni Pathans, South-East Corner Of Afghanistan,

by V. Ball, m.a., Geological Survey of India ... ... ... 145

Note of the progress of Geological investigation in the Godavari Dis trict, Madras Presidency, by William King, b.a., Deputy Superintend ent (for Madras), Geological Survey of India ... ... 158

Notes upon the subsidiary materials for artificial fuel, by Theodore W.

H. Hughes, a.r.s.m., c.e., f.g.s., Geological Survey of India ... 160

Donations to Museum ... ... .. 164

Accessions to Library ... ... ... 164

Records

Of The

Geological Survey Of India.

Annual Report of the Geological Survey of India and of the Geological Museum, Calcutta, for the year 1S73.

For the first time since the institution of the Geological Survey of India, it devolves upon an Officiating Superintendent to draw up the Annual Progress Report. Dr. Oldham, who may he said to have founded the survey, was compelled for the first time, after more than twenty-two years of continuous service, to take sick-leave to Europe early in April. For many months previously it had been strenuously urged upon him that rest and change of climate were necessary for his health. Even when he did leave India, it was to work hard in putting our collections into order in the Exhibition at Vienna ; and the high merit officially awarded to those collections is largely due to his personal exertions on the spot as well as in India. The Superintendent's absence being only for a season, no change of method has been made or proposed, as unless permanently adopted such would only be mischievous. This report will therefore be as brief as possible.

It should be remembered that the progress reported on relates to the work accomplished during the field-season ending in April, May, or June, according to position, and brought iuto form during the recess for the monsoon ; a preliminary notice being added of the distribu tion of the field work for the season opening in October and November.

I am unfortunate in having to chronicle a season of particularly slack work. Besides the absence of the usual number of the staff on sick-leave, several causes supervened to disturb what must be considered the normal work of the Survey. These interruptions were more or less unavoidable, and are to bo takeu as work done, under which head I have here placed them. In some cases at least the advantages gai ued, special or general, will compensate for any loss to our yearly tale of ground surveyed.

For the last half of tho year six out of our small staff were absent. Mr. Blanford has been in Europe for the whole twelve months. Hard work in Persia made it necessary for him to take sick-leave ; but ho has been busily engaged in working out the very valuable zoology cal collections he took home with him from those little explored regions. Ho has also been mindful of Indian Geology in giving to the Society of Arts an excellent abstract of out work as illustrating the mineral resources of India, besides several papers of scientific interest read to the Geological Society and to the British Association. Mr. Fedden has been absent on sick-leave for tbe entire year. After a long struggle with an exhausting illness. Dr. Waagen was compelled to take sick-leave at the end of December 1872. Till the day of his departure he laboured at the description of tho Jurassic fossils of Kach, leaving the first portion of the work ready for publication, and a quantity of manuscript and plates iu an advanced state of preparation. The Survey was especially fortunate in securing the

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

services of Dr. Waagen for this work, as he had already achieved a sound reputation by his researches in formations of corresponding age in Europe. We have to lament that the tidings of his health are very unfavorable. As already noticed, Dr. Oldham had to go on sick-leave early in April. We may, perhaps, hope that improved health, and relief from the interrup tions and preoccupation inseparable from the duty of directing widely scattered operations and correspondence, may give him leisure to mature the long expected introduction to the geology of India. The absence of Dr. Stoliozka, although depriving us for a time of our palaeontological oracle, is not to be regretted when we consider the service ho is engaged on. Every arrangement had been made for him to attend the gathering at Vienna as the rightful exhibitor of the most interesting part of our collections, and where there was so much to attract him, but he eagerly gave it all up to seize the opportunity of visiting a new field of research as naturalist with the Mission to Yarkand. In spite of the great suffering he endured in crossing the Korakornm range at so lato a season, he has already contributed an interesting sketch of his observations of that ground. Before leaving, Dr. Stoliczka had just completed the publication in the Palscontologia Indica of his highly valued work on the Cretaceous Fauna of Southern India. The remaining absentee is unfortunately to be recorded as permanent : Mr. J, Willson, after his brief connection with the Survey, finding that the duties were more than his health was able for, transferred his services to the Educational Department, in March. The loss thus sustained by the Survey of an officer whose thorough training in science gave promise of high efficiency, is not to be made good ; the Govern ment having decided that the pay of this appointment is to be devoted to the experimental institution of native apprentices.

Although the staff of the Survey is nominally divided into three parties, under Deputy Superintendents corresponding with the three chief Presidencies, it has never been found convenient to adhere closely to this arrangement. Those who have studied certain forma tions must follow them out irrespectively of fiscal boundaries ; and in so large a country, where communication is often difficult, it is commonly most convenient that each geologist should communicate independently with bead-quarters in Calcutta. The work may there fore be most intelligibly noticed with some attempt at natural order, commencing with the formations to which our coal-measures belong.

In the south, Mr. King accomplished a very satisfactory season's work in the regiou of the lower Godavari. He revisited the Singareui coal-field, which he had discovered and described in the preceding season. Numerous trial borings had meanwhile been put down by the Nizam's officers, and a considerable amount of coal proved, although the seam was not found to be continuous throughout. The Beddadanole coal-field was fully examined ; and although no outcrop was discovered, there is considerable hope tha coal exists. Mr. King gave full directions for prosecuting the search by borings, and orders have been given by the Madras Government for their being carried out. This field is not, like the Siugareni field, circumscribed within very narrow limits by the older rooks. The actual area of measures exposed is not larger than that of Siugareni ; but the rocks are seeu to pass beneath an extensive spread of a younger formation, and there is at least a chance of there being a con siderable field, much of it in British territory. In this region we had hitherto only discriminated three members of this great rock-series ; namely, the Takhirs, the Barakars, and the Ivamthi sandstones, which Mr. Blanford had followed down the Godavari and Pranhita valleys from Chanda and Nagptir, where he had, from the evidence of the fossil plants, ranked them in the Damuda horizon. From other fossil evidence, found in this con fused upper sandstone series of the Godavari basin, it has long been considered that in part at least it represents formations younger than the reputed age of the Damudas. The obscurity regarding the correlation of this whole series of rocks with established formations has been owing to the failure hitherto to link any importaut portion of it with beds

Annual Report for 1873.

o

containing a distinctive marine fauna. Such a connection has long since been made for the Rajmahal group, through the Kach deposits ; but the connection of the Rajmahal group itself in its typical area with the main rock-series is very uncertain. Mr. King has at last been so fortunate as to hit upon what may yield a clue to our puzzle— a fossiliferous zone of marine beds at Bagavapuram, thirty miles due west of Rajamaudri, well intercalated with the upper sandstones, continuous with those overlying the Beddadanole coal-measures. In the same region, at Innaparaz Katapili, thirty miles north-north -east of Coeonada, he also found fossils, in some detached sandstone beds along the northern margin of the Godavari delta. These latter fossils have been recognised by Dr. Stoliezka as on the horizon of his Oomia zone (uppermost jurassic) in the Kach series, the same which had long since been assimilated to the Rajmahal group. The Ragavapuram fossils did not reach in time for Dr. Stoliezka to examine them. They are at least specifically different from those of Innaparaz, and underlie a rock which Mr. King conjectures to represent that of the outliers. The facies of them, so far as a non-expert can pronounce, is jurassic. Above all these rocks, and underlying the trap, Mr. King discriminates a belt of sands with a thin limestone, characteristically similar to the Lameta or infra-trappean group of the Central Provinces, and which he conjectures to be cretaceous ; the fossils in the limestone being distinct from those of the well-known Pangadi inter-trappean bods close by. The working out of all these suggestions is of the greatest importance to the geological history of India.

In this connection notice may appropriately be taken of a document quite recently pub lished and circulated by the Government of Madras. It consists of a large-scale map, in divers colours, of a small area on the Kistua river about fifty miles south -by-east of the Singareni coal-field ; with an explanatory text by Colonel Applegath, in which the old assertions are repeated regarding his discovery of coal there many years ago, with the addi tion that, having recently visited the coal-fields of the upper Damuda valley, he is in a position to assert the geological identity of the formations. It only needed this to complete the anomaly. Whatever possibility there might be of a coal being found in these rocks, quite distinct from that of the Indian coal-measures and unobserved by more recent explorers, it is really not within the range of possibility that several geologists of experience should so utterly confound rocks with which they are perfectly familiar. The ground referred to is the northern extremity of a large geological basin, of which a map with detailed des cription was published during last year in the Memoirs of the Survey. Working from the south, Messrs. King and Foote had no hesitation whatever in identifying these rocks on the Kistna as part of the connected series of Kadapah and Karnfil rocks, in the examination of which they had been engaged for several consecutive seasons. After the com pletion of that work Mr. King moved northwards, and found no difficulty whatever in recog nizing the true coal-bearing series in the Singareni field, for the exploration of which by borings he gave indications which have proved successful. An account of this was also published during last year. Still we find the false prophets apparently in as great favor as ever with the authorities in Madras. Comment on such proceedings would be superfluous.

More to the north, in the Godavari basin, Mr. Hughes was engaged for the whole season in the Wardha coal-field; but frequent interruptions greatly retarded his progress towards completing the examination of the field. Several weeks were taken up in connection with Mr. Bauerman's deputation to examine the iron-deposits. Time was also spent in interviews with the mining officers of His Highness the Nizam, and in selecting sites for borings at Warora and Pisgaon. The chief independent result of the season was the demarcation of the small detached coal-field near Chimur, which may yet be of importance in connection with the iron ores of the neighbourhood. In examining the zamia-bcaring zone on the south west margin of the field, Mr. Hughes found a small coal-seam in it at Balanpur, which

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

curiously repeats the characters of the seams on the same horizon in the Jabalpur group of the Narbada region. In the Wardha field two pits have been sunk to the coal, one at War ora in the Central Provinces, and one at Pisgaon in East Berar.

Mr. Medlicott took up his work in the Satpura, with the understanding that he was to carry out the examination of the formations so closely connected with the coal-measures there, and by which these are concealed ; while at the same time he was to afford geological guidance for the borings he had recommended in the Narbada valley. The executive management of these was entrusted by the local Government to Mr. Collin, a mining engineer, or coalviewer, sent out from England for the coal exploration in the Central Provinces. Both the personal and material provision for these trials proving utterly inadequate, Mr. Medlicott was afterwards called upon to supervise the execution of the work. Thus the geological in vestigation was stopped, in the vain hope of preventing the inevitable collapse, under existing arrangements, of the experimental work. The work Mr. Collin had executed was so bad that it had to be abandoned ; while Mr. Medlicott, owing to this fruitless interruption, was only able to complete his examination of the lower JDudlii valley, with a view to fixing the sites for the bovings there. Late in March the borings at Gadarwara and Sukakheri were recommenced under the immediate charge oi Mr. Stewart, a very intelligent and trustworthy employe on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, whose services were obligingly placed at the disposal of Government by the Agent, and under the supervision of Mr. Cooke, the Executive Engineer at Narsingpur.

These trials were undertaken upon the fully discussed possibility and a reasonable probability that the Satpura coal-measures might here extend from the Sitariva field beneath the alluvial plain. No depth could he assigned for these covering deposits. From 200 to 500 feet was given as the probable range. Considering the delays and difficulties to be contended with, the progress up to date must be taken as very creditable to those in charge of the Work. Insufficient and defective piping has been throughout the chief difficulty. The boring at Gadarwara had to be stopped at the end of October, as the piping could not be driven beyond 226 feet, and there were no pipes of smaller diameter to sink within those that had stuck. The rods were put down to 251 feet, still in alluvial ground ; but the hole could not be kopt clear without the piping. At Sukakheri work was in progress at the close of the year, the piping having reached a depth of 330 feet, still in alluvial clay. Thus, of course, we as yet know nothing as to what rock underlies these deposits; the great thickness of which will prove a great impediment to mining enterprise should coal be found beneath them.

In view of the great extension of boring operations in all parts of India, it is to be regretted that there is still much misapprehension regarding the nature of the work, and consequently want of system and concert in the management. Next to the important object of these operations, the work of the Geological Survey is the chief sufferer from this defect. Among homogeneously civilized communities it is duly recognised that boring is a branch ol engineering ; that although the geologist might give the safest indications for the position and prospects of a boring, lie would probably make a bungling attempt at executing the work, t he mining engineer is supposed to, hut very rarely does, combine these two branches of know ledge so radically distinct. In all new and intricate cases the greatest safety lies in the combined action of independent experts. This combination might no doubt he obtained in India as it commonly is in Europe, both elements being present. Such undertakings are, however, new to this country ; and we have not got beyond the primd facie point of view : because the majority of engineers will declare that they know nothing about boring, and the geologist cannot disown his connection with the business, it is assumed that the latter must be the best man foi the whole job. The mistake is very similar to insisting upon a zoologist

Annual Report for 1873.

or a metaphysician performing the Caesarean operation because a number of surgeons standing by chose to excuse themselves on the plea that they had never seen the thing done. No doubt a man of intelligence and education can always make some useful attempt at the supervision of mere skilled labour ; and I have no doubt that Mr. Stewart would ac knowledge his obligations in this way to Mr. Medlicott; but it is a fact that this geologist, when he was ordered to take charge of the borings he had recommended at Gadarwara, had only once before seen a boring in a casual way, and did not know the difference between a crab-winch and a jack-role, between a wrench and a spanner. I cannot but think that such important operations, depending entirely upon mechanical ingenuity and resources, should be under proper professional control and responsibility, and also that this should be forth coming in some branch or other of the Department of Public Works.

In the Damuda basin Mr. J. Willson spent the season in retracing the lines of the Ivaranpura coal-fields on the newly issued maps of the Hazaribagh district.

Mr. Hacket was incidentally engaged upon these same formations, in adding to our collection of fossil plants from the Jabalpur group ; but his chief occupation for the season was to trace the boundaries of the Vindhyan and older rocks on the now maps along the northern side of the Narbada valley in the Jabalpur, Narsingpur, and Ilosungabad districts, and at the same time to add to our collections from the ossiferous valley deposits. Mr. Hacket filled in a large area.

In the same region, more to the north-east, Mr. W. L. Willson carried on the work of previous seasons, completing sheets 34, 35, 37, 47 and 48 of the new Topographical sur vey of Riwah and Bandelkand, including rocks of the Vindhyan, the Bijawar, and the gneissic series.

Mr. Mallet, having had much experience of the crystalline and metamorphie rocks in Bandelkand and the Son valley, took up an important section of the same rocks in South Bcliar, with the advantage of the new large-scale maps of Hazaribagh. So far as the comparatively small aroa of one season's detail-work can be trusted, lb ore seems to be no marked stratigraphical break between the quartzite and slate series of Bekar and the gneiss of Bengal. In the middle of the season Mr. Mallet was recalled for some weeks to Cal cutta to prepare our mineralogical collections for the Vienna Exhibition.

Ear to the south-west of the operations already noticed, Mr. Foote was at work in the South Mabratta country. A section was run across the gneissic area lying between Bella ry and the Malparba river, a little to the north of which the south boundary of the Kaladghi series was crossed, and the previous season's work joined on. Various parts of the ground near Kaladghi were gone over again to clear up obscure points. The south-east part of the Kaladghi basin was then surveyed, including the lino of outliers extending to Gudjaudergarh. From this point the south boundary was carried west to Murgod in Belgaum district. So much of the gneiss area was gone over as was necessary to close in the north-east quarter of sheet 41, and to connect the several quartzite outliers with the general work. After completing the above boundary, work was carried on in the quartzite area around Toragal and Ramdurz, till it became necessary to move into Kaladghi to arrange and despatch the collection of geological specimens for the Vienna Exhibition.

The work remaining to be noticed is external to the rock-area of the Peninsula. In the extreme Mr. Wynne was engaged in working out the ground to the north of the Salt Range where the tertiary series occupies a large area and forms the outer ridges of the mountain region. The top and bottom horizons are identifiable with the Sivalik and Subathu groups of the sections far to the east, but the same marked divisions of the series are not expressed in the west as in the east. At the base here, although the purely structural features

Reco. ds of the Geological Survey of India.

are remarkably like those in the Subathu region, upper secondary formations have been identi fied in sequence with nummulitic deposits, and of which no trace has as yet been found in the sections described to the east. The presence of such a close sequence of formations would in itself go far to negative here the interpretation that has been given of the features in the Simla region, and thus support Mr. Wynne in rejecting it for tire ground he describes. But it is quite possible that both may be right. If widely different modes of action did not occasionally produce similarity of result, the art of observing would be much simpler than it is. These existing discrepancies of fact and of opinion can only be adjusted by the exami nation of the long stretch of intervening mountains between the Jhilum and the liavi.

Ou the south-east side of India, Mr. Theobald completed the survey of Pegu. This work was commenced in the close of 1860 under Mr. Blanford, assisted by Mr. Fedden. In 1862 Mr. Theobald took Mr. Blanford 's place; and since 1S64 he has been alone at the work, and for eighteen months absent on furlough. On the north the limit of this work is a very broken one ; all the formations have a north and south strike, and are thus absolutely cut off along the frontier. On the east the boundary is very regular and natural. At a little to the east of the Salwin in Martaban, along a very steady line, the tertiary formations rest against crystalline matamorphic rocks. The ground to the east of this has not been surveyed topographically. No one who has not made the attempt can form a conception of the difficulty of observing the rocks in a wild tropical region. Bank vegetation produces deep soil ; and where the rocks themselves are not very hard, as is the case with much ot these tertiary formations, one may march for days through a hill country without getting a fair section of rock in place. There thus remains a great deal to clear up in the geology of Pegu ; but the description now published will form an admirable guide to further investiga tions. Fossils, too, seem to be very scarce. Enough only have been discovered to establish the presence of triassio, cretaceous, and nummulitic strata forming the Arakan Yomah, beneath the general mass of younger tertiary deposits on the east, forming the Pegu Yomah. The south-eastern districts of this province form a totally distinct geological field from that now completed by Mr. Theobald, as marked by the eastern boundary of this area. They are entirely formed of crystalline and sub-metamorpliic rocks, in which there is much promise of metalliferous deposits. On this account the mining engineer appointed as mining geologist to the Survey has been deputed to examine those regions. Mr. Fryar reports directly to the Chief Commissioner of British Burniali.

Mr. Ball's work for the season has not yet been noticed : till the middle of February he was engaged in accompanying Mr. Bauermau to some of the coal and iron-fields of Bengal and the Narbada valley. It was quite out of the question that Mr. Ball could then take up his work in the distant wilds of Sirguja; so ho occupied the time most usefully in completing the arrangement of our collections for the Vienna Exhibition.

Even if Mr. Bauerman's deputation to India had not so directly touched upon the work of the Geological Survey, it would call for notice here. He is the latest, and no doubt the most competent, of a series of experts sent out from England to report on the prac ticability oi iron manufacture in India on European methods. His preliminary report con taining the general result of his observations has been published ; but the question seems to stand pretty much as before. Mr. Bauerman has simply restated the case in a more intelligible form than some of his predecessors, but no more so than it has all along been expressed by the Geological Survey — that, under existing circumstances, the Eaniganj coal field is the most promising place for a trial, tho principal, defect there being the flux; aud the Survey has been called upon to furnish further data. The only good to be expected from Mr. Bauerman's visit is, to establish the opinion that actual trial must be the next stage of the enquiry. As an accomplished metallurgist he may also suggest what recent

PART l.j

Annual Report for 1873.

improvements in tlie art would be most suitable to the circumstances ; but, of course, whoever may be entrusted with tlie conduct of the experiment would form his own opinion upon this point. Meanwhile further search is being diligently made by the Survey for means of surmounting the known material deficiencies.

In the foregoing paragraphs frequent mention has been made of the Vienna Exhibition as having caused interruption to work during the field season, which is already so restricted by the conditions of the Indian climate. This was duly noticed by Dr. Oldham in liis last report ; and it was shown how largely this circumstance was due to the present crowded and confined condition of our museum and offices, whereby we have been prevented from making even such collections for head-quarters as would sufficiently illustrate our field-work, and much less provide duplicates for distribution or for exhibition elsewhere. It is satis factory to know that this disability will certainly be shortly removed by our removal during this and the ensuing year into the new Imperial Museum buildings. Once the drawback I have mentioned is removed, the occasional muster of a special collection for foreign exhibi tion will be altogether a gain— as an incentive to keep up to date, as a means of effecting valuable exchanges of specimens, and, not least, as an opportunity for selected officers to renew their acquaintance with men and things in more civilized regions, and to improve their knowledge in the highly progressive sciences with which we havo to deal.

During the present season the distribution of the work is in continuation of that of last year except in the oases of the following officers : Mr. Theobald has been transferred to the North-West Provinces. One of the most interesting problems of Indian Geology awaits solution there — to get materials for unravelling the palaeontological sequence in the immense series of deposits based (transitionally) upon the marine nummulitics, and ending above in the deposits containing the great mammalian fauna known as Sivalik. A first step in this en quiry will be to discriminate the proper horizons for the species of tlie numerous fauna now known as ' Sivalensis,' derived from strata for which very different stratigraphical positions have been subsequently assigned.

On the urgent requisition of the Government of Bengal to have a mineral survey of British Sikkim and the fringe of the Himalayan range to the east, principally in the hope of discovering some serviceable coal deposit, Mr. Mallet has been detached for that duty. The chief expectation of success rests upon fact that rocks of the Damnda age, containing the well known fossil plants of the Indian coal-measures, are known to occur obscurely along the inner boundary of the tertiary sandstones flanking the mountain range. The occa sional carbonaceous deposits in these younger formations themselves have nowhere, as yet seen, offered any encouragement to extended search.

Mr. Hughes has been deputed to carry out some special inquiries regarding the con ditions for iron manufacture. He has already reported briefly upon the available deposits of Ivumaon, and is now engaged in bringing together additional information to reduce tlie difficulties of the undertaking in the Raniganj field. It is hoped that there will still be enough of tbe working season left to admit of bis completing the examination of the Wardba coal-field.

Mr. Ball has for the present taken up Mr. Medlicott's work in the Satpura region ; and is to afford geological guidance for the boring operations. Mr. Hacket has resumed his work in Rajputana, which had to be suspended some years ago on account of the famine in that region. Mr. Medlicott is to devote what time he can spare for field-work to an examination of the coal recently discovered in the Garo hills. This coal can be certainly

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

identified with the cretaceous coal of Siju and Maohilurkar in the same region. It appears to lie in an interior basin, the existence of which was not suspected. Until within the last five years these hills were as completely, on a small scale, a terra incognita as Central Asia, all approach being forbidden on account of the savage propensities of the inhabitants.

It remains to notice a new feature in the constitution of the Survey. It was said above that the last vacancy that occurred in the staff, by the transfer of Mr. J. Willson to the Educational Department, has not been filled up, the Government having decided to devote the pay of that appointment to the attempt to train native geologists. The scheme has in a way grown out of, though it cau scarcely be said to be a development of, endeavours made by Dr. Oldham from time to time to establish teaching in certain branches of science in connection with the Geological Survey, that some general knowledge of these subjects might be diffused, and no doubt with the ulterior view that if this teaching boro fruit, the Survey might benefit by obtaining competent workers. Dr. Oldham's proposal would have involved some ex pense, in tlio shape of remuneration to the teachers. The present scheme avoids this objection, but is not free from others. It begins by Curtailing the effective staff of the Survey ; for years to come, moreover, these attached students must be a direct incumbrance ; and there is small guarantee that they cau ever be otherwise —that they will ever be fit for independent work. The superficial discrimination of stones that used to pass muster as geology, and does so still with the majority, is really of no kind of value in the present state of knowledge. Geological observations to be of any use or interest must include much that is not obvious to the naked eye. And in any country like India, where the means of locomotion are so cumbrous, a surveyor who cannot describe and discuss his observations, or who cannot he trusted to observe correctly, is comparatively useless, as it takes nearly tho whole time of a competent man to check and direct bis work. It is not here assumed either that natives cannot be taught geology, or that it requires a high order of intelligence to attain moderate proficiency as a geologist. It does, however, essentially require a modernized intelligence ; the work being even in its lowest steps the rational interpretation of nature— the most element ary positions of tho science being not statements of obvious fact, but inductive conclusions through a postulated causation. It is this that makes geology so singularly inappropriate for the initiation of the primitive cast of mind. Geology is pre-eminently a science having no corresponding art or practice in tho proper meaning of the words, in which work can be done according to prescribable rules. Every geological act involves a deliberate judgment. The industrial undertakings occasionally based upon such judgments, involve only mechanical shill of a rough order, requiring no recognition of geological principles. These remarks may seem somewhat fine-drawn ; but I think it right to represent . this experiment for once under its essential conditions. The natives of India having as yet shown such little apti tude for acquiring physical knowledge in any of its branches, there seems small encourage ment to force them directly into the application of one of the most complex developments ot that knowledge. There are to he four native apprentices ; one joined in March last, and three are about to join. They are all students of the Lahore College, no applicants having come for ward from the North-Western Provinces. Their qualifications consist of a moderate knowledge of English and of elementary mathematics. It was at first prescribed that they should bo immediately put into geological harness. But sanction has now been given to their attending one or more courses of physical science lectures at tho Presidency College. The fact of their being already appointed to the Survey, though only as probationers, is not perhaps tho most likely way to stimulate their studies. At the worst we may look forward to utilizing them as fossil-collectors.

Publications. The quarterly Recoeds of the Geological Suevey of Inbia have been published regularly, containing numerous papers, both of general interest and of practi cal bearing. The first number, besides the annual report, contains a sketch of the geology

Annual Report far 1S73.

of the North-West Provinces. This is the only province in India of which every part has been, more or less, cursorily visited. In the second number there is a map and description of the Bisrampur coal-field, which is about the centre of the extensive spread of these formations nearly continuous in the region of the upper Son and the northern tributaries of the Mahanadi. The coal-basins of this latter area will become of great importance when the direct route is established between Calcutta and Bombay. Mr. Mallet contributes addi tional mineralogical notes on the crystalline roclcs of south Mirzapur. In the August number there is a brief discussion of the question of the geological age of onrold river valley deposits, in which during the season's work in the Narbada valley Mr, Hacket had found a most symmetrically formed stone implement. The object of the paper is, by an examination of the stratigraphical features, and the comparison of them with those of established form ations in Europe, to give a purely geological statement a most interesting question that had hitherto rested upon somewhat vaguely expressed palaeontological surmises. A preliminary notice is given by Mr. King of the Beddadanole coal-field, about thirty-five miles north-west of Kajamuudri, and by far the nearest known deposit to the sea-board of the Godavari delta. As yet nothing can be said of the prospects of the field. The trial borings are only commenc ing. Mr. Wynne contributes a sketch of the geology of the ltawal Find! region, showing the enormous continuous development of tho tertiary series. A comparative statement of the coal-measure areas of different countries, as compared with India, is drawn up by Mr. Hughes; and Mr. Theobald gives a description and list of the brine-springs of Pegu, the exploitation of which is now almost entirely superseded by the importation of salt and the manufacture of sea-salt. The fourth number contains a note by Mr. Hughes on some iron deposits of Chanda, Mr. Ball's description of Barren Island, and some memoranda by Mr. Theobald upon the metalliferous localities of British Burmah.

Of the Memoibs or the Geological Sl'evey of India, the first part of volume X was issued early in the year. It contains a carefully written description by Mr. It. Bruce Foote of a large tract of country close to Madras, comprised in the eastern half of sheet 78 of the Indian Atlas. This is separately issued in two quarter sheets, geologically coloured. Besides the gneiss, the oldest formation occurring here is that well known in Indian geology as the Rajmahal group, the Oomia zone in Dr. Stoliczka's classification of the Kaeh rocks, and considered by this most competent authority to he of uppermost jurassie ago. There are also several distinguishable deposits of tertiary and post-tertiary age, in some of which are found the rude stone implements described by Mr. Foote some years ago. This part also contains a tentative sketch with skeleton map of the Satpura basin of the coal -measure series by Mr. Medlicott. This ground seems to offer a fuller development of this great rock-series than any other area in India — from the zamia-bearing Jabalpur group, pro bably tho same as the Rajmahal, through the Mahadeva strata and underlying beds presumably of Panchet and Darnuda (Kamtlii) affinities, to the typical Barakar and Takhir rocks at the base. Parts of the northern sido of the basin were carefully examined, the lie of the coal-measures discovered, and indications given for trial borings. Part 2 of tbis volume, containing Mr. Theobald's description of the geology of Pegu, is also virtually pub lished, the whole impression having been struck ofi' in October, the delay being in the litho graphing and colour-printing of the map.

Tiie issue of tlie Pale onto loot A Indica lor the whole year was made in April and May. With a view to the Vienna Exhibition, and to admit of his going there himself. Dr. Stoliezka made great efforts to get in advance of his work. The parts then issued contaiu the Echinodermata, Authozoa, Sponges, Forainiuifera, Arthrozoa, and Spondylozoa, forming the fourth and last large volume of the Cretaceous Fauna of Southern India. The tallest testimony has been offered by the most competent authorities to the excellence and value of this work. For the same object an effort was made to prepare and issue the first fasciculus of the

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

series describing tbe jurassic fauna of Kacli by Dr. Waagen. It contains the Belemnitid:e and Nautilidse , and was issued in June, being the number in advance for the first quarter of 1874. There is a quantity of manuscript and of drawings in an advanced state of preparation, and if either Dr. Waagen or Dr. Stoliczka is able to return, even late in the year, the publication can be readily brought up to date.

Maps. — The first of the systematic publication of our maps on the scale of one inch to the mile, as recently sanctioned, was made this year by the issue of the twelve sheets of the district Dumoh ; several sheets of the adjoining region are ready to send to press. I cannot but express my decided opinion that the publication of the greater part of our work on this scale is premature and wasteful, neither the maps nor the geology being worth it. I say this advisedly, and because I am quite prepared to defend the excellence of the maps to the degree of accuracy that can be expected in them. We have for the most part to deal with rocky and hilly ground, and tracts of this description generally come under the Topo graphical system of survey. It would altogether defeat the objects of this mode of survey, which are expedition and moderate cost, if it were to attempt the same accuracy of detail that is expected from the method of the Revenue Survey. For all ordinary purposes of geogra phy, and for all rough practical purposes, as well as general geological structure, these maps are all that need be required. But close geological work is as severe a test as a map can be put to; and I have often had to give up the attempt to make the geological features agree accurately with the lines of these maps. I can speak even more positively of the geological objection. Take these very maps of Dumoh ; they only represent the boundaries of the overlying trap, the divisions of the Vindhyan series (generally several hundred feet in thickness), and the outcrops of the inter and intra-trappeans, all in the simplest relation of horizontal superposition. There is no single feature of scientific interest or of practical utility calling for any minuteness of delineation, and that cannot bo adequately indicated on the quarter-inch scale. It is certainly necessary that the field work should be executed on the one-inch scale if only to ensure all possible accuracy on the smaller map ; but once this reduction has been carefully made, and with an explanatory text, it would be of small consequence if the field-maps were destroyed. The most complete geological map possible would be of no use in the hands of one who scarcely knows one rock from another ; and for one who does, the quarter-inch maps will be sufficient guide over nine-tenths of the geological work likely to be done in India for many a year to come.

While on the subject of large scale maps, I would urge the importance of having really adequate working maps of certain tracts where the utmost amount of accuracy and of geologi cal detail is called for. Such a map is now greatly needed on the scale of four or six inches to the mile for the Raniganj coal-field, where nfining enterprise is so active.

Of the Atlas of India maps, quarter sheet 77 S. W. was published during the year ; and several of the adjoining sheets are ready for the engravers. The printing of these has not been pressed on account of some uncertainty as to corrections, which could not bo settled in the absence of Mr. King. This is of less consequence, as a skeleton map of most of the area was issued with the descriptive memoir published last year. As these Atlas sheets are to be our final and general form of publication, it is of great importance to decide upon a permanent scale of colours, so as to have the series uniform ; and it is very difficult to do this safely while the scale of formations itself is under discussion. Once this difficulty is surmounted, we shall be in a position to publish a good number of these quarter sheets.

Library. The library has received the addition of 614 volumes or parts of volumes during the year, of which number 477 were presented, and 137 purchased. This number would have been much larger, save for the unfortunate miscarriage of a large consignment ol books from Berlin. It is hoped that the case has only gone astray and will be recovered.

Annual Report for 1873.

It has now been several months missing. The detailed list of these additions has been regularly published in the Records ; and a list of the institutions from which presentations or exchanges have been received is annexed.

Museum. — Occasional donations to the museum have been duly acknowledged in the Records. Mr. Mallet was able, during the recess, to get through a considerable section of his descriptive catalogue of mineral collection. The preparation for the Vienna Exhibition entailed no small additional labour upon all hands ; but the success achieved has been most gratifying to all. The parts of those collections to be received back have not yet arrived. The series of specimens in the museum are in good order.

Ii. B. Medlicott,

Offrj. Supclt. of Geol. Survey, India,

Calcutta, 1 and Director of Geol. Museum, Calcutta.

List of Societies and other Institutions, 8fc., from winch publications have been received in donation or exchange for the Library of the Geological Survey of India during the year 1873.

Batavia. — Royal Society of Batavia.

Belfast. — Natural History and Philosophical Society of Belfast.

Berlin. — German Geological Society.

Boston. — Boston Society of Natural History.

Bruxelles. — Royal Academy of Science.

Calcutta. — Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Cambridge-Mass. — American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

,, — Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Christiania. — Royal University.

Copenhagen. — Banish Academy.

Dresden.— The Isis Society.

Dublin. — Royal Dublin Society.

„ — Royal Geological Society of Ireland.

Edinburgh. — Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Florence. — Geological Commission of Italy.

Glasgow. — Philosophical Society of Glasgow- Gottingen. — The Society.

Indianapolis. — Geological Survey of Indiana.

Lausanne. — Society of Natural Sciences.

Liverpool. — British Association for the advancement of Science.

London.— British Museum.

,, — Geological Society of London.

„ — Royal Institute of Great Britain.

„ — Royal Geographical Society.

Melbourne. — Royal Society of Victoria.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Minneapolis. — Academy of Natural Sciences, Minnesota.

Montreal. — Geological Survey of Canada.

Moscou. — Imperial Society of Naturalists,

Munich. — Royal Bavarian Academy of Science.

Neuchatel.— Society of Natural Sciences.

New Zealand. — Geological Survey of New Zealand.

Paris. — Geological Survey of France.

„ — L'Adininistration des Mines.

Philadelphia.— Academy of Natural Sciences.

„ — American Philosophical Society.

Roorkee. — Thomason College of Civil Engineering.

Salem. — Peahody Academy of Seionee.

Stockholm. — Bureau Rechcr. Geol. Suede.

St, Petersburg. — Imperial Academy of Sciences.

Toronto. — Canadian Institute.

Turin.— Royal Academy' of Science.

Victoria. — Government Geological Survey of Victoria, Department of Mines. Vienna. — K. K. Geologisclie Reiclisanstalt.

Washington. — Smithsonian Institute.

— -Department of Agriculture of the United States of America.

— Department of State, Washington, D. C.

), — United States Geological Survey.

Wellington. — New' Zealand Institute.

Yokohama.— German Natural History Society.

Zurich. — -Natural History Society.

Governments of Bengal, Bombay, India, Madras, Minnesota, and North- Western Provinces ; Chief Commissioners of British Burma, Central Provinces, and Mysore ; the Surveyor General of India, the Resident, Hydrabad, and the Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Sur vey of India.

A brief account of the geological structure of the Hill-ranges between the Indus Valley in Ladak and Shah-i-dula on the frontier of Yarkand ter ritory, by Dr. F. Stoliczka, Geological Savvey of India, Naturalist attached to the Yarkand Embassy.

The following brief notes on the general geological structure of the bill-ranges alluded tu, are based upon observations made by myself* on a tour from Leh, vidl Changchenmo, the high plains of Lingzi-thang, Earatagh, Aktagh to Skah-i-dula, and upon corresponding observations made by Dr. H. W. Bellew, accompanying His Excellency Mr. Forsyth's camp along the Korakorum route to this place.

Before proceeding with my account, I will only' notice that our journey from Leb (or a was undertaken during the second half of September and in October, and that we 0111,1 greater portion ot the country north of the Changchenmo valley covered with

As,a "W"b£*of a detauM party,' specially deputed by Hie Excellency the Envoy, Mr. T. B Forsyte, b„ to explore the Changchenmo and Lingzi-thang routes.

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Sloliczha : Structure of the hill ranges.

Know, the greatest obstacle a geologist can meet on his survey. While on onr journey the thermometer very rarely rose during the day above the freezing point, and hammer opera tions were not easily canned out. At night the thermometer sank as a rule to zero, or even to 8° below zero in onr tents, and to 2C° below zero in the open air. Adding to this the natural difficulties of the ground we had to pass through, it was occasionally not an easy matter to keep the health up to the required standard of working power.

Near Leh, and for a few miles east and west of it, the Indus flows on the boundary between crystalline rocks on the north and eocene rocks on the south. The latter consist chiefly of grey and reddish sandstones and shales, and more or less coarse conglomerates, containing an occasional nummulite and casts of pelecypods. These tertiary rocks extend from eastward south of the Pangkong lake, following the Indus either along one or both banks of the river, as far west as Kargil, where they terminate with a kind of brackish and fresh-water deposit, containing melanie.

Nearly the entire ridge north of the Indus, separating this river from the Shayok, and continuing in a south-easterly direction to the mouth of the Hanle river (and crossing here the Indus, extending to my knowledge as far as Demehock), consists of syenitic gneiss, an extremely variable rock as regards its mineralogical composition. The typical rock is a moderately fine-grained syenite, crossed by veins which are somewhat richer in hornblende, while other portions contain a large quantity of schorl. Both about Leh and further eastward, extensive beds of dark, almost black, fine-grained syenite occur in the other rock. The felspar often almost entirely disappears from this fine-grained variety, and quartz remains very sparingly disseminated, so that gradually the rock passes into a kornblendic schist ; and when schorl replaces hornblende, the same rock changes into layers which are almost entirely composed of needles of schorl. Again, the syenite loses in places all its hornblende, the crystals of felspar increase in size, biotite (or sometimes chlorite) becomes more or less abundant, and with the addition of quartz we have before us a typical gneiss (or protogine gneiss) without being able to draw a boundary between it and typical syenite. However, the gneissic portions, many of which appear to lie regularly bedded, are decidedly subordinate to the syenitic ones. As already mentioned, the rock often has a porphyritic structure, and the felspar becomes pink instead of white, as, for instance, on the top of the Kardung pass and on the southern slope of the Chang-la, where large fragments are often met without the slightest trace of hornblende. To the north of the last men tioned pass the syenitic gneiss gradually passes into thick beds of syenite-schist, and this again into chloride schist, by the hornblende becoming replaced by chlorite, while the other mineral constituents are gradually almost entirely suppressed. The syenitic and chloride beds alternate with quartzose schists of great thickness. This schistose series of rocks continues from north of the Chang-la to the western end of the Pangkong lake, and northwards to the Lunker-la, generally called the Marsemik pass. On the western route Dr. Bellew met similar rocks north of the Kardung pass at the village Kardung, and traced them northwards across the Shayok, up the Nubra valley to near the foot of the Sussir pass.

Intimately connected with the metamorphie schistose series just noticed, ls a greenish chloritic, partly thin-bedded, partly more massive rock, which very closely resembles a similar rock found about Srinaggar. Only in this case certain layers, or portions of it, become often distinctly or even coarsely crystalline, sometimes containing bronzite sparingly disseminated, and thus passing into diallage. This chloritic rock forms the greater part of the left side of the Ckangchenmo valley, and also occurs south of the Sussir pass. I think we have to look upon this whole series of schistose and chloritic rocks as the representatives of the Silurian formation.

After crossing the Ckangchenmo valley to Gogra, we met with a different set of rocks. They are dark, often quite black, shales alternating with sandstones. Many beds of the

Records of Hie Geological Survey of India.

latter have a comparatively recent aspect, and are rather micaceous, without the least metamorphic structure, while the shales accompanying them very often exhibit a silky, submetamorphic appearance on the plains of fracture. I observed occasionally traces of fucoids and other plants in these shales, but no animal fossils. On the Changchenmo route these shaly rocks forms the ridge of the Chang-lang pass, as well as the whole of the western portion of the Lingzi-thang; and they are met again after crossing these high plains and entering the Karakash valley, as far as Slunglung (or Dunglung). On the Korakorum route Dr. Bellew brought specimens of similar rocks from the Korakorum range itself. There can be but little doubt,— judging from similar rocks which I saw in Spiti, and from their geological relation to certain limestones, of which I shall presently speak— that we have in the shaly series the carboniferous formation represented.

In many localities along the right bank of the Changchenmo river, then at the hot springs north of Gogra, and on the southern side of the Chang-lang pass, we find the carbo niferous beds overlain by triassic limestone which often has the characteristic semi-oolitic structure of the Krol-limestone south of Simla. At Gogra and several other places dolomitic beds occur ; and in these, sections of Dicerocardium Himalayaense are not uncommon. In other places bods are met with full of crinoid stems. North of the Lingzi-thang plain — to the west of which the hills are mostly composed of the same triassic limestone — a red brecciatcd, calcareous conglomerate is seen at the foot of the Compass-la, but this conglome rate gradually passes into the ordinary grey limestone, which forms the ridge, and un doubtedly belongs to the same group of triassic rocks. The last place where I saw the triassic limestone was just before reaching the camping ground Shinglung ; here it is an almost white or light grey compact rock, containing very perfect sections of Megalodon triqueter, the most characteristic triassic fossil. On Mr. Forsyth's route Dr. Bellew met with similar triassic limestones on tho northern declivities of the Sussir pass, and also on the Korakorum pass overlying the carboniferous shales and sandstones previously noticed. On tho Korakorum the triassic limestone contains spherical corals very similar to those which had been a few years ago described by Professor Ritter von Reuss from the Hallstadt beds in the Alps, and which are here known to travellers as Korakorum stones. A description of these very remarkable corals will bo given subsequently.

Returning to our Lingzi-thang route, we leave, as already mentioned, the last traces of triassic limestone at Shinglung, in the upper Karakash valley. Here the limestone rests upon some shales, and then follow immediately the same chloritic rock which we noticed on the Lunker-la, alternating with quartzose schists, both of which must be regarded as of upper palaeozoic age.

At Kizil-jilga regular sub-metamorphic slates appear, alternating with a red conglo merate and red sandstones, and further on dark slate is the only rock to be seen the whole way down the Karakash, until the river assumes a north-easterly course, some fourteen miles west of the Karatngh pass. From here my route lay in a north-westerly direction towards Aktagh, and the same slaty rock was met with along the whole of this route up to the last mentioned place. Dr. Bellew also traced these slates from the northern side of the Korakorum to Aktagh. They further continue northwards across the Suget-la, a few miles north of the pass, as well as in single patches down the Suget river to its junction with the Karakash. The irregular range of hills to the south of the portion of the Karakash river, which flows almost east-west from Shah-i-dula, on its southern side entirely consists of these slates, while on the northern side it is composed of a fine-grained syenite, which also forms the whole of the Kuenlun range along the right hank of the Karakash river, and also is the sole rock composing the hills about the camping ground Shah-i-dula. The slates of which I spoke arc, on account of the close cleavage, mostly fine, crumbling, not metamorphic, and must, I think, be referred to the silurian group. They correspond to the metamorphic schists on the southern side of the Korakorum ranges.

Hughes : Iron-ores of Kumaon.

Thus we have the whole system of mountain ranges between the Indus and the borders of Turkistan bounded on the north and south by syenitio rocks, including between them the silurian, carboniferous, and triassic formations. This fact is rather remarkable, for, south of the Indus, we have nearly all the principal sedimentary formations represented from the silurian up to the eocene, and most of the beds abound in fossils.

The only exception to which I can allude on the Changclienmo route is near Kium, in the Changchenmo valley. Here there are on the left bank of the river some remarkably recent looking sandstones and conglomerates, dipping at an angle of about 45° to north-by east, and at the foot of these beds rise the hot springs* of Kium. I think it probable that this conglomerate has eastward a connection with the eocene deposits, which occur at the western end of the Pangkong lake, and in the Indus valley south of it.

In the previous notes I have scarcely alluded to the dip of the rocks at the different localities. The reason is that there is indeed very great difficulty in directly observing both the dip and the strike. At the western end of the Pangkong lake the dip of the metamorphic schists is mostly a south-westerly one, hut further on nearly all the rocks dip at a moderate angle to north-east, north-by-east, or to north. On the Lingzi-thang, just after crossing the Changlatig, the shales are mostly highly inclined, but further on the limestones lie unconformably on them and dip to north-east. Wherever the hills consist merely of shales and slates, their sides are generally so thickly covered with debris and detritus that it becomes almost an exception to observe a rock in situ.

The debris is brought down in large quantities by the melting snow into the valleys, and high banks of it are everywhere observable along the water-courses. At a somewhat remote — say diluvial — period this state of things has operated on a. far greater scale. Not only were the lakes, like the Pangkong, much more extensive, but valleys like the Chang chemo, or the Tanktze valley, sometimes became temporarily blocked up by glaciers, or great landslips, and the shingle and clay deposits were often accumulated in them to a thickness of two or more hundred feet. Near Aktagh similar deposits of stratified clay exist of about 160 feet thickness, and extend over an area of more than one hundred square miles. There can ho but little doubt that when these large sheets of water were in existence, the climate of these now cold and arid regions was both milder and moist er, and naturally more favorable to animal and vegetable life than it is now. A proof of this is given, for instance, by the occurrence of subfossil Succinece, Helices, and Pupa in the clay deposits of the Pangkong lake, while scarcely any land mollusk could exist at the present time in the same place.

Notes on some of the Iron-ores of Kumaon, by Theodore W. H. Hughes, A. It. S. M., P. G. S., Geological Survey of India.

In connection with the highty important subject of the establishment of iron works in this country on the large scale, I was called upon in October last by Government to investi gate the mode of occurrence and to determine the quality of some iron-ores in the province of Kumaon.

My attention was directed to no new localities ; I was instructed to visit ground that had already been so reported upon, written about and discussed, that it possessed a literature of its own on the special subject of iron, of more than five hundred octavo pages.f

The temperature of these hot springs varies from 60° to 125°. They form no deposit of gypsum, like the springs north of Gogra, but there is a good deal of soda deposit round them.

t Selections from the Records of the Government of India, No. VIII, 1855.

n ii „ „ „ „ Supplement to No. VIII, 1855.

Report on the Government iron works at Deehource in Kumaon, by Thomas Oldham, Esq., 1860.

There was no time, and perhaps no necessity, for me to make an exhaustive examination of the capabilities of the entire province; hut my work would have been personally more satis factory if, by more extended research, I had been able to assure myself that no essential points had escaped the observation of my predecessors.

Acting upon the orders conveyed by letter through Colonel Ramsay, c. n.. Commissioner of KumaOn — " to report generally upon the quantity and quality of the ores and fluxes in the neighbourhood of Ramgarh, Khairna, Kaladhungi, and Deh-chaux" — I proceeded as soon after the cessation of the rains as possible to examine each locality indicated.

Colonel Drummond, Dr. Oldham, and Messrs. Henwood, Sowerby, Barret, Davies, Watson, and Bauerman have expressed views as to the prospect of Kaladhungi and Dehchauri furnishing ore and flux, and I find on comparing their opinions that with the excep tion of Mr. Henwood in 1855, aud Mr. Bauerman in 1873, they entertain the belief that ore is very plentiful. In this belief I coincide. I have only to temper tho too high estimate formed of the quality of the oro.

Ramgabh.

Under this heading it will be convenient to refer to several places in the same geological region, but at some distance apart — namely, Pahli, Losbgiani, Hatful Khan aud Parwara.

Palrii. — This locality is near the Ramgarh suspension bridge and on the right bank of the Kalapani river. I am sorry to say there was no means of gaining any knowledge as to the existence or quality of ore other than by the examination of some waste heaps near the mouths of two deserted galleries. A sample of ore was brought in and analyzed. It yielded per cent, of iron. This is but a low percentage, and may be accounted for by supposing that the waste mass from which the ore was picked out contained only poor specimens. At Natua, Khan and other localities where the same variety of ore (micaceous kmmatite) occurs the average percentage of iron is much greater,

Loshgidni. — Iron-ore has been extensively wrought near Loshgianf. There are two distinct beds, tho Gwalakuri and the Khanipaka. The ore, which is least rich in iron, is that of tho Gwalakuri bed.

Its outcrop is well defined, and by clearing away a little earth, I was enabled to obtain what I consider a fair sample of tho ore, which is a rather dense brown haematite, yielding 52'4 per cont. of iron. The minimum thickness of the bed is 8 feet. I have not been able to find any reference to the quality of this iron in any of tho books which I have consulted. I suspect that its external appearance, which is certainly not indicative of such a high per centage, as analysis shows it to contain, condemned it in the eyes of those to whom the soft, bright, micaceous haunatites of tho neighbourhood had recommended themselves.

The Khanipaka bed is distinct from that of Gwalakuri, although ou almost the same horizon. It has been largely mined by the natives, and tho number of shafts that have been sunk to reach tho oro is something extraordinary.

I was anxious to obtain access to some underground workings, in order to estimate the thickness of the bed ; but when I saw that the only means of descent was by a rope down which one had to slide to a depth of 80 to a 100 feet, and then come up again hand over hand, and that the shaft was neither straight nor dressed, I was obliged to acknow ledge that to gain my end would necessitate the performance of a feat somewhat beyond my powers. In consequence, I can merely repeat what the natives told me, that tho bed varied from G to S feet in thickness. A large amount of the ore is stacked in the yard adjoining the partly erected furnace near the village of Ramgarh. It seemed unnecessary to have the percentage ot iron determined, as it appears to be of quite as high a value as the Natua Khan ore, the analysis of which will be found further on.

Hughes : Iron-ores of Kdmaon.

Natua Khan. — This is one of the most celebrated localities for the ores, coming under the general heading of Ramgarh. It possesses, however, no claim to superiority over Losh giani, either on the score of better quality of ore or greater thickness of bed. The accident of its propinquity to the main road between Naim Tal and Almora vendors it easy of access, and therefore brings it more into notice.

There is no outcrop of the bed visible ; and, as in the case of Loshgiani, I havo to rely on the statement of the natives who worked it underground, that its total thickness is 9 feet, including a parting that varies from 1 to 2 feet. A specimen of the ore, which I obtained near the old workings, yielded Gl'33 per cent, of iron. Dr. Macnamara* who analysed a sample forwarded by Colonel Drummond in 1855, gives the result of his examination as 70'72 of iron. This is, of course, a very high percentage, and the average is probably nearer the result obtained in our office.

Parwdra. — This locality is several miles from Ramgarh, hut as I had heard of it spoken of as possessing a bod of good ore, I went there. I found on my arrival that there was no opportunity of inspecting the ironstone in situ, every pit that had been sunk having filled in. I tried to open out one of them, but two days' working convinced me that a month would he required to get down and expos© the bed, and I contented myself by taking away a specimen of tho ore from amongst a few pieces that the headman of the village had in his house. It was brown hcematitc, mixed with a great deal of calcareous matter. The result of analysis was 2961 per cent, of iron and 43 per cent, of carbonate of lime. Al though the quantity of iron is small, this ore would be valuable to mix with others, oil account of the carbonate of lime with which it is associated.

There were several mines in the neighbourhood which I might have looked at, but as they were all abandoned, and there was nothing to see at the surface beyond tbe rocks in which tbe ironstone occurred, I wasted no time over them.

Summary.— The examination of tbe few localities I have visited convinces me that in the Ramgarh area the ores are rich, abundant, and may be easily worked.

The Loshgiani and Natua Ivan beds havo only to be mined upon some rational system to yield an enormous amount of ore. Dr. Oldham, in his report of 1800,t when referring to Ramgarh, says, " there is not the slightest possibility of tbe want of ore being felt ; there is the greatest abundance."

Flux. — lame-stone occurs in the immediate vicinity of tbe ironstone at Natua Ivhau. It yields by analysis G7'6 per cent, of carbonate of lime, and tbe rest is cliiofly clay. This is not equal to tbe purity of limestoues generally in use in England, which contain 93 to 97 per cent, of carbonate of lime ; but an impure limestone can be employed advantageously at times, when tbe ore of iron is of such a composition that it requires some foreign earths to ho added. I am not aware of any purer limestone occurring near Natua Khan or Loshgiani,

Khairna.

From Ramgarh I proceeded to Khairna, and after examining the iron-ore there went to Tatail and Kaluagarh, which are villages in tho valley of the Kosx, distant about three and seven miles respectively from Khairna.

Khairna. — A bed of quartzite, in which small veins of red haematite are found, occurs near to the old suspension bridge at the confluence of the Ivosi and Khairna rivers. I can not report favorably of this locality as a source of supply ; for, though the ore considered

Selections from the Records of the Government of India, .Supplement to No. VIII, I860, page 37. t Report on the Government iron-works at Decliouree, in Kumaon, by Thomas Oldham, Esq., I860, p. 24.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

merely as an ore is good, it is too much scattered through the matrix for profitable working. Mr. Sowerby speaks highly of Khairna, and says— " I have no doubt whatever but that the deposit is very considerable, and there is a good back (hill) to work upon. Our opinions differ,

Tatail. — Two veins of ironstone were pointed out to me near [Tatail. One measuring eight to twelve inches in thickness, and dipping to the west at an angle of 30°, occurs in a hill to the south of the village, and is associated with Talcose shale and dolomite. The amount of carbonate of lime in the dolomite is 65'1, and the remainder is carbonate of magnesia and clay.

I could not obtain a largo sample of the ore, which is micaceous iron, as there are no longer any surface workings, but I was able to pick off a small piece from the side of the vein, and it yielded by analysis 48'77 per cent, of iron.

The other vein, containing magnetite, occurs west of the village and on the left bank of the Simrara Gadhdra. It is of small size, and it has never been holed for the sake of the ore. The native agar mei'ely collect the fragments that may be occasionally brought into the bed of the stream by slips of the bank. The assay of the ore gave 50T1 per cent, of iron.

Kaludgarh . — My visit to this place was labour entirely thrown away, as I could see nothing more than a small hollow in clay where iron-ore was once obtained.

Sdmmaet, — Of the different localities which I have alluded to in the Khairna area, there is not one which gives promise of much ore. I cannot say what the valley of the Kosi might yield between Kaluagarh and the Bhabar ; but in the section of it which I examined, there was nothing to justify the hope that Khairna was a valuable district for ironstone. It would be well if we knew what the capabilities of the Kosi valley were lower down, where the accessibility from the plains might render deposits of rich and abundant ore more than usually valuable, in order to mix them with the poorer varieties of the Bhabar.

Flux. — As there is no probability that any demand for limestone to be used in iron furnaces will arise near Khairna, the question as to its occurrence or not is not of much importance.

Owing to the interest attaching to this well known resting place for people either going to or coming from Naim Tal, as having once been the scene of actual smelting operations on the large scale, I went carefully over the ground with Mr. Matthews, the Secretary to the Kdmaon Iron Company, and examined the deposit of iron-ore which occurs between the two extreme points known as Loha Bhar Bliar and Dharia Khera. It is a much more recent formation than the iron-ores of Ramgarh and Khairna, being possibly of tertiary age. It occurs with the clays and sandstones of the Nahun group, which form the low fringing hills to the north of Kaladhungi, but whether interstratified with them or unconformablc to them it is difficult to say. There is one section in the main road to Nairn Tal, about a mile from the dak bungalow at Kaladhungi, where the ironstone has been cut through, and it appears to be conformable to the beds below it. This may, however, be quite accidental.

Mr. Medlicott informs me that further west, to as far as Nahun, similar beds of ferri ferous clay occur, though not so rich as at Deh-chauri, and undoubtedly forming an integral portion of the Nahun group, (tertiary). This is a point of considerable practical importance, for if the deposit be unconformable to, instead of being interstratified with, the clay's and sandstones, the ironstone at the surface is to a considerable extent the measure of its quan tity, whereas if it be a bed in the series, it will yield a much greater body of ironstone than is now exposed to view.

llvghes : Iron-ores of Kumaott.

Even taking the most unfavorable view of the ease, however, there is an immense mass of ore. I was somewhat sceptical at first as to the quantity being large, but half an hour'3 steady walking over a more or less continuous baud of it, removed any doubts that I had entertained.

I cannot, however, speak very enthusiastically about the general quality of the ore. A sample, which I consider contains more than the average quantity of iron, yielded 49'91 per cent, of protoxide, or 38 82 per cent, of metallic iron.

On referring to the printed records on the subject, I find that in trial-assays made by Mr. Davies* the percentages of iron were 48, 47, 40, and 28 ; Piddington gives the maximum as 52 and 29. And Dr. Maenamara from best quality samples obtained 48'53 per cent.

Summary. — No appreciation of the value of the Kaladhungi deposit oan bo made by merely reading a series of maximum and minimum percentages of samples sent in to an analyst. One must go over the ground as I did to see what the general proportion of rich to poor ore is — and I am of opinion that the poor ore predominates. At first sight this state ment might appear to condemn the Kaladhungi ironstone, but this is not the case, for if the " getting " of it were properly supervised by some person who could distinguish the good from the bad portions, the deposit is so large that an immense amount of superior ore might be made available for smelting. Unless some plan of discrimination, however, is adopted, a mixture of high and low class ores will take place, and as the better class of ore is not extravagantly rich, it will do no more than just raise the entire mass above the standard of condemnation.

Flux. — Limestone blocks occur in several of the small streams near Kaladhungi, and notably in the Baur river. An estimate of quantity is scarcely called for, as the supply is more than ample for the wants of half a dozen furnaces.

Deh-chattm.

The ironstone which occurs at Kaladhungi extends westward to Ddh-ohauri. Mr Sowerhy spoke highly of the Deh-chain ore, and asserted that it was more abundant than the deposit at Kaladhungi. This latter statement was a point which Mr. Matthews, equally with myself, wished to investigate, and we spent three days in looking up every section that was to be seen, and we came to the conclusion that the deposit of ore was less extensive than that at Kaladhungi, but the quality was generally much better. Several different beds are spoken of by Mr. Sowerby as being in situ, but I can neither confirm nor disprove this assertion. None of the natural sections furnished me any satisfactory evidence, and to have opened out a shaft, or driven an adit, would have occupied two or three months. With only the quantity of ore, however, to operate with that I saw on the surface, there is enough to supply all the requirements of the number of furnaces that are ever likely to he kept in blast at Deh-ohauri, so that whether three beds or four beds exist is really not of much consequence.

The following analyses of Deh-chauri and Kaladhungi ores exhibit side by side the composition ofamples which are somewhat above the average quality : —

Dch-chaurl.

Losa in heating ...

Oxide of iron

Alumina

Lime

Phosphoric acid ...

'66

Silica and insoluble

Metallic iron

There was no sulphur, and the amount of phosphorus is not excessive.

Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Supplement to No. VIII, 1865, page 41.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Flux. — Limestone may be picked out of the channel of the river Baur, and in several of its minor tributaries. Enormous blocks are strewn on the same hill side in which the iron-ore exists ; and I am informed that a tufa deposit occurs within a reasonable distance of Deh-chauri.

Geneeal Stkumaey.— Summarising in a few words the result of my investigation regarding the iron-ores, I have to state —

Ores. — That in the Ramgarh circle, the ore is good and plentiful.

That in the Khairna circle, the iron-ores are not of much value.

That in the Kaladhiingi circle, the ore is not as good as those occurring in the Ramgarh circle, but the supply is very great.

That in the Deh-chauri circle, the average quality of the ore is superior to that at Kaladhdugi, and the quantity is large.

Limestone. — Is o fear need be entertained about the supply of limestone for fluxing. Every authority agrees in testifying to its abundance.

Although my duty was only to report upon the quantity and quality of the iron-ores at the places indicated in my instructions, I would beg to make a few remarks in view of the possible resuscitation of the manufacture of pig-iron in the Bhabar, at Kaladhungi, and Deh-chauri,

Such an attempt cannot fail through paucity of ore or flux. Water-supply is available throughout the driest season of the year, as is proved by the fact that tho furnaces of the Knmaon Iron Company were in blast until the 5th of June. The reproductive power of tho forests has been tested in the severest manner, for I am informed by Mr. Matthows that in 1860 a considerable tract of land extending from the vicinity of the furnaces at Kaladhiingi. to the base of the hills was cleared, no trees being left for hearing seed ; and now (1873) tho whole area is so covered with well grown saplings that it is difficult to believe in the accuracy of Mr. Matthews' statement.

Comparing tho conditions now with what they were ten years ago, when the Ivumaon Iron Company stopped operations, circumstances are much more in favor of the possibility of Indian-manufactured iron competing with home produce. Tho high price of coal in Eng land has led to such an advance in the cost of iron of all kinds that there is now a pros pect of India being able profitably to work her own raw material.

Note on the haw materials foe ieon smelting-in the Raniganj Field, by Theodoee W. H. Hughes, a. e. s. m., f. a. s., Geological Survey of India.

As a result of Mr. Bauerman's preliminary report upon tho iron-ores of the Raniganj coal-field, tho Geological Survey of India has been called upon for information on tho subject.

Claim of the field recognised. — It is almost needless to say that tho claim of this field to be considered the most advantageous position for the manufacture of iron in Bengal on an European scale was recognised years and years ago by the Survey, and that Mr. Bauerman, in recommending it as the locality offering the host prospects of success, has but confirmed tho opinion held by every geologist and others competent to offer one.

The establishing of largo iron-works was not urged at the time of the survey of the Raniganj field, for it would have shown an utter disregard of tho conditions essential to success to have done so. Since then, howover, increased facilities of communication, dis coveries oi better coals, the possibility of making coke, and the steady rise in the price

Hughes : On raw materials.

of imported iron, have tended to reduce the margin of probable failure to such proportions that the prospect of the successful manufacture of iron has emerged from the region of speculation. Nevertheless, the caution recommended by Mr. Bauerman to the Government of India before going into any projects for the erection of works is very judicious; it being undeniable that the Subject of lluxes is a most essential point to enquire into.

Kunkur assays. — With a view to throw some light upon the application of kunkur, I have lately made a few trial assays at the Mint which I will refer to in detail farther on. I obtained a very fair slag ; but it must bo remembered that the assays were conducted under a favourable combination of circumstances unattainable in a furnace, and that before the practical adaptability of kunkur can be pronounced upon, experiments on a more extensive scale ought to be carried out. The result of the small trials in so far answers a useful purpose, that it indicates a possible substitute for rock-limestone, and can bo accepted as some measure of the value of kunkur.

Proposed trials. — I propose at the end of the field-season operating upon a few tons of raw material, varying the proportionate quantities of kunkur, ore and coal; and I cannot but anticipate that the deductions from such experiments will be useful. I am happy to say that I have already received offers of assistance and the loan of a cupola from Hon'ble J. M. Itobinson, of the Bengal Coal Company, and Colonel II. Hyde, It. E., to the latter of whom I am already indebted for facilities afforded me at the Mint during my preliminary assays.

Although my more special attention was directed to the subject of fluxes, I was in addition instructed to point out the most favourable position for erecting furnaces ; to institute enquiries about furnace materials; to make some sort of estimate as to the quantity of iron-ore available ; and to confirm or modify the opinion entertained of certain coals in the western part of the field. For the sake of convenient reference I propose to notice each section of my enquiry under these different heads. And first as to coal.

Coal. — I presume it is unnecessary to adduce evidoneo in proof of the enormous amount of coal which exists in the Baniganj field. There is perhaps no area of similar size in the whole world which can compare with it for actual thickness of the seams. The coal, however, is not so good in quality as it might be ; hut I believe better will be discovered as the field becomes progressively developed.

Weal-point of Indian coal : its ash. — The weak point of our Indian eoal is the amount of inorganic matter that it contains as compared to good English and Welsh eoal ; but lately two samples have been received at the Geological Survey Office, one from Sanpur near Nirsha, and the other from Bahmandiha, near Niamatpur, which contain only 8'9 and 8'7 per cent, of ash respectively. The average percentage is 15.

Nothing more than an ordinary analysis of these coals has boon made, and their composition is —

Sanpur.

Bahmandiha.

Carbon

Ash

Both are said to coke ; and as they are remarkably

clean, they

ought to he brought more

into use. At present I believe they are scarcely worked. The Sanpur coal is burdened with a cartage freight of six miles and a toll ; but the Bahmandiha seam has no serious drawback

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

to contend against. It lies in the general strike of the Sanktoria seam, which is well known to be one of the finest properties in the field, and it may be the continuation of that bed to the north-east.

A very complete series of analyses of thirty different coals has lately been made by Mr. Tween under Dr. Oldham's direction, and I find that those samples furnished by the Dumarkunda, Banal i, Sanktoria, Mangalpur, and Raniganj collieries combined the greatest freedom from ash with high percentage of carbon.

Names of Collieries.

Carbon.

Hydrogen.

Oxygen

and

Nitrogen.

Sulphur.

Ash.

Percentage of coke in undried coal.

Dumarkunda

Sanktoria ...

82

Rdniganj ...

Banali

37

Mangalpur...

88

The loss of water in the Dumarkunda, Sanktoria, and Raniganj coal was 2 per cent., in the Banali coal 4 per cent,, and in the Mangalpur coal o' 8 per cent.

Amount of sulphur small. — The amount of sulphur is in each instance considerably under 1 per cent. — a fact which will not readily be credited by those who think that Indian coals are always saturated with iron-pyrites.

I append a statement of the amount of sulphur in some good class British coals : —

Northumberland.

Low main seam. Buddies Hartley colliery (steam coal) Nottinghamshire.

Shircoak colliery, belonging to Duke of Newcastle South Staffordshire.

Rooves ...

Bushey Park seam Pemberton yard

Lancashire.

Blaina, South Wales.

Dowlais, South Wales.

Ras Las

Scotland.

Argesline ...

Walls end Elgin

Sulphur in 100 parts of coal.

'55

Percy's Metallurgy, 1861, Vol. I, pages 99, 102. — Crookes and Roll rig, 1870, Vol. Ill, page 469.

Hughes : On raw materials .

Beverting to the Baniganj coals, the following is the result of the analyses of their ashes, and for the sake of illustration I subjoin a selection of a few Welsh and Scotch coal ashes: —

Silica.

Alumina.

Oxide of iron.

Lime.

Magnesia.

Sulphur! c- aeid

Phosphoric

acid.

Dnmarkucda

55

54

Sanktoria

Banal!

Baniganj

Mangalpur

1

1T8

Dowlais.

Dowlais.

Dowlais.

Dowlais.

Pou*pool ro;k vein coal.

Ebbw vale four -feet steam coal.

Fifes?; ire Fordet splint e-.ai.

Silica

who 73

Alumina ...

Sesquioxide of iron

26U0

1P8*J

Lime ...

1&quot;S1

Magnesia

Trace ...

no

Sulphuric acid ...

—

Ct29

Traces . .

2" 22

Phosphoric acid

2"00

0"75

G*Ss

It will be seen that the proportion of phosphoric acid in a hundred grains of the ashes of some of our Indian coals compares favourably with the English equivalents ; but we must bear in mind that Indian coal is burdened, as a rule, with three to four times the amount of ash in English coal ; and consequently for equal weights of coal the comparison is not so favorable.

Sanatoria coal calling. — Only one o: the five selected coals, that cf Sanktoria, is truly caking ; the rest yield nothing tetter than bastard coke. Analysis shows that the Dumarkdnda coal is a first class Indian coal; ani I believe that h would p; : lu:e a very fair description of coke provide.! the ovens were charged with freshly raised materia;.'*-

Perce's Metaliorgv, 1561, V I, pare 106.

t Since writing the aboTe I bare received freer C-:'. .cel Hjoe. E. E, a rai shewing the relative heating : - : r of the several coals submitted fer trial at the Mint : being of the same samples as these e: h in the 1 ah iratcrr of the Geological Server bj Mr. Tween. The I . : - 1. e.i ccal ; . - . the seventh plate in a hit of W-T.

Same U CoDiay. "ih Entaaxs.

F.inisanj

Upper ecal measures.

Babusol

j.

.

Sanktcria ... —

,

B

Lhasa 1 seam . Cnowkidinga

Berodakarta ... ...

Ddmarknnda

Lower

Mansalpur

Upper

Sitarampur

Xisia ... ...

fM*e

Bar.41!

—

S3

Records oj the Geological Survey of Lidia.

I cannot find any reference to the coal from the Belrdi colliery, but it deserves mention, as it cakes well, and looks bright and clean. The Belrui seam, like the Bahmandiha, is oil the same strike, and is possibly on the same horizon as the Sanktoria seam. In our present state of knowledge, one can only conjecture that such is the case ; but an air of probability is lent to this opinion by the circumstance that the Belrui coal possesses nearly the same qualities as the Sanktoria coal.

Freedom from ash important in connection with amount of flux required Jj — I have par ticularised the coals from eight different localities, because analysis shows that they are best adapted for smelting purposes. They are the coals freest from ash, and this is a point that must be home iu mind in connection with the amount of flux that will be required. For raising steam and for smithey works there are twenty other coals in the Ranigani field that would answer nearly as well ; and there is always the prospect that many of the collieries from which moderate or inferior coal is at present being raised may some day meet with better seams as their workings become deeper and new ground is opened out.

Best locality for coal. — The portion of the field which contains the most promising coals, cast of the Barakar, is decidedly that part of it limited in a north-west direction by the outcrop of the seams mined on the Sanktoria and Belrui properties, and in a south-west direction by the Pancliet formation marked on the geological map. Within this area is included, in addition to the collieries belonging to the Bengal and New Birbhum Companies, those owned by Messrs. Apcar and two or three quarries possessed by natives. Some of the land is, I am informed, held by Rani Sarna Moui, a Hindoo lady, whose religious principles are opposed to coal mining.

Ikon-ohe. — The deposits of iron-ore are of two distinct geological ages. The older are associated with the coal measures, as a group in the series, while the more recent are connected with the rock known as laterite.

Laterite, as a rule, is not rich in iron and as it does not occur in any form west of the meridian of the town of Raniganj, I directed my attention principally to the ores of the coal measures. I did not restrict my observations to any one special locality : I visited the lands east of B as era, and Madapur, and the entire traot from Lalganj to Bagunia. I thought it possible that the Siugaran valley might be a good locality for iron works ; but it does not offer the same advantages as the western part of the field, where the iron-ores of the measures arc in close proximity to the superior coals of Sanktoria, Belrui, Duinarkunda, Bahmandiha, &c.

Tire only samples of ore that I considered it necessary to collect were from the lands of Aitura, Malakola, Chalbalpur, Kulti, Sibpur, Jassaidih, Boldi, and Notangliar. They are fair representative specimens picked mostly from heaps, which had, conveniently for me, been collected by the contractors who supply ballast for the repairs of tho Grand Trunk Road.

Mr. Tween lias up to the present time only been able to complete the analysis of one sample. It came from Ivulti, and contains —

Alumina

Rime ...

Magnesia

Phosphoric acid ...

Water

laterite usually contains from 12 to 26 per cent, of iron. Some of it, however, is nothing more than clay with iron stains.

Hughes . On raw materials.

There is no sulphuric acid, but there is an appreciable quantity of phosphoric acid.

Ore hematite. — I was rather surprised at the absence of carbonic acid, being under the impression that the above specimen was a carbonate of iron. It appears, however, to be a sesquioxide. The amount of iron it contains is 42 per cent., which makes it a valuable ore.

The ironstones occur over an area of several square miles in thin beds varying in thickness from 2 to 8 inches, through a mass of carbonaceous shales, known geologically as the ironstone shale group. Mr. Blanford* estimates that they form about Tyth of the whole group ; and Mr. David Smith considers that 6,400,000 tons per square mile will be the yield. My own measurements showed that the ironstones occurred in the proportion of 1 foot to 10 or 12 of shale, and taking the group as 1,000 feet (it is more than this), we have, roughly speaking, 200 millions of tons in every square mile. Assuming 5 feet only as workable, I think the figures will be assuring enough to set at rest all mis givings about quantity.

Small dip. — The dip of the strata with which the ironstones are associated is every where small in the neighbourhood of the Barakar ; and the contour of the surface is such that the conditions for mining by open work are all highly favourable. No difficulty can be experienced in winning the ore at a reasonable price.

Magnetic iron. — The advantage to be derived from mixing different varieties of ore is well known. Some very rich deposits of magnetic iron-ore are described by Mr. BlanfordJ as associated with metamorphic quartzites just beyond the boundary of the field near the village of Tituri, about two miles west of Beharinath hill. The ore occurs interlaminated with the quartzite aud gneiss in bands varying in thickness from 3 inches to 2 feet. They are very pure, and contain from 60 to 70 per cent, of iron. Research may bring to light other similar deposits ; but there is little probability of such a thing happening, as the natives are usually aware of the iron-ores that occur in their own district, and if any had existed, information about them could hardly have escaped the frequent inquiries that have been made.

The main dependence of any iron works must be upon the iron-ores of the coal measures.

Flux. — As I have not been called upon to compile a treatise upon the manufacture of iron, I need not explain why the necessity for a flux exists. Many minerals might be used as fluxes, but in practice we are limited to a few, namely, limestone, clay, and silica. For such ores as occur in the Raniganj field, limestone is most required ; and limestone that is nearly pure has hitherto been considered as indispensable.

Impure limestone sometimes preferable. — In some instances, however, as in the case of the Kulti ore, the analysis of which has been given above, a limestone containing some clay would be preferable. Impure limestone indeed is often advantageous, but its applica bility depends upon the suitability of its own impurities to combine with those of the iron-ore.

In kunkur we have an impure limestone, containing from 70 per cent, downwards of carbonate of lime, and a varying proportion of free silica, clay, magnesia, iron and water. It would make in some instauoes a most economical flux if the amount of carbonate of lime in it were somewhat greater than it is. Kunkur, as a rule, however, rarely contains more than 60 to 65 per cent, of carbonate of lime, which leaves a large amount of impurity, out of which some is probably not required, and therefore it subtracts from the working value of the kunkur.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, 1861, Vol. Ill, Art. 1, page 70. t Mr. David Smith's report on the coal and iron districts of Bengal, 1856, page 6. t Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, 1861, Vol. Ill, Art. 1, page 193.

Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vn.

Some specimens which I obtained in the Raniganj field contain the following quantities of carbonate of lime : —

Sanktoria ... ... ... — 66' 12 per cent.

Ramnagar,,, ... ... ... 64'98 „

Barmuri ... ... ... ... 61 '00 „

Mr. Tween has not been able to make a full analysis as yet of all the samples that have been sent in for examination, and without such analysis, it is impossible to estimate what proportion theoretically the kunkur should bear to fuel and ore, in order to produce a suitable slag.

Well fused slag and dean button. — I have, however, carried out some assays at the Mint ; and the result is, that with equal quantities of kunkur and ore, and using wood charcoal or coke, I obtained a well fused slag and a moderately clean button of iron. I have not made the number and varieties of assays that I should like to, owing to the necessity of sending in a report at an early date ; but the possibility has been demonstrated of using kunkur as a flux on a small scale.

The assays were performed in unlined plumbago crucibles. My first experiment was unsuccessful, as I could not get up heat enough in the small table gas furnace which Colonel Hyde placed at my disposal. My after attempts with the use of coke in a wind furnace were more fortunate.

No. 1. Ore ...

Kunkur

Charcoal

Percentage of iron 45'0 ; slag perfectly fused, grey. Button of iron, dark-grey, crystalline.

broke rather readily under hammer.

Two or three sorts of metal embedded in the slag.

From the appearance of the iron, the ore will probably reduce easily.

No. 2. Ore ...

Kunkur

Charcoal

Percentage of iron 44'7 ; like all dry assays, the percentage of iron is shown to be greater than it actually is. Slag, greyish-green, a few beads of iron adhering to outer surface. But ton, dark-grey on fractured face. Does not split at first blow, but flattens somewhat.

No. 3 Ore

Kunkur

Coke ...

This was put into a smith's

fire, and the slag was not perfectly fused. It had a light

green colour.- Numberless shots of

iron at bottom of slag. Fractured surface of button, white.

No. 4. Ore

Kunkur

Coke ...

Slag, light grey, semi-translucent.

Button on fractured face, white, compact.

No. 5. Ore ...

Kunkur

Coke ...

Hughes : On raw materials.

Slag, light amethyst colour, clear, translucent. Button, on fractured face, dark-grey, coarsely crystalline. The amethystine colour of the slag may be due to manganese.

No. 6. Ore ... ... 150 grains.

Kunkur ... 130 „

Percentage of iron 44-0. Slag, slight amethyst colour, translucent. Button on fractured surface, not quite so dark as No. 5, coarsely crystalline.

I made several other assays which I need not refer to. My object was to see whether kunkur would do the work that was required of it. The less quantity, 130 grains in No. 6, answered quite as well as 150 grains in No. 5 ; but I would recommend equal quantities of kunkur and ore, because the coke contains sometimes a large amount of ash.

I have used throughout only the same flux that could be employed on the large scale. Pure limestone is not known to occur in any quantity in or near to the Buniganj field. My colleague, Mr. Mallet, however, has discovered a bed of it in the vicinity of the Madaptir Branch Hallway ; and it is quite possible that when investigations in that neighbourhood can be completed more may haply be discovered. The limestone is very pure, and is only ten miles from the station, so that if railway rates for carriage were only cheaper, it might be employed to supplement the kunkur of the Rtiniganj field. A large quantity might easily be removed. I have been informed of another bed south of the Bamfida and near to Raniganj ; hut I have not yet had an opportunity of visiting it. Prom the ap pearance of the sample sent to me for examination, I scarcely think that it can be of much importance.

It is not to either of these limestones, however-, that we can look for a supply of flux ; and Rotas stone is so dear comparatively to kunkur that I think we must depend upon the latter material.

Amount of kunhitr. — On the question of the quantity of kunkur available within the field, I have consulted with Mr. Dcjoux, Executive Engineer, who is at the head of the Special Department devoted to lime, kunkur, and limestones, and he assures me that there is an unlimited quantity. In this assurance Mr. Joll, who was for some time Executive Engineer at Barakar, unites. Mr. Dejoux's experience and special knowledge is so much greater than my own that I prefer quoting his conviction to offering a decisive opinion of my own. I examined several of the localities where lime was being made, and judging by what I saw, I am inclined to think that there are very large deposits in the vicinity of Barakar; both hanks of the river are full of kunkur; and the quality of the material appears to improve at some depth below the surface.

One advantage that would be derived probably from the use of Rotas limestone is, that its average composition might he depended upon. As regards kunkur, I am not sure whether this would he the case. Again, quoting Mr. Dojoux, however-, he says that out, of numerous samples which he has analysed, ho has found that its composition is much more constant than might be anticipated from the nature of its origin, and that 65 to 65 per cent, is the usual amount of carbonate of lime that it contains. If this be so, — and the analyses now being made in onr office will confirm or disprove this point, — we shall be able to regulate the amount Required for fluxing; but if the percentage of carbonate of lime be inconstant, tbe working of a furnace is likely to be variable and the outturn of iron irregular both in quality and quantity.

I trust I have made clear the case regarding kunkur : 1st, that there is a large quantity available ; 2 ltd, that it can be used as a flux ; but that unless its composition be pretty

28 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [voi,, pn,

constant, there are difficulties in the way of its employment that might make the use of a more costly but a more reliable limestone advantageous.

Until full analyses of many specimens have been made however, we cannot pass judg ment. Should they prove the composition of kunkur constant between certain limits, then I think we may, without actual experiments on the large scale, declare it to be an appro priate flux.

Choice op site. — The tendency of the evidence brought forward has been to show that the country in the vicinity of the Barakar is best adapted for a site. No locality offers the same advantages. It is nearer to the foreign sources of limestone at Rotas and in the Hazaribagh district than any other part of the field. The best quality coals occur there ; easily workable ores may be got ; an abundance of kunkur can be procured ; sandstone quarries are in actual existence ; the Grand Trunk Road, and the Barakar branch, and Chord Line of the East Indian Railway are in the immediate vicinity of all requisite raw materials ; and the laud necessary for buildings, tipping room, &c., belongs, in great part I believe, to native holders, who would probably dispose of it at more favourable rates than British holders.

Any definite selection of a site must of course be postponed for the judgment of the manager who may be appointed, but the choice ought to be limited between the meridians of the Sitarampur and Barakar Railway stations, and a short distance north or south of the Grand Trunk Road.

Furnace building materials. — It is difficult to say off-hand whether certain stones will have the property of sustaining tlio temperature which the chemical process carried on in the furnace requires. In the selection of native stones, as also of artificially manufactured stones, we must be guided chiefly by experience. There are quarries near the Barakar bridge, from which the sandstone of the lower coal measures aro obtained, and if those that are fine grained are selected, they will probably be found to withstand heat and the action of fluxes.

Soapstone. — Occurs in the Manbhiim district, and dishes made from it used formerly to be sold at Taldanga ; source of supply is rather distant.

Fire clay. — Scarcely any attempt has hitherto been made to turn the fire-clay, which is found with many of the seams, to account. Messrs. Bum and Company, who possess pottery works at Raniganj, have lately made a few bricks from the clay in the Raniganj colliery of the Bengal Coal Company, and the manager, Mr. Cowhan, informed me that they were tested at Jamalpur, and were found to withstand the treatment they were subjected to much better than English bricks. I believe fire-clay occurs at the Basera colliery of the Raniganj Coal Association, but it has not yet been tested.

Coarse sand. — This is required for mixing with other materials. It can be obtained from the rivers Barakar and Damuda.

Quartz. — This, like the above, may also be wanted for mixing. Large quantities are procurable a short distance up the chord line, about Jamtarah.

Moulding sand. — Some moulding sand of very pure quality is obtained near Raniganj from the Damuda. I know of no other place where it occurs, but equally good sand may possibly be found in the Barakar.

Concluding remarks. — Having shown that the materials essential for the manufacture of iron exist, I will now point out what the probable cost of coal, iron, and kunkur per ton will be.

Coal. — A very fair estimate is Rs. 2-8 to Rs. 3 a ton.

Iron-ore. — The price of ore delivered at the works will probably be Re. 1 a ton. The rates at present paid by the contractors who obtain ore from the Kfilti estate of the

Part

Hughes : On raw materials.

new Birbhum Coal Company is only 5 annas a ton. or Rs. 1-8 per hundred cubic feet loosely heaped ; but as the ore is close to the surface, I hare trebled the rate in order to cover extra expenses when deeper workings are opened out. Any information about tbe rate paid for assistance, although imparted to me by a contractor's Sirdar, may not be correct, as natives sometimes make misstatements. Whether this be so or not however Re. 1 a ton is a liberal estimate.

Kunkur. — This material ought to be procurable at Rs. 1-8 a ton, or Es. 5 a hundred cubic feet.* Mr. Joll, Executive Engineer, roughly values unwashed kunkur at Es. 1-6 a ton. In order to be on the safe side however, let the rate in all calculations be Rs. 2. I find that Rotas limestone, taking the very lowest estimates, will for equal quantities be exactly ten times the cost of kunkur when delivered at Sitarampur.

Thus, 100 cubic feet of limestone conveyed from Rotas to

Lakiserai by water the whole way ... ... Rs. 18 0 0

Railway freight from Lakiserai to Sitarampur ... „ 47 0 0

Unlanding and landing charges, and so on ... ... „ 5 0 0

Total ... Es. 70 0 0

or Es. 20 a ton as compared to Es. 2; but as Rotas limestone will probably do three times the amount of duty that kunkur will, the comparison is as Es. 6 to Es. 20. Considerable advantage would be derived from the use of Rotas or any other comparati velv purer lime stone, because in the employment of kunkur, there is an increase in the weight of material to be passed through the furnace for the same produce of metal.

Occasionally, as I pointed out before, an impure limestone may be more suitable for a flux than a pure one ; but in kunkur the impurities are somewhat too great, not to make it advisable, bearing in mind relative cost, to substitute a better material.

Cost of manufacture. — The simple cost of the manufacture of pig-iron per ton, leaving out of consideration the interest on cost of furnaces, management, and so on, will, according to my figures, be —

Es. A. P.

Ore

3i tons at 1

Kunkur

Wages

I have allowed liberally both in the amount of material and in the matter of cost. Mr. David Smith, who made very careful calculations in 1856, showed that with the price of home manufactured iron as it then ruled, and with the estimated cost of pig-iron at Es. 20-8 per ton,+ there would be a considerable profit. I think there can be but little doubt

The ton is calculated as 27 "

Iron-ore ... ... ... 100 cnbie feet 133 wutm 5 tons.

Kunkur ... ... w 100 „ „ £4 n „

Limestone ... ... ... 100 „ „ &4 „ 3 „

t Mr. Pst id Smith's report on iron districts of Bengal 1=56, p. i& His fures are for simple cost of ture as mine are.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

that if there is demand enough in Indian markets, iron may be manufactured in this country and sold at a much cheaper rate than imported English iron can be bought for.

There are always difficulties inherent in the starting of new undertakings ; but we have the beacons of past failures in other parts of India to steer our way by. If any of the Companies at Raniganj who possess their own coal, iron-ore, and kunkur were to take up the project of iron smelting, they would have immense advantages over Government in respect of cost of raw materials ; should, therefore, the present attempt be in the least degree successful, it will be a guarantee to all Companies of the value of their own resources.

Theodore W. H. Hughes.

Note on the habitat in India of the elastic sandstone, oe so called

Itacolitmyte.

Although within the last twenty years members of the Geological Survey have frequently passed within sixty miles of this interesting locality, no one has been able to visit it — so great is the difficulty and loss of time involved in making the shortest excursion off the main highways in India. At last an amateur has come to the rescue ; and it is to be hoped the example will be followed elsewhere, for official geologists, having to work by rule and measure, can rarelv supply the place of the genuine amateur in the repeated contemplative observation of local conditions. Geology has boasted of several distinguished and devoted amateurs iu India. The recent comparative scarcity of such labourers must be due to the greatly increased activity of official life, and not to any growing distaste for recreation in scientific pursuits. Colonel McMahon, Commissioner of Hissar, has sent a box of specimens and somo very interesting notes illustrative of the only known position of the elastic sand stone. The description is given as far as possible in his own words.

Kaliana is five miles west from Dadri, a town in the Jheend state, sixty miles nearly due west from Delhi. The hill, which is one of the Trigonometrical Survey Stations, is 1,477 feet above the sea, and about 740 above the plain. It consists of a long ridge, running for some miles iu about a north-north -east direction; one of the many such ridges which in this region of the Punjab stretch far into the plains, the alluvial areas between them being confluent with that of the Iudo-gangetic deposits. These ridges are prolongations of the Aravali mountain system, and are approximately on the lino of the Indo-gangetic watershed. The ridge of Putelipur Sikri, running north-north-east to within a few miles of Agra, is the most westerly member of the Aravali system of disturbance ; it is formed of up-turned Yindhyan rocks, being the western limit of the great spread of these ancient deposits, stretching from hero round by Saugor to Sasseram in Debar. In examining tbe ground to the west of Agra, the Survey geologists have been a little puzzled by the position ot the elastic sand stone ; this name, and the superficial appearance of the stone, loading one to expect a recurrence of some unaltered rock-group, perhaps an outlier of tbe Vindhyan series. It is an excellent illustration of the way in which deeper geological meanings become attached to words based originally upon superficial characters, involving of course a reciprocal restric tion of the extension or denotation of the term. This stone is in reality only a very local and modified condition of a massive quartzite, which is the general name for metamorphic sandstones.

The highest part of the ridge immediately overhangs the village of Ivaliana. It is here double-crested, tbe projecting ribs being formed by two strong beds of ironstone, a quart zite strongly impregnated by massive specular iron (black haimatite) and some magnetic iron, strings of pure ore occurring locally in the mass. These bands of ferruginous quart zite are regularly interstratified with the mica and hornblende-schists ; and tbe earthy cellular quartzite so largely quarried for millstones is distinctly an intercalated member of the same

MedlicoH : On the habitat of elastic sandstone.

series, all being nearly vertical. The elastic sandstone is only found in patches in this band of millstone quartzite. There is no regular bed or seam of it ; the stone-cutters, of whom there is quite a colony at Kaliana, come upon it suddenly when cutting out slabs of the ordinary stone. Often the rock in immediate contact with a nest of elastic sandstone is highly indurated and quartzo.se. The stone-cutters declare that they sometimes find it in the line of the bedding, and sometimes along the joints. Their idea of the matter is, that it is a mere local peculiarity of the sandstone rock caused by the percolation of rain water and miti (earth) from the surface. If the miti had been omitted, the native explanation is probably the correct one. The only superficially noticeable difference between the two is the greater porosity aud friability of the elastic stone, owing probably to the removal of some thinly permeating cement to which tho strong rigidity of the quartzite is due. Among the rocks sent by Colonel McMahon there is a variety of this pseudo-metamorphic rock in which the earthy ingredient prevails largely over the quartzose. Its aspect is somewhat like that of a half-baked fire-brick; and it would seem as if it had only needed a modicum of some alkaloid base to have converted the whole into a form of gneissic rock.

There are two myths connected with these elastic sandstones which it is desirable to discredit. One is its supposed connection with diamonds. In India at least there is no shadow of such connection. All the widely scattered diamond localities seem somehow connected with members of tho Vindhyau series of rocks. And, on the other hand, there is no tradition of diamonds at Kaliana. The idea comes from Brazil, whence also the fancy name Itacolumyte ; it is probable that the connection is quite imaginary.

The other notion is, that the elasticity is attributable to talc, or mica. However this may be true of the Brazilian variety, there is no pretence for it in the Kaliana rock ; the few small plates of mica in it are quite isolated, the rock not having any schistose (foliated) structure. The only tenable account of this property of elasticity is that given by Pro fessor Haughton, whose name is a full guarantee of correctness : — " A most remarkable cir cumstance sometimes occurs in the formation of these sandstones, which are not composed of pure particles of quartz, but of clay mixed with them, namely, that the particles of quartz mixed in this clay or paste are permitted a certain amount of motion. If you take an ordinary sandstone, it is like any other rock ; and with a lens you can see the separate particles, and that each separate particle is touched on every side by a number of other rounded particles that hold it in its place, and it in turn contributes to hold them in their places, so as to form of the whole a rigid rock like any other. But, occasionally, in some rare cases — which, as far as I have any knowledge of them, are confined to Brazil, South Carolina, and Delhi — yon have a rock composed of particles of sandstone, which are not in contact with each other, but lie in a paste of felspathic clay, which paste permits a cer tain amount of motion between the particles of the mass." (Haughton's Manual of Geology, Lecture II, p. 51). It would seem that in the Kaliana rock, doubly metamorphosing con ditions were concerned in its production — a solidifying process to give tenuity to the earthy paste, and a partial dissolution to remove the rigidity of its first solidification.

Elasticity, in its vernacular sense, is a misleading name for the character of this stone. It bends without the least sensible increase of resistance up to a certain limit, where it comes to hard stop. Mr. F. R. Mallet found that a slab of the Kaliana stone 24'5" X G'7" X 1*8", resting on supports 24" apart, gave a deflection of 0*7" ; and that after saturation with water the deflection was reduced to Olio.

On the west side of the Kaliana hill and not far from the top there is an old mine cut into the ironstone. It is said that three generations ago it was worked for copper. In a piece of schist sent from this spot, there is not the slightest trace of copper staining; but the mica has a very decided copper colour, which may have been the beginning and end of the mining experiment. — H. B, M.

3a

Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vn.

Geological Notes on past of Nobthebn Hazabibagh, by F. R. Mallet, f. g. s..

Geological Survey of India.

In an early number of these Records (Yol. II, p. 40, 1869,) a brief notice was given of the metamorphic rocks of Bengal, in the northern part of their area, from the Karakpur bills at the north-east corner of the rock-area of the Peninsula, along the lower valley of the Ganges and the Son valley, into the valley of the Narbada, where all the older formations pass under the Dakkin trap. Throughout that distance, in a west-southwest direction, and corresponding with those very marked orographieal features, the gneiss is fringed by less metamorphosed rocks— schists, slates, and quartzites. To give shape to the study of these rocks, more than from any compulsion of decided views, a tentative classification was then attempted, upon general stratigraphical reasoning, occasionally against the apparent ( primd facie) evidence of local sections. The series thus indicated consisted in chronological order of- '1st. a fundamental gneiss (undiscriminated); 2nd, gneissic schists and quartzites (of M aha bar) corresponding to the less metamorphosed slaty schists and quartzites to the north (Rajgir) ; 3rd, massive gneissoid (foliated) granite, mostly forming domes; 4 th, flaggy schists and gneiss with quartzites and amorphous pseudo-gneiss, sometimes conglomeritic (Lakisarai, Betia, Sukri, infra-Bijawars of Bandelkand); 5 th, intrusive invasion of pegmatite; 6 th, Bijawars (of Bandelkand and the Agori zone of the Son valley).

The hazardous points of this scheme were known to be — the doubtfully granitic (exotic) character of any of the dome gneiss, and principally, the supposition of gncissose rocks (No. 4) greatly younger than the schist and quartzite series (No. 2). Both positions were placed primarily upon the same general evidence — the universally intense folding, with cleavage of the schist and quartzite series, compared with the frequently moderate disturbance in a portion of the gneissic rocks, which, moreover, seemed to occupy a position of general superficiality as regards the main body of the gneiss and to contain locally debris of the quartzite series.

The detailed survey of which these notes are a first instalment was undertaken in the hope of working out some more definite views upon rocks forming so broad a feature in the geology of India. The observations refer to what seemed to be a key to the position, where the schists and quartzites of Mahabar are well exposed in connection with the gneiss. The area especially referred to is contained in sheets Nos. 7 and 8 of the new topographical survey of Hazaribagh district, on the scale of one-inch to the mile, of which sheets this note may be taken as a description; some observations, however, referring to the adjoining ground where the geological mapping was incomplete. As the survey of this region has been interrupted by orders of Government, in order to take up the examination of some supposed coal-bearing ground at the base of the Eastern Himalaya, it is well to make a record of the work so far done. Thus far the views suggested by the sketch-survey have not been upheld as applicable to the section here; the massive dome-gneiss, of which some magnificent examples occur, is not proved to be in any special sense intrusive, or foreign to the rocks with which it is associated; and the flaggy schists with quartzites of the Sukri seem to be an irregular basal member of the Mahabar series, rather than a much later and independent group; however this relation may still be maintained for the conglomeritic pseudo-gneiss of Lakisarai and Bandelkand.

Immediately to the south of the above-mentioned area (that included in sheets 7 and 8) spreads the comparatively level highland of Karrakdiha, the extreme edge of which invades sheet 8 in one or two places, as at Gajhandi and Simmeria. To the north again of the Mahabar and Bhiaura ranges, the alluvial planes of Bihar stretch to the horizon, save here and there where some outlying hill breaks the continuity of the prospect. The area under discussion, therefore, comprises a part of the jungly and hilly country which marks the

Mallei : Geological Notes.

descent from tlie open and cultivated Hazaribagh plateau to the Gangetic plains. This broken interval varies very much in breadth ; in the south-west corner of sheet 8 we have Sidwatand and Bishanpur respectively on the plateau and alluvium and separated by less than a kos, whilst from Simmeria some fifteen miles must be crossed before the alluvium comes in sight along the northern base of the Mahabar hills.

Only two prominent groups of stratified rock are present : the metamorphic composed mainly of gneiss, with runs of hornblende rock, and the submetamorphic* which is made up almost entirely of mica-scliists and quartzites, with some hornblendic bands. It is scarcely necessary to say that the quartzites and the more granitiform varieties of gneiss form tho highest and most imposing masses of hill, e. g., the Bhiaura and Mahabar ranges, Durbasha and Maramoko Hills, whilst instances are not uncommon in which the lines of drainage have been scooped out of the softer schists, as in the western part of sheet 8.

Metamorphics. — Lithologically the gneiss presents few characteristics differing from the ordinary ones which have been so often described elsewhere. The actual gneiss itself is usually composed of felspar having commonly a red color, although sometimes white, quartz, and uniaxial mica in small dark green or black scales. Hornblende rock and schist are very abundant, varying in texture from a compact stony variety to one in which the foliation is very prominent. Subordinate runs of mica-schist also occur, some of which are composed of a mixture of black mica and hornblende with quartz, others of silvery mica with quartz ; the latter variety is similar in appearance to some of the mica-schists of the submetamorphic series, although clearly interbanded with and passing into the gneiss.

Seldom are more perfect examples of the dome-shaped form of hill into which the gneiss sometimes weathers to be found than in the present area. Two cases are more especially prominent; tho hills which run along the north side of the Bhiaura range and those which internally fringe the quartzite ridge north of Gawan. In the former instance the domes extend from Belchaki eastwards to north of Dhubni, the rock throughout being a very homogeneous compound (viewed on the large scale) of white felspar, quartz and black mica, containing also ill-formed porphyritic crystals of similar felspar. Nearly vertical foliation is almost everywhere clearly marked, even on the smooth rounded faces of the hills, running parallel to the quartz ridge on the south. In the previous notice of these rocks already alluded to, while the foliated character of the rock forming the Belchaki domes, and the absence of dykes l'amifying from it into the adjacent quartzite, is noticed, the possibility of its being, notwithstanding, of a truly granitic character is suggested, partly on stratigraphical grounds and partly from the appearance of reaction of the rock in question and the quartzite on each other. My own more detailed examination, however, has led me to regard it as belonging to the metamorphic series. It certainly is more homogeneous on the large scale than the mass of the gneissose rocks ; it does not include subordinate bands of other rocks such as hornblende or mica-schist. I think, however, that this is due, not to the homo geneous and the mixed rocks being distinct in origin, but to tho fact (as 1 take it) that homogeniety is a necessary element in the production of the domes, and hence that it is only such portions of the gneiss as possess this homogeniety that weather into domes. The gneiss north-west of Churki for instance, and again at Pokriamo, is itself exactly of tho B61-khaki type, but it is interbanded with layers and beds of hornblende schist, and in neither case have prominent domes been formed.

The prefix ' sub' is used here, as in previous papers in these volumes in the same connection, to denote an inferior degree of metamorphisin, and has no reference to the stratigraphical position of the rocks in question.

t In the valley south of Bdlcliaki there is a low hillock formed of what I take to be hornblende rock, although possibly trappean. This is the only exception I have observed, and it is in the valley between the domes , not in the domes themselves.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Small veins of segvegitic pegmatite, having the same composition as the surrounding rock, from which they only differ in largeness of crystallization, are not uncommon in the gneiss ; they seldom exceed two or three feet in thickness, are sometimes short and lenticular, in other cases traceable for some little distance. It is sometimes not easy to distinguish these from the granite veins to be described further on.

Limestone. — Calcareous rocks are very rare in the metamorphics of this region. In fact I have observed none in sheets 7 or 8 except a thick band of dolomitic limestone at Dbelwa (north of Gawan), which may, however, belong to the submetamorphic series, and a few thin layers of the same rock close to Gawan.

In the bed of the Patru nadi, north-east of Gulgo, (east side of sheet 3) the following section is exposed : —

a. — Hornblende schist overlaid by

b. — Largely crystalline white limestone containing scales of light green mica here

and there ; this bed is about 6 feet thick, and is covered by

c. — A peculiar mixture of garnet and coccolite containing traces of galena and copper. In places the two minerals are well intermixed, in others the garnet occurs in a pure massive form (so called ealderite) ; only a few feet of this rock (r) is seen.

The beds in this section, which is on the south side of the stream, dip at about 15° to east-north-east, and the same strata are seen on the opposite side also, the distance from bank to bank, or length of visible outcrop, being perhaps 60 yards. An analysis of the limestone by Mr. Tween yielded —

Carbonate of lime ...

„ magnesia Oxide of iron and alumina Insoluble ... ...

The locality is worth notice, as being within fifteen miles of Mahishmon station on the Karharbari branch of the East Indian Railway, over a country traversable by carts ; more especially so in the event of iron works being started at Raniganj, the distance of which from Mahishmon is seventy-nine miles by rail. The bed is thin no doubt, but it may extend a considerable distance, and perhaps increase in thickness along the strike, and there is further the possibility of its being brought to the surface elsewhere in the neighbourhood by rolls in the strata. These points can only be determined by a close survey of the ground, which is beyond the limits of the area at present completed. A limited supply of very good mineral, either for burning or as a flux, can, however, undoubtedly be obtained there, whilst there is the possibility that if the bed were opened out, it would prove of considerable value. The nearest known locality where limestone occurs plentifully is Rhotasgarh on the Son, the transport of stone from which to Raniganj would involve over eighty miles of river and 236 miles of railway can-iage ; a bed, therefore, like the above, although it may perhaps not prove to be of much importance, is still well worth a trial.

Lead-ores — Galena is sparsely disseminated here and there through the garnet and coccolite rock mentioned above, as overlying the limestone ; and minute specks of copper pyrites and blende are also visible, the rock in one or two places being stained bright green by copper.

On the north bank of the river the beds are cut through by a nearly vertical granite vein, which also contains traces of galena, and the felspar in which is partly amazonstone, the color being probably due to copper. Both lead and copper, however, merely occur very sparingly disseminated through these rocks. There is no indication of a lode, or any

Mallet: Geological Sotet.

reason for supposing the ores to exist more plentifully in the vicinity. The locality was pointed out to me by the agent of the zemindar to whom the land belongs as one in which lead had been found. He had caused some excavations to be made in the hope of finding more, which I advised him to discontinue.

I was also informed that some loose fragments of lead-ore (cerussite apparently from the description) had been found loose on the surface of the soil just east of Mehandadi (sheet 3) about a year ago, and also to the south of the village ; and that on digging in the latter locality some more was found two or three feet below the surface.

Cerussite was found by some Santhals, from one of whom I obtained a specimen, under similar circumstances at Barhamasia (sheet 3), some five or six years ago, and a small quantity of lead smelted from it. after which it appears they closed the hole np in order to keep the discovery a secret. About two years ago also a Sonar was looking for pieces of kankar, to make lime for near the village of Mauwada, south-west of Dhurgaon (sheet 9). On putting some pieces of what he supposed to be such in the fire in order to burn them, he was rather surprised to find globules of lead to have resulted from the operation. He then searched the locality for more, hut failed in finding any at the time. In the rains, however, when the earth had been washed away from the loose surface stones, he found a few pieces, aggregating toon: halt a sir, from which he obtained a small quantity of lead. The ore in question is a dark red cerussite, like that of Barhamasia; and similar fragments are said to have been found close toKhesmi (sheet 9). In all these localities they probably indicate the existence of lead-ore somewhere in the vicinity, but not necessarily at the immediate spot, as they appear in every case to Lave been found either loose on the surface ot embedded in the surface soil. They furnish no evidence of the presence of lead in workable quantity, although there is of course the possibility of the existence of such. It would perhaps be worth while to expend a small sum in examining the localities at Barhamasia and south of Mehandadi.

Tin.-'one. — Tin-ore was worked some years ago at X n rgo, a village just south of the Barakar and about three miles from Leda (eight miles west of Karharhari). The original discovery of the tin appears to have been purely accidental on the part of some Hols, who having dug up the ore and smelted it as one of iron, were surpnzed to see what thev took for silver, flow from the tap-hole. They endeavoured to dispose of it as such at Raniganj, and there learnt its true nature. They then abandoned the pit, and after a few years the exact locality where it occurred was forgotten. Subsequently a Hr. lord determined to work the ore, and after several trial sinkings succeeded in hitting upon the right spot.

The ore occurred in three or four lenticular beds or nests in the gneiss, the cross section being lenticular and seldom more than a foot or two across, although at one or two points as much as thirteen, while the nests extended over 20 yards in a direction nearly parallel to the foliation of the gneiss, from the outcrop to the limit of the workings. The gneiss (which is of a thinly foliated, rather rotten variety, including a few thin segregitie seams of pegmatite lip s at a : at 25° to E. 10° lv. the nab consequently having a similar direction. The ore consisted of gneiss through which crystals and grains of tin were thickly dis tributed. Mr. Beveria, Mr. Lord's manager, followed these tin-tearing nests for about 20 yards by an inclined gallery : the tin was then decreasing rapidly in quantity, while the rock was harder, and a large quantity of water draining into the mine ; and hence the gross receipts being less than the working expenses, the mine was abandoned.

During the time it was worked, the ore after being brought to the surface, was broken up while still fresh (as it hardened considerably by exposure) with a common country dheki.

My friend Mr T. H. H Usd an ~pp rrumiy of seeing tiie mine cen open, and :: is from 1 s notes t-li Si tbis brief account is girea.

3G

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The pounded ore was then placed in a basket and washed by hand, by which means most of the lighter impurities, chiefly quartz and felspar, were removed. Subsequently after drying, it was sifted in a chop (winnowing basket) to separate the remaining sand. When a sufficient amount of ore had been accumulated, it was smelted with charcoal in an ordinary aguria's furnace, the charges being the same as those used in iron smelting. The tin, after being run out and cooled with water, was broken up, the clean metal laid aside pre paratory to casting, and the rest, which was much mixed with charcoal, returned to the furnace. The clean tin was re-melted in a large open iron vessel and ladled out into moulds, holding about 40 lbs. of metal each. Altogether only about twelve maunds of tin was produced, as I was informed by a native of the place who had worked under Mr. Deveria.

Magnetic iron. — There are a few ferruginous bands scattered through the gneiss, containing a certain proportion of magnetic iron. I have not observed any very rich ores, although poorer ones are often smelted by the native " agurias." Magnetite is also sometimes disseminated through the gneiss itself in small quantity, and collects in some of the stream beds to a trifling extent.

Subhetamorjhics.

Relations to Metamorphics. — The difficult question of the relations between the metamorphies and submetamorphics is one which must eventually be decided by a review of the entire area, or at least of a large portion thereof, unless, indeed, we are fortunate enough to obtain some crucial sections which will prove a key to the solution of the problem. Such sections, however, are not available in our present ground.

Starting with the identification of theMahabar schists and quartzites with those of Kajgfr and Karakpur as suggested by Mr. Medlicott, we shall find that whatever may be the case elsewhere, there are no indications here of strongly marked unconformity to the gneiss. Taking, for instance, the line of junction between the quartzite and gneiss north of Ga wan, wo see that it bends round successively from N. W. to N. E., E., S. E. and E. N. E„ the strike of each rock being throughout parallel to the boundary ; and not only do they agree in strike, but also in dip. Along the greatest portion of the above line the gneiss underlies the quartzite ; but near Gawan, and also at Hard/ ha, the reverse is the case (the strata here being inverted) ; throughout also, whether the dip be natural or inverted, it is equal in both at any given point.

Individual sections are also obtainable in which the same absence of unconformity is apparent. Thus, where the stream cuts through the quartzite ridge due north of Momankhitan, the last gneiss seen is well foliated, dipping G0° to N. 20° E., and composed of reddish felspar, quartz and schorl, the last being aggregated in places into large masses of crystals. Twenty yards lower down stream (higher in the section), and with similar dip, is granular quartzite composed of translucent grains; a little lower it contains small innate crys tals of schorl and mica. Beyond this is more quartzite with a small included band of micaschist, and the Dadho range is entirely of the latter rock. North-east of Birne, again, the gneiss is schistose, and the quartzite somewhat felspathic near the junction, so that the two rocks have the appearance of passing into each other within a few yards across the strike.

The same parallelism of strike is also observable on the large scale along the B h i a u r a junction, from B elch a k i to Dhubni, in the dome gneiss. South-east of Belghati, however, the strike is not sufficiently regular to allow one to say whether, as a whole, it is parallel to that of the quartzite or not. The gneiss here is much mixed with hornblende schist, &c., and I do not ftiiuk the beds are the same as those which form the domes. Here, then, is perhaps a case of unconformity, although it might also be explained by faulting.

Mallet : Geological Notes.

Micaceous quartzite is again seen in the hills west of Manjne, being, I believe, the same as that to the east ; but the junction with the gneiss is here somewhat different. From Deothan to Paeharidi the dip is mostly under 30°, the rocks in the southern part of the section being schistose homblendic gueiss (dome gneiss in the hill north of Deothan) with hornblende schist and rock ; these become more schistose to the north-east and pass into mica-schist, above which again is schistose quartzite.

Quartzite is again found to overlie the gneiss in the western part of sheet 8, whilst in the centre of the same the mica-schists are in immediate contact. It may, perhaps, be suggested that the quartzite should be included with the gneiss, and the houudary between the two series drawn above the former, the absence of quartzite in places being thus due to unconformity. It will bo found, however, when describing the submetamorpkics, that while there is generally, at least, a well-marked junction between the gneiss and quartzite, none such is obtainable between the latter and the schists ; it is, however, to be observed, that the junction of the schists with the gneiss is also everywhere one of passage, sometimes gradual, sometimes tolerably sharp, but still a passage; and the foliation of each rock is always, as far as my observations extend, parallel to the common boundary : at least, if there bo any deviation it is so slight as to escape detection.

Some local cases have been mentioned above, in which the gneiss overlies the submeta morpkics at high angles. Such are, undoubtedly, invortions of the strata, the metamorphics being clearly the lower series. Amongst other examples in which the true superposition of the submetamorphics is apparent, I may mention the Deothan section, the band of quartzite north of Giwan, and the schists flanking the gneiss hills north of B h u 1 a d i.

Although no unconformity is discernible between the two series in the present area, this does not necessarily militate against the unconformity which has been supposed to exist else where. In the Vindhyans of Central and North-Western India, we have an example of a great formation, which, notwithstanding its ago, is undisturbed over large tracts of country ; whilst in other areas, like the Dhar Forest, the strata are highly contorted. If on such a formation another great series were deposited, the two would clearly bo uneonformable to each other, although such unconformity would not be discernible in many places ; and if at some subsequent epoch both were greatly disturbed, the resulting relations of the two series to each other would perhaps bear some resemblance to those of the metamorphics and submetamorphics.

Stratigraphy. — If a section be taken from north to south across the Bh i a ur a range, a little to the west of tko trigonometrical station, the following succession of strata is passed over in ascending order — the dip throughout being to the south at high angles, but decreas ing somewhat from north to south, the gneiss b being nearly or quite vertical, while the mica-schists h are inclined at 60° or 70° —

a. — Gangetio alluvium of Bihar.

b. — Gneiss forming dome-shaped hills.

c. — Small band of mica-, with probably some hornblende-schist, fragments of the latter

being strewn about.

d. — Quartzite forming the ridge on which the trigonometrical station is situated ; some

portions are a hard, finely granular rock, breaking with a sub-vitreous fracture, and occurring in beds from one to two or three feet thick, in which no schistose structure is developed; others are coarse-grained and micaceous, and micaceous flaggy beds are also met with.

e. — Hornblende rock and schist, with mica-schist and interbanded layers of quartzite. In

some of the hornblende schist the foliated structure is well developed ; elsewhere

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

the rook has sometimes a very trappean aspect, and I am not sure that some of it is not trap, either contemporaneous or more probably in dykes parallel to the foliation. A very clear-cut line of demarcation between it and the quartzite is sometimes visible, and that there is more or less trap hereabout is certain from an observation on the top of the ghat which crosses the quartzite ridge north of Pliulwaria. Here a band of greenstone, about 15 inches broad, is seen run ning N. 10° E., or nearly at right angles to the strike of the quartzite. It can only be traced for 10 or 15 feet, but is clearly a dyke.

f. — Quartzite similar to c.

g. — Hornblende rock and schist with mica-schist, &c., similar to d.

It. — Quartzite similar to c.

i. — A very thick band of hornblende rock and schist. Much of it is of the former

variety ; but the schistose structure is very common also, and the rock sometimes contains a considerable amount of quartz in seam-like nests here and there.

j. — A broad band of schistose, micaceous quartzite. It is coarsely granular, and much

softer than the quartzites to the north, so that it does not, like them, rise into a lofty ridge. It contains a good deal of interbanded mica-schist, and the micaschist to the south (£) contain subordinate layers of quartzite, the two rocks not being clearly demarcated from each other.

h. — Mica-schist, passing in places into arenaceous schist, and thence into micaceous

quartz schist. No distinct line can be drawn between these, but the main mass of the rock is mica-schist. Along the southern face of the hills it is full of small crystals of garnet and andalusite, the latter sometimes so plentiful as in weathering out to cover the surface with gravel.

I . — Gangetic alluvium of the Sakri valley.

The quartzites d, f, and h of the above section form three lofty parallel ridges (the valleys between being occupied respective]}' by the beds e and g), and the possibility of their being in reality the same beds repeated by folding at once suggests itself. Detailed examination of the range, however, did not lead me to adopt this view.

In following the strata towards the west, e and g are found to disappear, and the three quartzite ridges join into one, in which d, f, and h, may be, and probably are, all represented. The hornblendie band i also thins out in the same direction, and where the Sakri river cuts through the range, nothing but quartzite rises above the level of the alluvium, forming a ridge of greatly reduced elevation. A few miles further on, Mr. Medlicott found it gradually to come to an end also.

To the east, again, we find a great twist in the strata at Dhubni, and e andy can only be traced a short distance beyond this point ; hornblende rock, however, is again visible on the top of the ridge east of Mokrumo ; i and j also thin out to the east, so that at Nurpani H. S. and beyond, the range is again reduced to a single band of quartzite.

It will be observed that all along tho B hi aura range the strike of the foliation of the schists corresponds with the direction in which the different alternations of rocks themselves run. Generally speaking, the bedding and foliation of the mica-schist lie in the same plane, although instances are not unfrequent in which they do not do so. In the former case, the rock has a tendency to weather into more or less slab-like pieces, whilst we find it to split much less easily where the foliation and bedding differ, and to weather into featureless hillocks, like those of Dumdum a (sheet 7).

Mallet : Geological Notes.

The section across the G h a g r a valley is a synclinal, the hand of quartzite north of Gawan being clearly the same as that at Nurpani. It turns round again in sheet 2 (as observed by Mr. Willson), and re-enters sheet 8, near Gawan, where it again bends round sharply to south-east. It is here interbanded with hornblende-and mica-schists, the section in this respect resembling that of the B h i a u r a range.

There appears to be another synclinal in the S a k r i valley below B i r n e, the quartzites on both sides being, I believe, the same ; that ou the left, however, is softer and more micaceous, much of it, in fact, verging towards a micaceous quartz schist, and passing insensibly into the mica-schist below. The same rook much mixed with mica-schist, and even gneissose beds, is found again north-east of P i h r a , the boundary between it and the metamorphics being a faulted one, indicated along the greater portion of its length by a line of hornstone.

Further south still, the mica-schists are most commonly, but not always, found in direct contact with the gneiss. The rock in the neighbourhood of Bajpura is of a very inde finite character, every gradation from quartzite to mica-schist being found, but too much mixed up to admit of separation. In the western part of the sheet, as I have previously pointed out, the quartzite makes its appearance again, but in the Ratanpur area the schists are the contact rocks, there being here, as elsewhere, a passage, sometimes gradual, sometimes tolerably sharp, into the gneiss. North-west of the above-mentioned village the mica-schist contains abundance of staurolite.

In Mahabar Hill we have the highest member of the series present in this part of the country : a great thickness of quartzite overlying the mica-schists. At the mouth of the Mangraun gorge the junction of the two rocks is well seen, there being a complete passage from one to the other in about 20 yards ; half-way between thin layers of both are interstratified. The quartzite forms a great synclinal, dipping everywhere (at the ends of the hill as well as on the flanks) into the hill at angles mostly from 30° to 80°. In the central part of the range the rock is so crushed, that the bedding is sometimes quite obscured. In some cases also, planes of what appear to be cleavage, are visible, having a direction differ ent from that of the bedding. This peculiar trough-like conformation, and the high in clination of the strata, is remarkably favorable to the retention of water, and the volume flowing from the densely forest-clad gorges which wind in amongst the hills, strikes one as exceptionally great.

The absence in the P a t r u valley of the large thickness of mica-scliists, which is present immediately to the south-west, must, I believe, be attributed to a fault with northern downthrow. The junction of the quartzite with the schists however, and of the latter with the gneiss, is natural, so that the fault must occur in the schists themselves. It is apparently by another fault running north and south with western downthrow, that the quartzite is brought almost in contact with the gneiss in the valley north of K o t i y a r .

According to the above view, it will he seen that in Northern Hazaribagh the submetamorphics include three main subordinate groups, viz. : —

Mahabar quartzite.

Mica-schists, including subordinate bands of arenaceous and hornblendic schists.

JBhiaura quartzite, sometimes wanting, in other places attaining a great thickness, and sometimes interbanded with hornblende-and mica-sebists.

Pegmatite granite. — Through both gneiss and submotamorphics, but especially in the latter, there is a large development of pegmatitic granite,* penetrating the older rocks in

In most English standard works on geology pegmatite Is defined as consisting essentially of quartz and felspar, with little or no mica; and in some, as identical with graphic granite. Delesse, however, and Naumann describe it as a very coarse mixture of quartz, felspar, and silvery mica, often containing tourmaline. It is in the iatter sense that the word is used here.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

innumerable dykes and veins, as well as in larger masses. The rock is generally a very coarse quaternary compound, composed of quartz, felspar, mica, and tourmaline, united in very varying proportions.

Tke quartz is wliite and translucent to semi-transparent, and never, so far as I have observed, presents any approach to crystallization. The felspar is sometimes orthoclase, sometimes albite, the latter having an opaque white color : the orthoclase is also generally white, but of a less pure tint; occasionally it is more or less reddish. The mica (muscovite) generally has a smoke brown color in plates of moderate thickness, although colorless in thin laminse. When perfectly unaltered and free from internal foreign matter, it is highly trans parent, but where decomposed, it loses some of its diaphaniety and acquires a more silvery lustre. The plates occur of every size, up to 18 inches diameter or more, hut such very large ones are much less common as those of a few inches across. Occasionally, two minor cleavages are apparent (oo P and oo Pco ), parallel to the latter of which more especially, the mineral divides into narrow ribbons, and fibres like asbestos, or, wkero both are present, it is divided by them into equilateral triangles. Greenish-gray beautifully plumose mica is also not uncommon, weathering out in small irregular masses above the general surface of the rock. Dark-brown and olive-green biotito sometimes occurs, but even where most plentiful, it is quite subordinate to tho muscovite, which it never altogether replaces. Occasionally the plates are some inches across, and include smaller interlaminated ones of muscovite.

Tourmaline is rarely entirely absent from the pegmatite, and most usually forms an important ingredient in it. The crystals often attain a largo size ; those of two and throe inches across are common, and in some dykes they are met with over six inches diameter. Owing to the great brittleness of this mineral, in comparison to the felspar and quartz in which it is imbedded, crystals approaching perfection are rarely obtainable ; the few I did secure were of the common form oo P2. oo R, — JR. Sometimes the prisms lie parallel to each other and perpendicular to the walls of the vein, hut this is far from being universal, or even common, and it seems, as might be expected, to be more usually observable in dykes of a few feet in thickness. The tourmaline is jet black with brilliant lustre, and the large lumps often met with in the mica mines are superficially not unlike anthracite ; some of the miners who have seen the Karharbari coal-field take them to be coal, hut few of them have any idea of what real coal is like. Small crystals of tourmaline are sometimes found imbedded in plates of mica, with their principal axis parallel to the cleavage of the latter ; crystals are again observable penetrating others of the same species. It appears that the tourmaline was generally the first to crystallize, the mica next, afterwards the felspar, and the quartz to have resulted last.

The relative proportions of the different minerals vary greatly ; generally all four are pre sent, but in some places the rock consists chiefly of felspar and mica with little quartz, in others it is made up entirely of quartz and mica, and the latter again diminishes in amount until the rock passes into micaceous or into pure vein quartz. Graphic granite, composed of felsparwith a little quartz, is another variety occasionally met with. Sometimes the tourma line is absent, in other cases it is one of the most prominent constituents of the rock.

The pegmatite, as a whole, is very largely crystallized, hut one of its most marked characteristics is its unevenness of texture. In one place it may be comparatively fine, hut here within a few feet a great mass of pure felspar, with cleavage faces a foot long, occurs, and there another of translucent quartz, or perhaps these contain plates of mica over a foot across. It is worthy of note that the coarsest pegmatite often occurs in dykes of only a few yards in breadth, not in the large granitic masses, and it is in the dykes consequently that nearly all of the mica mines have been sunk.

Mallet : Geological Nofee.

Occasionally the granite occupies considerable areas, as south of Pi hr a, where in a large mass of irregular hills no other rock is seen, and again south of G a w a n ; for a mile below Sankh the Salcri river flows continuously through it. Most commonly, however, it is found penetrating the older rocks in dykes and veins, varying from 50 yards or more in thick ness, down to less than an inch. These are more usually roughly parallel to the foliation of the rocks they penetrate, but by no moans universally so. Many cut through quite obliquely and irregularly, and ramify in various directions. They are mostly vertical or hade at high angles (agreeing in this respect with the foliation), but instances occur where they arc nearly horizontal. Such horizonal dykes of greater thickness than usual may perhaps, in some cases, give rise to the larger granitic areas.

The surrounding rocks seldom present much appearance of alteration in the vicinity of the granite; generally the junction is quite sharp, and the beds in immediate contact not different from what they are at a distance. It is to be remembered, however, that these beds had perhaps already undergone metamorphism before the introduction of the granite. Some times there is a rapid passage of a few inches from one rock to the other, as if the strata in immediate proximity had been fused or greatly softened. South of Pi hr a, the mica-schists south of the large spread of granite there, pass into gneiss near the junction; but as there is always a gradation from the mica-schist into the true metamorphics in this portion of the country, it does not follow that the above passage is in any way connected with the granite.

After an examination of the granite in the innumerable dykes and veins, presenting every appearance of having forced its way in uneven and ramifying courses through the circumjacent strata, one can scarcely avoid feeling satisfied as to its truly intrusive origin, and the fact of its maintaining a constant mineral character amongst the different rocks through which the dykes occur, whether these be gneiss, mica-, hornblende-, or quartzschist or even limestone, some of which are rocks from which the granite could not possibly have been produced by any mere chemical re-arrangement, leaves no escape from this view. It is, however, on the other hand, not easy to explain the occurrence of thin strings of granite of an inch or half an inch thick, running exactly parallel to the foliation of the including mica schist for many yards, and at a distance from any visible dyke, and of lenticular pockets (also parallel to the foliation) completely isolated to all appearance in the surrounding rock. Such cases are so very common, that I scarcely think it is always a sufficient explanation to say that they are offshoots of some dyke hidden beneath the surface, or were once connected with a dyke above, which has since been removed by denudation. I have already alluded to the passage of the granite into vein quartz. These arc points requiring elucidation, but that the granite is really intrusive is beyond question.

The dykes are far more plentiful in the submotamorphic than in the metamorphic series, and their distribution in the former is very unequal. In some areas they occur, large and small, by hundreds ; in others they are entirely wanting.

Mica Mines. — It is in this granite that the well-known mica mines of Bihar* and the neighbouring districts are situated. I have previously said that the coarsest pegmatite is frequently found in dykes of moderate thickness, in which, therefore, plates of mica of the largest size occur, and it is such dykes that the miners generally select for their operations. They pay from one to two rupees each per annum, according to the ricknoss of the yield, to the owner of the land for the privilege of mining. The usual mode of working is simply to excavate a trench along the course of the dyke, which in the G a w a n neighbourhood is seldom carried deeper than 20 or 25 feet. Sometimes where there is a considerable thickness

A paper by Captain Sherwill on the mode of working the mica mines in the B i h d r district may be found in the Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, vol, XX, p. 295.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

of decomposed mica near the surface, rude shafts are sunk to the fresh and uninjured mineral, and excavations carried on laterally from the bottom. In a few cases also, rough horizontal galleries are driven in from the side of a hill. In the last methods of course artificial light is necessary. No precaution is taken to support the roof, and accidents are not unfrequent from its falling in.

The plates of mica are generally brought to the miners' village, and there, after being slightly trimmed with ordinary grass-cutting knives, (which are not particularly well adapted for the purpose, hut are probably the only ones the people are able to purchase,) they are sorted info different heaps according to quality and size. The quality depends on the mineral being in a perfectly unaltered condition, its transparency and freedom from cloudiness caused by internal foreign matter, the absence of minor cleavages which render it liable to split into ribbons and triangles, and the planeness of its fissile surfaces. Six kinds are recognised according' to the size of the plates, viz. : —

1st. — Sanjhla. 4 th. — Karra.

2nd. — Manjhla. 5 th. — Urtha.

3rd. — Rasi. 6 th. — Admalla.

Some of the minors intercalate failurtha between urtha and admalla, and speak of another size (barka) still larger than admalla. All these terms are used rather vaguely m respect to the absolute size of the plates indicated thereby. AtDhaband Jamtara I induced the miners to separate a quantity of the mica into the different grades, and mea sured an average specimen of each, with the following results : —

Dhab.

Jamtara.

Sanjhla

5" x 4"

4&quot; X 3&quot;

Manjhla

Rasi ...

Karra

The above four sizes include the greater portion of the mica found, it being only in the best mines that urtha and admalla are procurable. The largest plates I have myself seen measured 19" x 14" and 20" X 17" inches, hut I was informed that considerably larger ones are sometimes obtained.

The mica is sold by the load, which is built up of the plates, either into one frustrum of a cone and carried on the head, after being hound together with cord, or into two such, and carried in a banghi. A load equals 6 paseris, one paseri being equal to 5 kacha sirs of 12 chataks each, or to 3J pasta sirs of 16 chataks; the load, therefore, being 221 sirs paka, or avoirdupois. The miners informed mo that the prices paid to them by the

mahajans were as follows: —

Per load.

Sanjhla

Manjhla

Rasi

Karra

Urtha

Admalla

the selling prices being about double the above.

The value of the large plates more especially varies greatly with the quality. I was informed by Colonel Boddam that plates of first quality of 18 inches diameter fetch as much as 60 l'upis a mand in the market, or about 30 rupis a load.

Mallet : Geological Notes.

Accessory Minerals : Lepidolite. — Accessory minerals are not very numerous. Amongst those which occur, the most abundant is lepidolite, which, although not widely distributed, exists in considerable quantity where it does appear. I first observed it in a dyke a little to the south-west of Pilira, where the granite is composed of white felspar, quartz, and irregular masses of lepidolite occurring as a scaly aggregate, varying in color from violet-red to greyishviolet. The mineral is also found of a lead-grey and violet-grey color, mixed with quartz, An analysis of the violet-red variety by Mr. Tween yielded the following results : —

Silica ...

Alumina

Oxide of Manganese

tr.

Lithia ...

Potash ...

Soda

Fluorine

Loss on igniting

Small black grains and crystals of tinstone are occasionally discernible in both the above varieties. Lepidolite is also met with in a dyke a little to the south-east of this locality ; also just north of Bhu 1 ad i, and again about a mile south of Manimundar, where the sides of a hillock are strewn with Mocks, one of which was estimated to weigh about 8 cwt.

Green and blue Tourmaline. — At the two first-mentioned localities associated with the lepidolite is tourmaline, which varies in color from green to indigo-blue ; some crystals being blue in the interior and green externally. The prisms chiefly traverse, parallel to the cleavage, the plates of a silvery mica (altered muscovite?) which is present as well as the lepidolite ; they also penetrate the quartz.

Beryl , garnet, apatite, leucopyrile. — Small crystals of yellow beryl are abundant in a large dyke which crosses the Tend wall a Nadi south of Mahabar hill; and garnets, generally much decomposed, are not unfrequently met with here and elsewhere. The few obtained, in which the form was apparent, were trapezohedrons. In three or four dykes a crystal or two of green apatite was observed ; and from a dyke crossing the S a k r i above S a n k h I obtained a mass of leueopyrite, weighing about three-fourths of a pound.

Tin. — Most of the above minerals being frequent associates of tinstone, their occurrence led me to keep a shai-p look-out for such, both in the granite itself and in the river beds. With the exception of that disseminated through the lepidolite of Pihra, I ouly observed the mineral in one locality however. This was in a lenticular pocket of granite, included in mica-schist, at Simratari, west of Pihra, through which a few crystals of g inch across and less were scattered. The Occurrence of tin, even in such minute quantity however, is interesting, as showing that the same mineral association which has been observed in other parts of the world obtains here also ; and indicates at least the possibility of the ore being found in larger amount in the granite of the area yet to be examined. I fear the chance is hut small of its being obtained in workable quantity. The tin-ore of Leda, as previously mentioned, occurred as a bed in the gneiss of the metamorphic series.

Galena. — Galena is very sparsely disseminated through a granite vein, penetrating the limestone and associated beds in the Pat ru Nadi as well as through the latter beds themselves.

Trap Dykes. — Two or three trap dykes were observed intersecting the granite south of Gawan. Whether these be of the same age as those which traverse the metamorphic and

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

submetamorphic series is not certain, although there is no assignable reason for supposing them different.

Talchies. — In the S akri Nadi, south of Dabar, there are some small patches of slightly micaceous huff sandstone, rather fine-grained, hut containing abundant rolled pebbles and small boulders ol' granite, gneiss, mica-schist, &c. In parts, the greater portion of the rock consists of pebbles, in other places it is quite free from them. The beds, which arc not more than 20 feet thick in all, are level as a whole, hut rolling on a small scale, and are lithologically perfectly similar to Talchirs. Mr. Willson, however, higher up the same stream, as well as in other places, found two sandstones, the upper resting unconformably on, and containing numerous pebbles of the lower, which is clearly Talchir. It is not perfectly certain to which of these the sandstone in question belongs, but as I observed no sandstone pebbles in it, it is most probably Tale hi r. Small patches of similar rock are found south of D e o t h a n and cast of P i h r a.

Description of Plate.

Pig. 1. — Granite dyke resting on, and including a folded mass of, quartz-schist : Section — Ten dw aha Nadi, south of Mahabarhill.

„ 2. — Mass of quartz-schist nearly enclosed by granite : Section — T e n d w a h a

Nadi.

Nadi.

„ 4. — Granite dyke in mica-schist : Section — Sakri Nadi east of Sankh.

„ 5. — Lenticular pockets of granite, running parallel to the foliation of the surround ing mica-schist : Plan — S i m r a t a r i.

„ 6. — Granite dyke, in hornblende-and quartz-schist : Section — T endwaha Nadi.

„ 7. — Granite overlying mica-schist, both of which are faulted against Talchir sand

stone ; the newer rooks being covered by alluvium : Section — S akri Nadi, south of D a h a r.

„ 8. — Granite vein in quartzite : Section— S. S. E. of L a k r a h i.

„ 9. — Granite dyke cutting obliquely through gneiss, into which it sends strings

parallel to the foliation: Plan — E. of Gidhauv hill.

Donations To Museum.

Lieut.-Col. Ralph Young, e. e., Lahore. — Portion of a meteorite which fell near Mylsi, 50 miles south-east of Multan, on the 23rd September 1873, weighing 2,698 grains.

Col. McMahon. — A number of specimens of the millstone-quartzite and associate rocks of Kalian, Jliind.

George Elliot, Esq. — Sulphide of antimony, antimony gossan, tinstone, argentiferous galena, and gold-hearing quartz from Victoria.

V. Ball, Esq., g. s. i. — Specimens of lava from Pompeii; Chrome iron and serpentine from Transylvania ; tinstone from Queensland, and a crystal of quartz with included schorl.

Political Agent, Bhawulpoor, through the Department of Agriculture, Revenue and Commerce.' — Two pieces of a meteorite which fell at Khairpur, 35 miles east of Bhawulpoor, on the 23rd September 1873—

1 piece weighing ... ... 8,296 grains.

Mallet 2. HasxsCirvb augh, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF i N 0 1A . Records 1874

Granite an A Schist -

Accessions to Library.

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From 1st October to 31st December 1873.

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January 5th, 1874.

Records

Of The

Geological Survey Of India.

Geological notes on the route traversed by the Yarkand Embassy from Shahidula

to Yarkand and Kashgar, by Dr. F. Stoliczka, Naturalist attached to the

Embassy.

In a former communication I had already occasion to notice, the rocks composing: the Kuenlun range near Shahid ula, chiefly consist of syenitio gneiss, often interbedded, and alternating, with various metamorphie and quar-those schists, Similar rocks continue the whole way down the Ivarakash river lor about twenty-four miles. After this the road fol lows, in a somewhat north-westerly direction, a small stream leading to the. Sanju-(or Grimm-) pass. Here the rooks are chilly true mica schist, in places full of garnets. Near, and on, the pass itself eldoritic and quurtzose schists prevail, in which veins of pale green jade occur, numerous blocks containing this mineral having been observed near the top of the pass. All the strata arc very highly inclined, often vertical, the slopes of the hills, and in fact of the entire range, being on that account rather precipitous, and the crests of the ridges them selves very narrow.

To the north of the Sanju puss we again meet with metamorphie, mostly chloritie schists, until we approach the camping place Tam, where, distinctly bedded, sedimentary rocks cap the hills of both sides of the valley. They are dark, almost black, silky slates, resting unoonformably on the schists, and are overlain by a grey, partly quart/.itic sandstone, passing into conglomerate. The last rock contains particles of the black slates, and is, therefore, clearly of younger age. Some of the conglomeratic beds have a remarkably recent aspect, hut others are almost metamorphie. In none of the groups, the slates or sandstones or conglomerates, have any fossils been observed ; but they appear to belong to some palaeozoic formation. They all dip at from 40° to 50° towards north-east, extending for about one and a half miles down the Sanju valley. Here they are suddenly cut olf by metamorphie schists, hut the exact place of contact on the slopes of the hills is entirely concealed by debris. The schists are only in one or two places interrupted by massive beds of a beautiful porphyritic gneiss, containing splendid-crystals of orthoclasc and biotite ; they continue for about eighteen miles to the camp Kiwaz. On the road, which often passes through very narrow portions of the valley, we often met with old river deposits, consisting of beds of gravel and very fine clay, which is easily carried off by only a moderate breeze, and fills the atmosphere with clouds of dust. These old river deposits reach in many places up to about ono hundred and fifty feet above the present level of the river, which has to be waded across at least once in every mile.

At the camp Kiwaz tlie hills on both sides of the valley are low, composed of a com paratively recent looking conglomerate, which in a few places alternates with beds of reddish, sandy clay, the thickness of the latter varying from two to five feet only. These rock

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

strikingly resemble those of the supra-nummulitic group, so extensively represented in the neighbourhood of Mari. They decompose very readily, covering the slopes of the mountains rvith loose boulders and sand, under which very little of the original rock can be seen. Near the camp the beds dip at about 40° to north-east, hut about one mile and a half further on a low gap runs parallel to the strike, and on the other side of it the beds rise again, dipping with a similar angle to south-west, thus forming a synclinal at the gap. Below the conglomerate there crops out a grey, often semi-crystalline limestone, containing in some of its thick layers large numbers of Crinoid stems, a Spirifer, very like S. striatus, and two species of Fennestelhs. Following the river to north by east, this carboniferous limestone again rests on chloritic schist, which, after a mile or two, is overlain by red sand stone, either in horizontal or very slightly inclined strata. Both these last named rocks are very friable, easily crumbling between the fingers, particularly the latter, from which the cal careous cement has almost entirely been dissolved out. At Sanju the red sandstones underlie coarse grey calcareous saudstones and chloritic marls, some beds of which are nearly exclu sively composed of Grypheea vesintlaris, many specimens of this most characteristic mid dle cretaceous fossil being of enormous size. The Gryphcea beds and the red sandstones are conformable to each other, and although I have nowhere seen them interstratified near their contact, there is strong evidence of their being both of cretaceous age. Both decom pose equally easily, and the Gryphaa beds have indeed in many places been entirely denuded. They have supplied the greater portion of the gravel and beds of shifting sand, which stretch in a north-easterly direction towards the unknown desert-land.

Ou the road from Sanju to Yarkand, which first passes almost due west and after some distance to north-west, we crossed extensive tracts of those gravel beds, and of low hills almost entirely composed of clay and sand, though we only skirted the true desert country. Locally, as, for instance, near Oi-tograk and Boris, pale reddish sandstones crop out from under the more recent deposits, hut they appear to be younger than the cretaceous red sand stones, underlying the Gryphcea beds ; the former most probably belong to some upper tertiary group. Among tbe sandy and clayey deposits I was not a little surprised to find true Loess, as typical as it can anywhere be seen in the valleys of the Rhine or of the Danube. I might even speak of ' Berg' and ' Thal-Loss,' but I shall not enter into details on this occasion ; for I may have a much better opportunity of studying this remarkable deposit. At present I will only notice that commonly we meet with extensive deposits of Loess only in the valleys. Its thickness varies in places from ten to eighty, and more, feet ; a fine yellowish unstratified clay, occasionally with calcareous concretions and plant fragments. In Europe the origin of this extensive deposits was, and is up to the present date, a dis puted question. Naturally, if a geologist is not so fortunate as to travel beyond tbe ' Rhine' or ' Donau-thal,' and is accustomed to be surrounded with tbe verdant beauty of these valleys, he might propose half a dozen theories, and as he advances in his experience disprove the probability of one after the other, until his troubled mind is wearied of prosecuting the object further. Here in the desert countries, where clouds of fertile dust replace those of beneficial vapour, where the atmosphere is hardly ever clear and free from sand, nay occa sionally saturated with it, the explanation that the Loss is a subaerial deposit, is almost involuntarily pressed upon one's mind. I do not think that by this I am advancing a new idea; for,— unless I am very much mistaken,— it was my friend Baron Richthofen who came to a similar conclusion during his recent sojourn in Southern China.

Yarkand lies about five miles from the river, far away from the hills, in the midst of a well cultivated land, intersected by numerous canals of irrigation ; a land full ot interest for the agriculturist, but where tbe geological mind soon involuntarily falls into repose. And what shall I say of our road from Yarkand to Kashgar? Little of geological interest, I am afraid.

part 2.] Stoliczka : Route front Shakidula to Yarkand and Kashgar.

Leaving Yarkand we passed for the first few miles through cultivated land, which, how ever, soon gave way to the usual aspect of the desert, or something very little better. A few miles south-west of ICokrahad a low ridge runs from south-east to north-west. If we are allowed to judge from the numerous boulders of red sandstone and G-rypheea marl, some of considerable size and scarcely river-worn, we might consider the ridge as being composed of cretaceous rocks. But one hardly feels consoled with the idea, that in wading through the sand he should only cross a once cretaceous basin, and that the whole of this country should have remained free from encroachment of any of the kainozoio seas. It is very dangerous to jump to conclusions regarding the nature of a ground untouched by the geological ham mer. The answer to any doubt must for the present remain a desideratum. On the fourth day of our march, approaching Yangihissar, we also crossed a few very low ridges, but these consisted entirely of gravel and marly clay beds, most of thorn dipping with a very high angle to south by east, the strike being nearly due east and west. South of Yangihissar the ridge bent towards south-west, and there was also a distant low ridge traceable in a north easterly direction, the whole having the appearance of representing the shore of some large inland watersheet. From Yangihissar to Kashgar we traversed only low land, as usually more or less thickly covered with a saline efflorescence, but still to a considerable extent cultivated. Here in Kashgar the distant heights of the Kuenlun, of the Pamir and Tbinshan ranges are ready to unfold their treasures, whether we go in a southerly, or westerly, or northerly direction ; geological ground is even nearer, to be found in some of the low ridges from twelve to thirty miles distant, while the Moral-bnshi forests, lying eastward, invite tlie zoologist and sportsman. I trust we shall soon be able to see and relate some novelties from our neighbourhood.

Kashgar, 20th December 1873.

Note regarding the occurrence of jade in the Karakash vat ley. on the southern borders of Turkistan, by Dr. Ferd. Stoeiczka, Naturalist attached to the Yarkand Embassy.

The portion of the Kuenlun range, which extends from Shabidula eastward towards Kotan, appears to consist entirely of gneiss, syenitic gneiss, and metamorphic rocks, these being quartzose, micaceous, or bornblendic schists. On the southern declivity of this range, which runs along the right bank of the Karakash river, are situated the old jade mines, or rather quarries, formerly worked by the Chinese, They are about seven miles distant from the Kirghiz encampment Belakchi, which itself is about twelve miles south-east of Shahiduia. I had the pleasure of visiting the mines in company with Dr. Beliew and Captain Biddulph, with a Yarkandee official as our guide.

We found the principal jade locality to be about one and a half miles distant from the river, and at a height of about five hundred feet above the level of the same. Just in this portion of the range a few short spurs abut from the higher hills, all of which are, how ever, as usually, thickly covered with debris and sand, the result of disintegration of the original rock. The whole has the appearance as if an extensive slip of the mountain-side had occurred. Viewing the mines from a little distance the place seemed to resemble a number of pigeon-holes worked in the side of the mountain, except that they were rather irregularly distributed. On closer inspection we saw a number of pits and boles dug out in the slopes, extending over a height of nearly a couple of hundred feet, and over a length of about a quarter of a mile. Each of these excavations has a heap of fragments of jade and rock at its entrance. Most of them are only from ten to twenty feet high and broad, and their depth rarely exceeds twenty or thirty feet ; only a few show some approach to low

Record's of the Geological Survey of In ilia.

galleries of moderate length, and one or two are said to have a length of eighty or a hundred feet. Looking on this mining operation as a whole, it is no doubt a very inferior piece of the miner's skill ; nor could the workmen have been provided with any superior instruments. estimated the number of holes at about hundred and twenty ; but several had been opened only experimentally, an operation which had often to he resorted to on account of the superficial sand concealing the underlying rock. Several pits also which were probably exhausted at a moderate depth were again filled in; their great number, however, clearly indicates that the people had been working singly, or in small parties.

The rock, of which the low spurs at the base of the range are composed, is partly a thin bedded, rather sandy, syenitic gneiss, partly mica-and hornblendic schist. The felspar gradually disappears entirely in the schistose beds, which on weathered planes often have the appearance of a laminated sandstone. They include the principal jade-yielding rocks, being traversed by veins of a pure white, apparently zeolitie mineral, varying in thickness from a few to about forty l'eet, and perhaps even more. The strike of the veins is from north-by west to south-by-east, or sometimes almost due east-and-west ; and their dip is either very high towards north, Or they run vertically. I have at present no sufficient means to ascertain the true nature of this vein-rock, as it may father he called, being an aggregate of single crystals. The mineral lias the appearance of albite, but the lustre is more silky, or perhaps rather glassy, and it is not in any way altered before the blowpipe, either by itself, or with borax or soda. The texture is somewhat coarsely crystalline, rhoiuboheJric faces being on a fresh fracture clearly traceable. It sometimes contains iron pyrites in very small particles, and a few flakes of biotite are also occasionally observed. This zeolitie rock is again traversed by veins of nephrite, commonly called jade; which, however, also occurs in nests. There appear to he two varieties of it, if the one, of which I shall presently speak, really deserves the name of jade. It is a white tough mineral, having an indistinct cleavage in two different directions, while in the other directions the fracture is finely granular or splintry, as in true nephrite. Portions of this mineral, which is apparently the same as usually called white jade, have sometimes a fibrous structure. This white jade rarely occupies the whole thickness of a vein ; it usually only occurs along the sides in immediate contact with the zeolitie veinrock, with which it sometimes appears to bo very closely connected. The middle part of some of the veins and most of the others entirely consists of the common green jade, which is characterized by a thorough absence of cleavage, great toughness, and rather dull vitreous lustre. The hardness is always below 7, generally only equal to that of common felspar, or very little higher, though the polished surface of the stone appears to attain a greater hardness after long exposure to tire air. The colour is very variable, from pale to somewhat darker green, approaching that of pure serpentine. The pale green variety is by far the most common, and is in general use for cups, month-pieces for pipes, rings and other articles used as charms and ornaments. I saw veins of the pale green jade fully amounting in thickness to ten feet ; but it is by no means easy to obtain large pieces of it, the mineral being generally fractured in all directions. Like the crystalline vein-mineral, neither the white nor the green variety of jade is affected by the blowpipe heat, with or without addition of borax or soda. Green jade of a brighter colour and higher transluceney is comparatively rare, and, already on that account, no doubt much more valuable. It is usually only found in thin veins of one or a few inches ; and even then it is generally full of flaws.

Since the expulsion of the Chinese from Yarkand in 1801, the jade quarries in the Karate ash valley have become entirely deserted. They must have yielded a considerable por tion of the jade of commerce ; though no doubt the workmen made a good selection already on the spot, taking away outy the best coloured and largest pieces ; for even now a great number of fair fragments, measuring 12 to 15 inches in diameter, form part of the rubbish; thrown away as useless.

part 2.] Stoliczka : Occurrence of Jade in the Karakatft Valley.

The BelakcM locality is, however, not the only one which yielded jade to the Chinese. There is no reason to doubt the existence of jade along the whole of the Kuenlun range, as far as the mica-and hornblendie schists extend. The great obstacle in tracing out the veins, and following them -when once discovered, is the large amount of superficial debris and shifting sand, which conceal the original rock in situ. However, fragments of jade may be seen among the boulders of almost every stream which comes down from the range. We also observed large fragments of jade near the top of the Sanju pass, which on its southern side at least mostly consists of thin-bedded gneiss and hornblendie schist.

Another rich locality for jade appears to exist somewhere south of Kotan, from whence the largest and best coloured pieces are said to come ; most of them are stated to be ob tained as boulders in a river bed, though this seems rather doubtful. Very likely the Chineso worked several quarries south of Kotan, similar to those in the Karakash valley, and most of the jade from this last locality was no doubt brought into Kotan, this being the nearest manufacturing town. A great number of the better polished ornaments, such as rings, &c., sold in the bazaar of Yarkand, have the credit of coming from Kotan ; possibly they are made there by Chinese workmen, but the art of carving seems to have entirely died away, and indeed it is not to be expected that such strict Maliomedans, as the Y arkandees mostly are, would eagerly cultivate it. If the Turkistan people will not take the opportunity of profiting by the export of jade, or if no new locality of that mineral is discovered within Chinese territory, the celestial people will feel greatly the want of the article, and good carved specimens of jade will become great rarities. The Chinese seem to have been acquainted with the jade of the Kuenlun mountains during the last two thousand years, for Kotan jade is stated to be mentioned* "by Chinese authors in the time of the dynasty under Wuti (B. C. 148—86)."

Yarkand, 14 th November 1873.

Notes from the Eastern Himalaya.

While Hr. Stoliczka is applying his palaeontological master-key to discover the secrets of the rocks of the Kuenlun, on the extreme north-west of the great Tibetan mountain-area, investi gations of scarcely less interest are going on at the south-eastern base of the same, in the Sikkim and Bhutan Hours. It may indeed be said that the geology of the remote and in accessible regions of the Himalaya have for some time been better known to us than that of the nearer ground to the south of the great snowy range. A series of well-known formations have long since been identified beyond the passes ; while the rocks of the broad belt of mountain region to the south of the main range have remained indeterminable. Nummulitic rocks have been locally found along the southern fringe of that belt, corresponding stratigraphically to the Flysch of the Northern Alps. And upon very scanty fossil evidence it has been conjectured that the limestone of the outer ridges in the Simla region are triassie ; but for the rest all is darkness. There is, of course, a very good excuse for this in the highly metamorphosed condition of the strata in the greater part of that region, and in the sterility everywhere in fossil remains — difficulties which greatly enhance the value of any promising clue lo a solution of the lpystery.

From the point of view of local geology this state of ignorance has been specially depressing. That same nummulitic formation — crushed and upheaved on the outer fringe of the Himalayan region, and resting undisturbed upon a deeply denuded surface of the great

Yule's Marco Polo, Vol. I, p. 177,

Dakhin trap — has been almost the only positive link between the rock-areas of the Peninsula and of Central Asia. Of the other Indian rock-formations — the Vindhyan series of unknown age, and deeply rooted in the fundamental rocks; or the great sandstone formations sup posed at present to range from permian to latest jurassic, and holding a comparatively super ficial relation to the supporting rooks — no assignable equivalent had been made out in the neighbouring Himalayan provinces.

The press of work elsewhere may be offered to account for this ; for the clue which is now promising such interesting revelations has been within reach at any time for the last twenty years ; since Dr. Hooker discovered at the base of the Sikkim Himalaya rocks con taining plant-fossils characteristic of the coal-measures of Bengal.*

The illustrious naturalist did not assign any stratigraphieal position for the rock in that section ; perhaps the only locality where he noticed it, near the Paukabari rest-house, did not admit of such a determination. This is indeed most likely the case ; for, the passing observation made in the same spot by so practised a geologist as Mr. W. T. Blanford left the question still in doubt, the suggestions gathered being that the Damudasmay Occur there only as fault-rock between the schists of the mountains and the tertiary sandstones at their base ; or even that the stones containing the Damuda plants may only occur as blocks in the tertiary sandstones. A regular survey of that region is now in progress. Mr. F. K. Mallet took up work there early in December ; and already important results have been obtained, both practical and scientific. A band of Damuda coal-measure rocks has been traced for many miles along the base of the mountains, and in places as much as one mile in width, inside the fringing bed of tertiary sandstones. Besides the familiar Damuda plants, several seams of coal occur, in a condition approaching anthracite in composition — having 79 '3 of carbon, 7'6 of volatile matter (dry), and 13T of ash — but in a flaky granulated (graphitic) state from crushing. The ohief point of interest, however, is that there is no marked stratigraphical break between these beds and the slaty and schistose rocks forming the mass of the mountains ; on the age of which they will thus give very important evidence. Mr. Mallet has not yet been able to satisfy himself upon the complicated structural questions involved in the section, as to inversion, faulting, &c., but it is hoped that before the close of the season some definite view may be made out. Meanwhile this notice is given of so important a step in the geology of India.

While Mr. Mallet was making these observations on the ground, an independent sug gestion to the same effect was received from Mr. H. F. Blanford, whom we consider virtually, as he formerly was officially, a colleague in the study of Indian geology. Mr. Blanford was at Darjeeling on a tour of inspection of the meteorological stations in that part of the province. Ever mindful of his first love, and aware, of course, of Dr. Hooker's original discovery of Damuda fossils at the base of the mountains, it appeared to him that the fre quent bands of graphitic matter in the schistose and gneissic rocks of the higher regions might indeed ho the greatly transformed equivalents of the carbonaceous deposits of the Pen insula. If this criterion be confirmed by the close study of the stratigraphy, it promises to be of very wide application ; for these graphitic bands are as abundant in the Lower Hima laya of the north-west as about Darjeeling. The suggestion too fits in well with the little we know on both sides of the question : Dr. Oldham has always maintained that the coalmeasures of India are palaeozoic ; and the Krol limestone, the uppermost group of the Lower Himalayan rock-series in the north-west, is considered by Dr. Stoliczka to be triassic.

H. B. M.

Himalayan Journal, Vol. I, page 403.

Petroleum in Assam, by Theodore W. II. Hughes, a. k. s. m., f. g. s., Geological

Survey of India.

In looking through the literature relating to petroleum, I have not met with any record of the composition of oils occurring in Assam. Burmese-oil, which is perhaps better known under the name of Rangoon-oil, has, on the contrary, been the subject of frequent investi gation, and one of the later and most highly interesting papers referring to it is to be found in the Memoirs of the American Academy* § for 1867, under the heading of " Examination of Naptha obtained from Rangoon Petroleum," by Warren and Storer.

Having been fortunate enough lately to procure a few notes showing the result obtained by submitting some Assam petroleum to distillation at varying temperatures, I propose taking this opportunity of placing them on record.

The petroleum experimented upon was obtained from a spring in land granted to Mr. Goodenough, a member of the firm of Melvillop, Stewart and Company. The tract, as specified in a letter to the Board of Revenue, embraced " both sides of the Boree Dehing river from Juipore to the effluence of the No Dehing river to a distance of ten miles on each side of the Boree Dehing, including the lands near the Clierraphong hills, Jaipore, the Makoom river, the Namchik Poong, the Terap river, the Namchik river, the Jugloo river, and the Terok river."

Which spring the petroleum that was tested came from I am unable to say; but it was probably from one struck near Makoom, % as the springs in that neighbourhood sur passed any others in the copiousness of their discharge, and evidently attracted most attention.

The first of the systematic borings for oil was commenced at Nahore Poong§ in Novem ber 1866 ; but it does not appear to have been successful, and it was abandoned after having been sunk to a depth of 102 feet. In addition to several other hand-borings, a Mather and Platt steam-boring machine was set working in the latter end of December, and a hole was carried down 195 feet; but with the exception of a few signs of gas, there were no good results.

It appears from the records placed at my disposal that a blue clay was invariably met with, not only in the Nahore Poong borings, but in those at Makoom and elsewhere. It would have been interesting to know whether this clay, independently or in association with some other rock, was a good index to oil ; but on this point there is nothing clear.

Whilst the borings at Nahore Poong were proceeding, others were begun at Makoom. Oil was struck in one hole on the 26th March 1867 at 118 feet, and it immediately rose 74 feet in the bore, being 44 feet below the surface. About 300 gallons were drawn, after which it was found not to flow continuously, a circumstance which it was hoped would be remedied by sinking deeper.

As many as eight holes seem to have been put down in the Makoom area, and they were nearly all successful in tapping oil. The yield varied in each.

Vol. IX, Part 1, New Series, page 208.

f I am indebted for these notes and for much useful information regarding petroleum and coal in Assam to my friend Mr. J. Jenkins.

t Lat. 27° 18' North, Long. 95° 40' East.

§ The places recommended during the progress of the borings were — Nahore Poong, Makoom, Borhaut, Nainchcck, and Bapoo Poong.

Records oj ike Geological Surrey of India.

In January 1868, 100 to 125 gallons a clay were collected from No. 1, while 550 to 650 gallons were collected from No. 5. The action of No. 5 bore was intermittent. Pure water was spouted for 3 or 4 hours, then almost pure oil for 15 to 30 minutes, after which all action ceased for an hour, or sometimes longer; and then activity set in again. Great difficulty was met with in storing the oil, and it is stated that wooden tanks failed to keep it in. The most copious discharge was from No. 5 ; and as there was not sufficient storage room, the flow was diminished by fixing a valve to the well-pipe. The pressure was very great, being 30 lbs. to the inch.

The following is a very interesting table showing when the blows of oil commenced, the time the oil continued running, and the quantity of oil given from No. 5 bore at Makoom. The depth at which oil was struck is not given in the returns made by the persou in charge of the borings, but the hole was most probably a shallow one like the others.

Bore No. 5. — Makoom.

Table showing when the bloios of oil commenced , the time the oil continued running, and

quantity of oil given.

Date, 1868.

Commenced to run.

Day and hours running.

Gallons per day of

Remarks.

January

8th

9 A. M. ...

6 days 15 hours.

Stopped gradually.

"

16th

"

20th

Midnight

21st

„

23rd

1 day 13 „

„

27th

29th

6 days 15 „

Runniug very 6lowly,

February

5 til

7th

2 days

2 P. M. ...

In 19 hours 1,400 gallons.

16th

9 A. M. ...

1 day 6 „

27th

In 29 hours.

March

2nd

In 30 hours.

7th

2 days

„

11th

1 day 11 „

In 35 hours, very strong— burst pipes.

"

31st

per day.

(Valve very little open, to reduce the

May

14th

6 P. M. ...

per day.

j flow as much as possible.

July

14th

19th

,1

27th

1 P. M. ...

In 15 hours.

3 days 1 „

A strong blow.

August

8th

o „

In three hours, very strong flow.

11th

2 P. M. ...

3 days 10 „

"

22nd

In 8 hours.

Here the man who kept the account fell ill, and the one who relieved him never kept any.

The temperature is not recorded.

Mr. Goodenough was not successful in establishing a petroleum-industry. The under taking failed, as so many others in this country have done, owing to the difficulty of transport. But the prospect of an abundance of mineral-oil in Assam has been proved ; and if this splendid province should over be opened up, fortunes will yet be made in this branch of mining.

Part

Hughes : Petroleum in Assam.

Analysis of petroleum. — The sample of petroleum operated upon was black, perfectly liquid, and of rather strong odour. Specific gravity '971. Water T000.

One thousand parts were submitted to distillation, first by the heat of a water-bath, bat that being insufficient, it was then heated by direct fire. It began to boil at 400° F. —

ri.

parts bcloW

between

ofsp.gr. ... -873

n

'd

a

o

„

e.

above

turned solid on cooling.

There was a small residue of coke.

The first six portions would do for lamp oil, although of rather higher speeifie gravity than that obtained from American petroleum.

Seven and 8 contain solid paraffin, which can be separated, and the liquid-oil used for lubricating; or, after the first six portions have been distilled off, the whole of the residue in the retort can be used as lubricating-oil.

For the purpose of comparison, I give the result of an experiment upon Pennsyl vanian petroleum.

Sample. — Greenish black, rather thin oil. Sp. Gr. 882. One thousand parts yielded on distillation-of

sp. gr.

tt

„

a

„

n

„

a

all the residue would be for lubricating-oil.

Rangoon-oil. — According to Warren de la Rue's researches yields per thousand parts—

110 parts of oil below 100 „ between

212° F. 230°-293° 293°-600° 600°

which solidifies on cooling, dark oil at the greatest beat.

The paraffin contained in portions 7 and 8 of the Assam petroleum might be manufac tured into candles. As compared with a few other substances, the following table shows the number of grains required to give equal quantities of light: —

Paraffin ... ... ... ... ... 98 grains.

Composite candle (made of stearine and stearic acid) ... ... 155 „

The discovery within the last few years of enormous quantities of petroleum in Canada and the United States, has influenced considerably the manufacture of coal-oils in Great

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Britain and other countries. But there are places where coal and bituminous shales may be profitably submitted to distillation, and I believe that our Indian coal-fields offer a fair chance.

The yield of crude oil from a ton of ordinary coal* does not usually exceed a maximum of 75 gallons, and a coal which will yield 50 gallons may be regarded as an excellent article, provided it affords coke enough to supply heat for its own distillation.

Raniganj, o 1st December 1873. j

Coal in toe Gabo Hills, by Mr. II. B. Medltcott.

The reported discovery of a new coal-field in the interior of the Garo hills, backed up by the proposal to run a railway through them into Assam, led to a very urgent demand to have the rocks of that region examined. Although nearly encircled by long-settled and fertile districts of the upper deltaic plains of Bengal, that hill-tract has, till within the last three years, remained perfectly secluded in primitive savagery. Partly to remove such an anomaly, and pai'tly to put a stop to the occasional practice of the Garos capturing slaves and taking trophies of human heads among the hordering plains people, it was decided to bring the hill-men under control. This intention was carried out without serious difficulty. The people had of course been long acquainted with the character and power of the white men holding sway over the plains, and submitted to their supremacy almost without resistance. This year I had the pleasure to march through the length and breadth of the land in the com pany of an English lady, the wife of the Deputy Commissioner of the district, Captain williamson, the subduer and friend of the Garos, who made his tour ot inspection through his dominions to fit in with my geological explorations. In the previous season topographical surveyors had accompanied the several expeditionary parties sent in to take possession ; and had succeeded in completing an excellent sketch map of the whole area. One of these officers heard of the coal, and brought it to notice. It would seem that no European actually visited the spot ; indeed the description first given of the position could hardly have proceeded from an eye-witness; but samples were procured, and thus the bare fact of coal being there was sufficiently authenticated. The confirmation of the existence of a considerable coal-field in the position thus indicated, warrants brief notice of the situation.

It will probably be remarked that Garo-liill coal is at least familiar by name. In 1841, Mr. Bedford, engaged on the revenue survey of the Goalpara district, brought to notice what he called the Kurribari coal-field, at the extreme west end of the Garo hills, close to Singmari on the old Bramaputra. Some attempt was, I believe, made at the time to work it ; and the failure of the experiment does not seem to have been fairly attributed to the failure of the deposits. Again, about two years ago, the civil officers of Mymensing brought to the notice of Government the occurrence of coal on the Sumesary river at the south base of the main range of the Garo hills. The extension of the Eastern Bengal Railway towards Assam was then a pressing question ; and I was deputed to report upon the prospects of the coal deposits, particularly those of the Kurribari region, the position of which, dose to the great river, gave them special importance. In April 1868 the result of my observations was reported to the Government of Bengal : the existence of a fair seam of useful coal at Siju on the Mimes ary was confirmed, the present value of it being questioned, on account of difficulty of access from the plains across some ten miles of low rugged hills. Of all the known outcrops in the Kurribari region, at Mirampara and Champagiri, a most unfavorable account had to

Carmel coals and bituminous shales yield as much as 120 to 130 gallons of crude oil per ton, but they produce on coke of any value.

Medllcott : Coal in the Garo Hills.

be given: the deposit was indeed the same as at Siju, and move favorably circumstanced for working, the measures being quite horizontal, and close to the surface ; hut the seam con tained only a few irregular little strings of coal in a thick bed of clay, resting almost directly upon a platform of gneissic rocks. The only apparent prospect of useful coal there lay in the possible development of the deposit on the same horizon to the deep of tho formation in its main basin, on the south of the barrier of crystalline rocks ; and I sug gested that this point might be determined by a boring in the neighbourhood of Harigaon. The present revival of the question has been as stated above.

The Daha.vogiri coal-field. The coal. — The sample of the newly found coal, sent for opinion, could at once be recognised as the cretaceous coal of this geological province : the same as that known at Siju, and as that of the tiny field at Maobilarkar on the Shillong plateau from which the supply for the station is obtained. It is a very peculiar coal, having less the appearance of ordinary coal than the younger mtmmulitie coal of the same region ; it has a decided brown colour when crushed, and gives a wooden sound when struck : it is moreover impregnated throughout by small nests or minute specks of a resinous amber-like substance. It is thus, of course, a light coal, but a very excellent fuel as shown by its com position —

The position. — Viewed from the south, the main range of the Garo hills is continuous with the face of the Kasia hills to the east, although the aspect is different. Instead of the bare mural precipices of massive sandstone, there is the steep rugged slope formed on con torted crystalline rocks, and thickly wooded throughout. The chief orographical difference, however, is that whereas from the scarp of the Kasia range the ground still rises for some distance, passing into the elevated plateau of Shillong, the western range is only a narrowcrested ridge, descending rapidly, though much less precipitously than on the south, to a broad region of steeply undulating hills of much less elevation. The Sumesary river, the Semsang of the Garos, passes through tho main range by a deep gorge just above Siju. At the head of this gorge thei'e is a fine waterfall, close to Jankaray; and half a mile further on, just above the confluence of the Rengehi, the river crosses the south boundary of the Darangglri coal-field, which thus at present lies in a true rock-basin, passing below the main drainage level. The elevation here may not bo more than 300 to 400 feet above Siju. The Sumesary flows for six miles through the coal-basin, the north boundary being about one mile below the village of Dobakhol. For the greater part of this length, the river is here the boundary, as recently laid down, between the Garo and Kasia hill districts. The range of the field to the east has not been determined. To the west it extends at least four miles from the lower reach of the Semsang, up to and beyond Daranggiri.

Outcrops. — Several fine outcrops are freely exposed ; the one originally reported being by no means the most conspicuous. It occurs in the Garigitliem stream, a furlong or so above the confluence with the Semsang. It is 6 to 8 feet thick, with a steady southerly dip of about 4°, the floor of gneissic rock appearing at a short distance higher up the stream. In the main river, about half a mile above the same confluence, the seam appears again in equal force, with a low easterly dip. The correct infer'ence, that the seam would be found continuous through the intervening spur, led to the original announcement of the discovery as of " a mountain of coal." It was close to Daranggiri village that 1 observed the finest outcrop; it is well exposed for many score yards at the base of the cliff along the right bank of the stream, almost horizontal, and with a thickness of full 7 feet throughout,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

being at the same time very free from shaly partings. Near the south boundary of the field, along the base of the permanent rise of the main range, the coal was found in two places ; but here it has the disadvantage of having undergone much disturbance. In the stream a little to the west of the lower village of Baduri, a few yards below the Daranggiri path, the coal is thus seen in full force, but nearly vertical. On the same strike, within a mile of the Semsang, ou the path between Baduri and Janliaray, the approximate position of the seam is marked by large and abundant debris.

On the evidence of these facts, it is, I think, safe to conclude that there is here a coal field of considerable extent. The coal-measures are certainly continuous within the area demarcated by the localities I have mentioned, covering roughly about twelve to fifteen square miles ; and although the coal itself is probably not Co-extensive with the measures, the total quantity must be very large ; and it is favorably circumstanced for mining. It lies, however, in the very heart of the Garo hills ; but on the most favorable line for a railway, through the gorge of the Semsang, should it ever be thought advisable to undertake such a work. The nummulitic formation with its limestone caps the high ground in the centre of the basin.

The Rongrenggiri basin. — Some miles up the valley of the Semsang, to the west, there is another considerable basin of the coal-measure rocks, occupying the valley above and below the Rongrenggiri outpost for a direct distance of seven miles, from a little below Sarramphang Haut to below SkemshanggirL Locally it is five miles wide. I could no where find an outcrop of the coal within this area ; but there are stratigraphical features (see further on) suggesting that it may exist within the basin at greater depths than the present surface.

The Kalu basin. — On the Upper Kalu, north of the main gncissic range, about Chipagiri, there is a small basin of the coal-measure rocks ; but no trace of coal has been observed. Hero, too, it may possibly be found at greater depths by boring ; but the field would seem to be shallow and closely circumscribed by the gneiss. Even if found, there would be several miles of difficult transit to get the coal to market.

The main basin. — Every other observed appearance of the coal-measure rooks to the north of the Turn range (excepting one narrow strip in the valley at Lenkra, in the fareast), consists only of patches of variable extent and thickness, resting on the ridges and spurs of the crystalline rock, some occurring locally near the Semsang even on the crest of the main range. In so steeply eroded a country, these cappings of sedimentary rocks are freely exposed on all sides to denuding action, and the presence in quantity of any peculiar material could scarcely escape detection ; where, too, at any time a shallow trench down the hill side across the bedding would lay bare the whole contents of the section. Yet in none of the very many places where I crossed the measures in this position did any symptoms of coal appear. With the single exception of a small patch on the north shoulder of the ridge below the village of Sokadam, every observed outlier of the oretaceous formation occurs within the basins of the Semsang and the Kalu, in the neighbourhood of the main axis of elevation ; the whole stretch of hills for twenty miles ou the Goalpara side being, at least on the two trades crossed by ine, entirely formed of gneiss. The original sites at the extreme west end of the hills, at Olmmpagiri and Mirampara, remain as the only known cases of the seam being re presented in a mere remnant of the measures on a low platform of gneiss. Thus, excepting in the very doubtful project of a railway through the Semsang gorge and the Daranggiri basin, and also in the unlikely possibility of still finding a detached basin within easy reach of the Goalpara boundary, the only prospect of a coal-supply still lies in the main basin of the formation, to the south of the Tura range.

Medliuott : Coal in the Caro Hills.

The chances of this prospect are briefly as follows : It is demonstrable in the Khasia hills and here, that the portions of the cretaceous rocks found on the gneiss or within its southern limit are only the marginal deposits of a formation expanding greatly in thickness to the south. Even within that marginal area, coal seems to have been formed only in local depres sions of the old land-surface. The important question then occurs — how was it in the main depression of deposition ? For the Khasia portion it can positively be said that the con ditions for the accumulation of vegetable remains did not exist to the deep of the formation. The whole expanded series is fully exposed in a nearly vertical position at the base of the range; and marine fossils occur throughout. Even the horizon of the coal near the base of the series can sometimes be determined here by the presence of plant-markings and fragments of the resinous substance so common in this cretaceous coal, but here mixed with marine shells. The change to the westwards has not been traced out continuously along the strike ; but at the Sumesari it is already very marked : there is a strong seam of coal, well up from the bottom beds ; it is brought up twice by contortion of the strata, showing its extension to, some distance from the rise ; and no marine fossils have been detected in the associated beds. This, it will be recollected, is close on the same meridian as the Daranggiri field, only to the south of the main range. To the west of the Sumesari a very great change takes place in the mechanical circumstances of the strata: instead of being thrown on eud at their junction with the gneiss, as is the case everywhere to the east, the boundary here is, what is called, overlapping — the strata being banked against the flanks of the mountain, each suc ceeding layer overlaps and conceals the one below it. There has been here too some eleva tion, compression, and waving of the strata ; but, on the whole, the formation is only exposed to the depth to which the local streams have cut through the superposed strata. All this is admirably exposed in the ravines below Turn ; each layer being for the short space of its overlap the local bottom layer of the formation. In some of them sticks and strings of coal occur, as under Machakholgiri ; hut it seems likely that none of these streams touch the true horizon of the coal deposit ; so that this may be in full force to the deep of the basin. In none of the beds of this region have any marine fossils been detected ; and there is very abundantly here a white fine clay-rock* that hardly appears in the Khasia sections. On the whole, I think the question of coal or no coal in this position ought to be set at rest by a trial boring. I have recommended Dipkai, about two miles to north-east of Putimari Haut, as a suitable spot.

Geolog v. — I would add a few remarks of a more general nature to bring my recent observations into connexion with what I have previously said on the geology of this region (see Mem. Geol. Sur., India, Vol. vii, p, 151). The difference of the structural fea tures of the sections in the Khasia and the Garo divisions of this continued mountain-mass is greater than was then surmised. In the Shillong region, the elevation of the plateau took the form of an equable rise of the whole area — the gentle slope of the cretaceous strata from the edge of the scarp, passing into perfect horizontality as they extend northwards, is perfectly unbroken. In the features then observed along the outer base of the range, there was nothing to suggest its being otherwise in the Garo region ; a gradual dimi nution of the elevatory and contorting action being the only change apparent. It would seem, however, that, besides a general decrease in vertical effect, the elevating action here was almost confined to the axis of the range, corresponding with the line of the scarp to the

This rock may yet be found valuable as a pottery-clay. It contains 52'8 per cent, decomposable by sulphuric acid, and free from alkali iron and lime, -with a residue of 47'2 per cent, of pure fine silica.

Uncords of the Geological Survey of India.

east ; and even, that special local depressions took place to the north of that axis : not only are the same geological horizons found at about the same level on both sides of the ridge, upon which intermediately remnants of these very beds are found at much higher levels, but also, as is very clear in the case of the Rongreng basin, steady local sinking took place, the nummulitie limestone being found in the middle of that small area at the river's level, while the cretaceous sandstone passes up to a considerable height on the spurs of the adjoin ing hills, no high dips being introduced.

It is interesting to trace the apparent connection of these effects of disturbance with pre-existing conditions. The manner in which the coal occurs in the Darang basin strongly suggests that its limits are to some extent aboriginal, and therefore that the Semsang valley itself was lined out in precretaceous times. At the Gaidgithem outcrop and also in the Semsaug there are about fifty feet of sandstone between the seam and the gneiss. But as it rises along the spurs to the north and west, one finds a far greater thickness of sand stone without any sign of the coal, which is thus simply overlapped ; the beds on the high ground, even in contact with the gneiss, being of a higher horizon than the coal. Half a mile above the main outcrop in the Semsang there is on the right bank a cliff of sandstone resting on gneiss, and at forty feet from the base there is a highly carbonaceous shale repre senting the coal seam.

The manner in which the sandstones are banked up against the Tura range, and fill up inequalities in its surface, is quite conclusive on the same point. The spur on which the station of Tura stands has a midrib of gneiss, packed in sandstone, through which the old ravines have been re-excavated. On the section through Siju and Baduri this would not appear, the crushing having assumed a peculiar and intense form ; the separating rib of gneiss, here representing the Tura range, is only four miles wide, and at the base on both sides the coal measures lie at nearly vertical angles against the gneiss and parallel to its surface, while high on the intervening ridge patches of the same rest flatly. Thus it would seem that elevation by lateral compression takes effect by increasing existing inequalities ; as would indeed result from the crushing of a series of inverted arches.

Os THE DISCOVERT OF A NEW LOCALITY FOR CoPFER IN TIIE N.1RBADA VaLLEY,

V. Ball, Esq., m, a.

The Bijour or submetamorphic rocks of India have, as has been predicted from their character, proved the principal source of the useful and precious metals which have hitherto been found in this country. The slates, quartzites, and schists which compose the Bijour formation resemble in their lithological characters those metamorphio rocks which in all countries are the most productive of metalliferous deposits.

The discovery of a deposit of copper now to be recorded was made towards the end of last year, on a small island in the Narbada river close to the Birman ghat. The gentleman to whom the sole credit of this discovery belongs is Mr. Charles Maynard, agent of the Narbada Coal and Iron Company. Being well acquainted with the appearance of the ores of copper, some stains of the blue and green carbonates upon the rocks attracted his attention. He at once determined to open up the ground with the view of ascertaining, so far as possible, the extent and character of the deposit.

On the 11th of January, I visited the scene of operations and found that a ' drift' had by that time been driven down to a depth of nine or ten feet. This gave me an opportunity of examining the character of the deposit. The rock in which the ore occurs is an argillaceous

part 2.] Ball: Discovery of a locality for copper in the Narbada Valley. 68

schist associated, with quartzites. In some of the beds of the latter the component grains are very distinct. These rocks belong to the Bijour series.

I found that the underlie of the deposit corresponds to the dip of the strata, amounting to from 50° to 55° north, the strike being at this particular point east and west. The ore, I believe — as I found also to be the case in Singbhutn* — does not occur in what can be trulycalled a lode, but as a constituent of the schist which it permeates throughout a thickness of at least sis feet. This was the thickness exposed at the time of my visit ; but according to Mr. Maynard's calculation this should he increased by eight feet ; thus making in all fourteen feet as the thickness of the schist permeated by the ore.

There is, as usual, in such deposits, a tendency to the formation of nests and pseudo-lodes ; hut this, I believe, to he due to subsequent action — segregation — and that the copper should be regarded as a constituent of the schist as originally deposited.

The ores on the back of the lode, as is generally the case, consist principally of the blue and green carbonates (Azurite and Malachite). As the mining progresses, nests of the grey oxide become more abundant, and there are also some traces of the red oxide. Pyrites (the yellow metal of mining phraseology) has not yet been reached, nor can it be until a depth sufficient to have ensured its protection from the decomposing effects of atmospheric action has been arrived at.

The extension of the ore downwards or " to the deep" can only be determined by mining. As to its lateral extension we found some stains of the carbonates on the same bed of schist fully 100 yards to the east of the present drift.

Trenches cut across the strike of the rocks to a depth of three or four feet would pro bably be sufficient to prove the lateral extension sufficiently for all present purposes.

As to the quality of the ores, the assay of five specimens by Mr. Tween yielded the following percentages of copper: No. 1, 47'8 ; No. 2, 21'2 ; No. 3, 320; No. 4, 25'4; No. 6, 12-6.

Two specimens sent to the mint gave the following result : —

A B

Copper

Iron

Earthy matter

These results must be considered eminently favorable. The quantity in which the oi'e occurs, the cost of its extraction and transmission to market, f are the elements which now remain to be ascertained in order to determine the full importance and value of the discovery.

The last accounts which I received from Mr. Maynard represent the mine as progressing favorably. Under his energetic management there is a prospect thus of anew industry being started in the Narbada valley.

See Records of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. JIT, pt. 4, p. 94.

t It does not of course come within the scope of this notice to discuss the question as to whether it would pay best to export the ore in the form of ' regulus,' or attempt the manufacture of copper on the spot.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Potash-salt from Bast India.*

A novelty wliicli has become known hel*e through this year's Universal Exhibition is the discovery of Potash-salt bearing strata in the Mayo mines in the Salt-range in the north of the Punjab.

Dr. T. Oldham, who provided and arranged the very interesting exhibition of East Indian mineral products, has already made a communication upon the position of the rocksalt in those hills in a notice published in the Ver. der Geol. Reichsan8ta.lt, from which it appears that this rock-salt group is considei'ed to belong to the Silurian formation, and accordingly is the oldest among the known deposits of salt.

Recently attention was drawn at the above-named salt-works to the occurrence of a salt which, by its exceptional hardness, and the more searching examination of the resident chemist, Herr Warth, revealed the presence of a considerable proportion of Magnesium and Potassium.

Specimens from this deposit now in the Exhibition, consist of a white or reddish granular mixture of Sylvine (Chloride of Potassium) and Ivieserite (Sulphate of Magnesium).

The Sylvine and the rock-salt can be at once recognised by the cleavage and blow-pipe reaction. The Kieserite appears in grains which have a maximum diameter of 12 mm. It is colorless, and possesses the same hardness and cleavage as that given by me for the Hallstadt mineral.f In places the Kieserite appears also to be compact.

The contained water amounts to 12'99 p. c. exactly, thus agreeing with the calculated amount 13'04.

From the Kieserite in a moist atmosphere changing into Epsomite, the samples in which that ingredient predominates become quite disintegrated at the surface, and exhibit a con stantly deciduous coating. Man}- pieces consist almost exclusively of Sylvine. Whether also some Kieserite occurs in these samples, as may bo conjectured in such an association, does not yet appear, since I have only been able to submit small pieces to examination.

The discovery of this Sylvine-bearing salt-band cannot fail to arouse attention in Eng land, since, in spite of the difficulties of transport, a profitable exploitation is possible.

T.

Notes on the Geology of the neighbourhood of Mari Hill Station in the Punjab, by A. B. Wynne, f. g. s., &c.

The outer Ilimalaj-an hills on the borders of the Northern Punjab present a marked alteration in the general direction of the Indian frontage of these mountains. The prevalent north-westerly strike of the Western Himalaya is here lost, and this most northerly corner of the Indian Empire is embayed between the approaching masses of the Himalaya, Hindoo Koosh, and Suliman ranges, the outworks of which have various westerly and northerly directions. On the Himalayan side, as noticed by Mr. Medlicott (Mem. Geol. Sur., Vol. Ill, pt. 2, p. 90), in the valley of the Jhilam river, the hills to the eastward possess the normal north-westerly strike, while on the opposite side of the valley they run in directions nearly at right angles to the former. On one of the most lofty of the minor ridges closing in this Jhilam valley to the west is situated the hill station of Mari, at an elevation of more than 7,000 feet above the sea.

' Translated from the Jahrbueh der K. K, Geologischeu Eeichsanetalt, XXIII, No. 2, p. 136. — V. 13. t Sitzungsber. J. Wiener, Akad. Bd. LXIII, p. 305,

paint 2.] Wynne : Geology of neighbourhood of Man Hill Si alien, Punjab. 65

Besides the features noticed, the mountains on either side of the Upper Punjab cmbayment are more or less united by two lower ranges of hills, of which the most southern is the Salt Range, dividing the broken undulating Potwar or Rawal Pindi plateau from the lower deserts and Doabs' through which the five great rivers of the Panjab pass towards Sind. The other less defined group of hills stretches from the Hazara. mountains, by the Chita Pahar ridge to the Admit bills, towards Kohat, separating the Rawal Pindi plateau from the Peshawar plain. Within this cluster of hills are large open spaces of low ground cut up by ravines similarly to the Potwar plateau,* partaking somewhat of the direction of the two last named ranges and closely flanking the Hazara portion of the most northern group of the two. The Mari ridge rises among numerous other hills near the village of Chattar Si'la, then passing in a north-easterly direction by Tret to Mari culminates there at Pinacle hill (7,467 feet) overlooking a spur called Kuldanna, which unites the main ridge with the more massive Murchpuri mountains to the north.

From Pinacle hill the Mari ridge bends to the east by south for a couple of miles, separating the head waters of the Solian, a tributary of the Indus, from those of the stream which occupies the TcTiud between Murchpuri mountain and Dewal, falling into the Jhilani near Kohala. At Topa summit the ridge regains its north-easterly direction, arid passing by Dewal inclines still more to the north, descending gradually till it reaches the banks of the Jhilam river.

Southward from this Mari ridge the hills on the same side of the Jhilam valley consist, of four or five other ridges, all having the same general direction, starting from the Potwar plateau with a general strike of E. 30° X., hut bending northwards as they rise, and where they decline into the valley of the Jhilam having a hearing still more to the north than north-east. Most of these elevations are sharp-crested, the bill country presenting a succession of deep steeply sided khuds or valleys, but southwards the lofty plateaux of Xarh and Karor are striking exceptions to the rule.t

Northwards from Mari the same north-east and south-westerly run characterizes the hills ; hut for some distance both north and south of the station the ridges seem to branch east and westerly from a crooked back-bone or mid-rib rudely parallel to the course of the river Jhilam. This is less prominent to the south, but coincides with the most lofty summit s to the north ward, carrying the watershed between the Indus and Jhilam away to the northern side of the Kaghan valley.

Another feature of the hills immediately near Mari may be noticed, namely, the occurrence of small nearly horizontal patches of ground at high elevations formed of un stratified light-coloured clay. Advantage has been taken to level the surfaces of two of

These open spaces and the adjacent hills afforded the eke of the military operations connected with the

Northern Camp of Exercise in 1S73 near Hassan Abdal.

t It is said that when the sanitarium was he ing formed at 31 an there had been some intent r n of a : mi? the Xarh plateau as its site instead. The reason given against this is want of water at the latter site: bat the native? have another legendary one connected with the e a.- are f the local Fir or spirit, who is -aid to have cac - d such inconvenience to the inhabitants of the first hut built at Xarh that the ' Bdkeb log' departed and left the Pir in peace.

The elevation of the Xarh plateau is only about feet lower than Mari ; the form and size of the plateau, which is cultivated in places, would seem to offer a r.. more capacious and better buiicing ground while the size of the catchment area and disposition of th -*rr a are t astir more calculated for retaining a supp'y of water. The distance from Bawul Pindee station is rather i.-ss than that of 3Iari. The road-matin? diffvulties are less, ? far as the hardness of the rocks is concerned, but this renders then, iess s"'Tab'.e as b 'hiding scone : stow Ik - her* much shorter time. The plateau is not covered by forest ; timber, however, abounds on the northern slopes of the neighbourne vaTeya. There is a well-made untry road now for mote than half the distal.-e from Kawai Fit-': , and as permanent quarters for troops, the site appears to possess, on the whole, natural advantages superior to those of the hill of KulJunna, at the same elevation, where extensive barracks are in course of construction at present.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

these, so as to form the cricket-ground at " the Flats," three miles below the station on the Kashmir road, and for the croquet or archery ground south-west of Pinacle hill. Both of these localities are situated on the very hack of the ridge ; near the former rises the summit ot Topa ; but the hitter, at a much greater elevation, is commanded by no greatly higher ground in its immediate neighbourhood. The clay in Both cases is evidently water-washed detritus, and it is not easy now to suggest where the ground was once situated which formed the catchment area to cause these deposits, though they indicate clearly enough a former different configuration of the hills, and point to adjacent masses above them having been entirely removed by meteoric denudation. Such facts as these, and the constant occurrence of landslips on the slopes ot these steep ridges, all more or less ' dressed' to a uniform in clination, force upon the observer a recognition of the slow but enormous atmospheric erosion by which these khuds and ridges have been formed, here doubtless largely aided by the periodic rains and winter snows.*

The rocks of which the Mari ridge itself is formed, and all those for a long distance southwards, present a sameness amounting to monotony. They belong to a vast series of alternating gray or purplish sandstones and deep purplish -red claj's, with occasional finely concretionary pseudo-conglomeratic bands. The series forms one of the lowest sub-divisions of the great outer tertiary zone of sandstones, clays, and conglomerates, coincident and co-extensive with the southern frontage of the Himalayan mountains. It is evidently the same group of rocks as one of the lower divisions of Mr. Medlicott's sub- Himalayan series, in the Simla country, apparently corresponding to the Dagskai beds of that section ; but this being still debateable, it has here been called provisionally after the station — 'The Mari Group. Its thickness is difficult to estimate owing to the contorted positions of the beds, but it must he very great ; indeed, trom an observation where the same rocks were locally less disturbed in Kashmir, the group may considerably exceed 5,000 feet.

To the south the Mari rocks are succeeded by very similar red clays and grayer or bluish sandstones passing upwards into soft light gray sandstones, having local strings of lignite, and alternating with rusty orange clays. The latter are succeeded by conglomerates as described in a previous paper in these Records (Vol. YI, part 3).

The strata composing that half of the Mari ridge descending towards the Rawal Pindi plateau are either contorted or present a steep inclination towards the north-west, as though to pass beneath the limestone hills forming the opposite side of the khud in that direction. This feature is nowhere more marked than towards the south-west end of the Mari station, where it may he seen in sandstones aDd clays all round and over the observatory hill, the outcropping edges of other strong sandstones underlying these beds being traceable along the adjacent side of the khud to the south-east ; and the same strongly marked dip being plainly visible from side to side of the ridge in the height overlooking the Lawrence Asylum and the Mari brewery. It occurs again on the road to Kashmir aud in other parts of the station; hut is not universal, for towards Kashmir point there are many inclinations to the westward aud southward of west, chiefly on the northern side of the ridge, while over the continuation of this, towards Hewal and Kashmir, the latter and other dips in different directions indicate the contorted state of the beds. It is perhaps owing to this circumstance

The well known. Himalayan feature of the forests being confined to one aspect of hills, particularly those in which the Paluder tree, ( Pindrao , or Pinas Smithiuna ?) predominates is well marked about Mari. Here the densely Avooded slopes are those presented most to the northwards or north by ivest, the opposite or sunny side being often nearly bare of trees. The forest at Mari ends sharply at the summit of the ridge, and yet Paluder forest may be seen creeping down the south-western slopes of Chumba peak above Khairagali on the upper road to Abbottabad as if the exception were necessary to prove the rule.

part 2.] Wynne : Geology of neighbourhood of Marl Hill Station, Punjab. 67

and to the less steep form of the ground that this north-easterly half of the Mari ridge possesses its strongly marked red colour, the red clays haring a larger surface exposure and being less liable to rapid removal by the action of rain.

The prevailing dip of the Mari rocks, towards the higher hills adjoining, is a strikingly abnormal feature in the structure of the country, and not to be relied upon in estimating the relations as to succession among the rocks of these hills. Notwithstanding this, it is a feature remarkably prevalent along hundreds of miles of the junction between the outer tertiary belt and the nearest of the other rocks of the Himalaya ranges. — It is also to be found along the foot of the Alps in a similar relative situation. (See Mr. Medlieott's report previously quoted, aud his " Alps and Himalaya, a comparison," — Jour. Geol. Soc., Lond., February 1868).

If this north-westerly dip were to be looked upon as indicating the succession, and un connected with faulting or other complexity (see Geol. Sur. Records, Yol. VI, pt. 3, and Jour. Geol. Soc., Lond., December 1873), then it would follow that the rocks north-westward of the ridge must be newer than those of the Mari series, which is not the case.

Taking this north-westerly dip to be the prominent stratigraphic feature of the Marj ridge, associated, however, with other flexures of the beds, these will be found to bend over an anticlinal axis coinciding with the khud immediately south-east of the station, the first of a series of undulations, which becoming more ojjen pass through all the hills to the southward on this side of the Jkilain valley.

The synclinal axes of these undulations seem to rise towards the eastward, steady low dips in the opposite direction being visible from Mari in the precipitous flanks of some of the distant hills on this side of the Jhilam, as in that supporting the plateau of Narh aud others.

About Mari itself the rocks possess but little interest in detail ; they contain only, so far as is known, obscure vegetable impressions ; and there is not even evidence to prove whether they are of marine or freshwater origin. Close to the station, however, in the khud between it and the limestone hills opposite, about Clifden, on the connecting ridge of Kuldana and along the upper road to Abbottabad, the local geology becomes much more attractive and important, although obscure and difficult to work out owing to the crushed and fractured state of the rocks.

The lofty masses which fill the front of the mountain-landscape northwards from Mari, strike the eye at once as being of different rocks from those of the Mari ridge ; their naked or, for the most part, unwooded slopes permitting the gray limestone of which they are so largely composed to appear and influence their colour. This contrast is very strongly marked where the red Dewal portion of the Mari ridge forms one side of a deep khud, from which the gray ridges and spurs rise abruptly towards the peak of Chambi and the high summit of Murchpari (9,229 feet).

The change in the geological structure of the ground is well seen by following the new or upper military road to Abbottabad from Mari station. road?*'0" a,cras tlle Upper Abbottabad Proceeding along this towards Sunny Bank Hotel, the reddish

and gray sandstones and purplish red clays or shales of the Mari series, with south-easterly dips, appear in the road cuttings, one thin baud of grayisholive shale occurring among the reddish rocks below Titighar, and a little debris of a greenish

color near to Sunny Bank. Just at the latter place nummulitic shales and limestone are nearly horizontal in the Kuldana road, more of the limestone and red debris being seen on a spur below it. The red beds are again to be found from this to the Kuldana cross-roads, just before reaching which

Record s of He Geological Survey of India.

Os

there is a small exposure of impure limestone, probably part of a lenticular mass, inclined towards the Mari hill. It contains number of small Nummulites little Bivalve shell casts, and rarely fragments of Crustaceans.

Kul dan a cross-roads.

A few paces further, on the Kuldana side of the turn in the road, are bright purple and reddish friable clays breaking down into small splinters. Some compact earthy calcareous beds like lithographic limestone underlie these, and clays as before (except the purple parts being dark, almost to blackness) are then met with. In these latter are a few sandy bands marking stratification, vertical and liighly inclined southwards. A little further, an anticlinal flexure occurs, and limestones among the red clays containing sometimes small Nummulites in quantities dip in the opposite direction. Certain differences in these limy bands from those left behind render it doubtful that this arch in the beds repeats those on each side. Here the rocks are for a short distance concealed by debris from the hill, some of which is cemented into calca reous breccia, and all largely consists of limestone. The next rock seen, in situ, is a strong 600-feet baud of dark blue or black compact limestone, alternating with gray and black shales, and dipping east-south-east at 60°. This limestone has in places black filmy patches, some of the beds are lumpy, the nodules being partially enclosed by shale, and it contains small fragmentary spiral shells, fragments of Echinoid spines, and in some layers numerous Nummulites, Eotalinx, or other small Forwminiferous organisms.

This strong limestone band crosses the Kuldana hill in a north-easterly direction, striking into the Dewal Khud, where it is lost to view, but on the other side it may be traced all along the slope of the Mari ridge, passing by Sunny Bank, Clifden, and Ghoragali, on the Rawal Pindi road, to beyond Tret. At the last three places there is on the Mari side of it a more or less strongly developed band of gypsum, associated with red and greenish clays, close to the reddish or gray sandstones and reddish purple clays of the Mari ridge. At many places along this zone and in its neighbourhood south-easterly dips may he observed in all the rocks. The gypsum band is not seen in its place on the Kuldana road, hut may be represented by a few strings and needles of this mineral in the red clays.

Prom the Kuldana limestone rib on to the commencement of the ascent to Khairagali, a distance of about two miles and a half, the road section exposes numerous alternations of bright red and purplish shales or clays, and limestones with strong gray sandstones, the latter

predominating in the first mile ; amongst these towards the end of the 3rd mile from Mari and commencement of the 4,th are five exposures of gray, greenish, brownish, and olive shales, sometimes let into their places by faults, sometimes regularly interstratified with the red clays and gray sand stones, the whole dipping at high angles in a south-easterly direction. From about three and a half miles to where the road passes through a small gap, to overlook the Dewal Khud, the gray sandstones arc no longer conspicuous, and mauy beds of limestone, generally thin and earthy, arrange themselves in three groups alternating with deep red and greenish and lavender coloured shaly clays, which are nearly vertical or slope generally as before. Some of the calcareous layers abound with Nummulites and some appear quite unfossiliferous.

In the gap abovementioned the same clays are found, then contorted limestones with

few and obscure organisms, then alternations of limestones Gap at junction of Back road. , , , , . , , . , . , , ,

and shales, then again red, lavender, brownish, and purplish

clays with calcareous layers, much crushed and contorted, are seen close to the foot of the

incline. The most of the dips towards the end of this Kuldana portion of the section underlie

towards northerly directions, particularly near the few

huts at Depiagali. The whole of the road section from

'Kuldana, lower-Martello tower, to the foot of the Khairagali ascent, exhibits' numerous:

part 2.] Wynne : Geology of neighbourhood of Mari Hill Station, Punjab. 69

slips or dislocations of the strata, and it is difficult to say liow far these may repeat the beds. The rocks at both ends of this part of the section are so much alike that repetition would seem probable, but certainly not of the whole mass, for at the nor thern end the bulk of the red clays and calcareous hands is very much greater than to the southward. Many of the strong gray sandstones are exactly such as occur above on the Mari hill, but there is some slight difference in the clays, which here are redder and more inclined to break down into chips like nails ; however, this sandstone portion of the section, if not a repetition of some of the Mari beds, would seem to possess a character as nearly identical as any two stages of one lithological formation or group need be. The gray and olive shales have no representatives among the bulk of the Mari beds, and the whole of the Kuldana rocks seem closely allied to Mr. Medlicott's " Subathu group," but the question remains whether to limit the distinction to the Kuldana rocks only, or to include under the same name of " Subathu" the whole of the Mari series? Just along this road to Abbottabad there is nothing to prove concordance or discordance between these "Subathu" and the " Mari beds," but their complete conformity being established by other sections towards the low country, they are looked upon as stratigraphically inseparable, the only grounds for divid ing them being the evidence they contain of nummulitic age, which does not, however, preclude the possibility of the Mari beds belonging to a later portion of the same period. Altogether the Mari beds seem to correspond closely with the Dagshai zone of the Subathu section.

These Kuldana rocks, too, have somewhat the aspect of a transition or intermediate group between the Mari series and the hill nummulitic beds to the north, for among them beds will be found bearing considerable similarity to the limestones and shales upon one side, and also some, as above stated, much resembling the rocks of the Mari group on the other ; indeed, if the succession was regular, clear, and unbroken, such beds as these of Kuldana might well form the passage from the calcareous rocks below to the mass of arenaceous and argillaceous ones above.

Just at the foot of the Khairagali ascent, the series now described is interrupted by a Deri&gali, place of abnormal con- l™e °f contact, the discordance on each side of which is taet' not there very prominent, but which is nevertheless one of

the most strongly marked structural features of the geology of the whole country, including adjacent portions of Kashmir. The' lower tertiary rocks to which the Kuldana series belongs are everywhere brought into junction with the ' hill limestones' such as occupy the KhairaGali slopes, by a line of junction as definite and marked by sudden discontinuity as is any known line of dislocation*

A few yards beyond the huts at Deria Gali the purple and variegated series of Kuldana, dips at 30° to the northwards directly at a mass of crushed and broken nummulitic limestone and shale dipping in the same direction. A moment's consideration, however, will show that if this dip had occurred in otherwise undisturbed strata, a large portion of the Kuldana series ought to overlie the variegated rocks ; instead of which, limestone of a different aspect occupies their place, proving the discordance just mentioned. These dark, solid, compact and lumpy limestones, interstratified with dull gray and brownish shales, broken, twisted and con torted, occupy the ascent for nearly a mile and a half beyond the huts at Deria Gali. They contain here and there ample evidence of their nummulitic age in the small Foraminifera, Nummulites, and Rotalina which they contain (though these at times require search to find), and the strong outcrops of the limestone band may be seen projecting from the hillside towards the Mari Khud, increasing the appearance of discordance.

See Records Geological Survey, Vol. VI, part 3.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

At the distance above-mentioned and about half-way up the Khaira Gali incline, where the road bends westward into a steep ravine, it crosses a mass of red clays and greenish gray sandstones occupying a space of about 100 yards in width, and bearing traces of much crushing and displacement. Such dips as are seen bending towards the south-east at high angles and nearly vertical. The junction with the uummulitic limestones, &c., on either side is concealed by debris, the dip of the shales and limestones to the north-west being quite discordant, while those on the opposite side, though in the same general direction, are too distant to argue conformity therefrom.

This narrow hand of sandstones and red clays strongly resembles, if it is not absolutely identical with, some of the Kuldana series : it may he traced from a spur close beneath KhairaGrali, cutting through the limestone hills and khuds in a south-westerly direction along the flanks of the KhairaGrali and Bhumkot spur to a place called Liran opposite to Clifden, where it disappears. Here, at Liran, it is overlaid by or associated with a considerable mass of stratified rock-gypsum of pinkish white colour, dipping, as the red zone generally does, in a south-easterly direction. Throughout its course it seems to be cut off by a fault from the limestones to the north-west, while its south-eastern boundary may very probably be another fault. The only fossils which have been observed are plant remains in the sandstones similar to those of the Mari and Kuldana rocks. The situation of this remarkable band appa rently foreign to the local series, plunging into the lateral ravines and rising over the inter vening spurs, marking a deep line of fault cutting through the limestone and shale series, bears testimony to the dislocation of the locality and may also be considered corroborative evidence of the nearly parallel line of abnormal junction between the limestones of the hills and the lower part of the outer tertiary series, coinciding with an extended region of faulted dislocation.

Beyond the place where the upper Abbottabad road crosses this red baud, and thence to the crest of the spur at Barean Gali (where there is another cluster of huts and bunnies' shops), black, compact, and lumpy nummulitic limestones and shales, varying up to several yards in thickness, may be observed. Their stratification exhibits as much forcible disturbance as before, and the pre valent dips are northerly at steep angles.

Having here arrived at the crest of the first spur or ridge north-westwards from Mari,

m , the situation overlooks on one side the profound Deval Khud,

Old road to Abbottabad, Clifden, &c. r '

and on the other, deep ravines leading tributaries of the

Haro river down from Chambi Peak. From a neighbouring eminence upon the ridge a view may also he obtained towards Mari, the deep khud beneath it and the col, or connecting spurs, at Ghora Gali uniting the Mari ridge with the limestone chain opposite, in the same way as the ridge and hill of Kuldana does. Down in the valley between these two connect ing ridges may be seen the old road to Abbottabad descending the slopes and spurs from Mari beneath Nandkot and Clifden. This old road, like the new one, exposes a section in the cuttings, crossing the extension of the Kuldana limestone rib, and beds which ought to occupy nearly the same horizon as those immediately to the north of it at Kuldana. These beds, however, on the lower road bear only a general resemblance to the former section ; red clays predominate, the sandstones differ both in quantity and kind, sometimes containing layers crowded with A 'ummulites. And the thick masses of greenish olive or gray shale of the Kuldana section are not seen. The ground seems to he much slipped and faulted ; and down towards the bottom of the khud on the Mari side, this old road crosses several alterna tions of strong limestone and crushed red aud variegated clays or shales, difficult to identify, except in a general way, with those at the northern end of the Kuldana ridge. Contortion, slippage, and local development might, however, easily account for the differences between the

part 2.] Wynne: Geology of neighbourhood of Mari Hill Station, Punjab. 71

two sections. The bottom of the khud, and for several hundred feet above it on the Mari side, as well as the whole of the opposite side (except at Liran previously mentioned) is of nummulitic limestone and shale, and the general dip of the section like that at Kuldana is to the south-east.

Returning to Barean Gali, the nummulitic limestone of the spur from KhairaGali into B'ueSn Gali H'e ®eva Khud may be seen passing downwards for hun

dreds of feet with a steep dip to the northwards, which, changing to vertical, turns in the side of the Masote glen so as to dip at a high angle to the southwai'd. Far down in this glen the rocks contain nummulitic Poraminifera, but it is very probable that they are not all nummulitic, for southward of the continuation of the red zone cutting through this spur high up near KhairaGali, a band of hard sandstone was found, which may suggest that the limestones beneath it belong to some of the lower groups. One great inverted synclinal fold in the limestones far below this sandstone band is also visible in the side of this spur opposite to the steepest part of the ascending road from Deria Gali to Barean Gali.

From this latter place up to KhairaGali the road runs on the western side of the crest

of the ridge ; the same dark, compact and lumpy nummtt- KhairaGali. 7 , , , , . F J

litic limestones and shales being seen the whole way. The

beds are much contorted, but near the barracks dip generally south-westerly, and further on

close to the bazaar are inclined the opposite way at 60° to 70°. Just here another narrow

red band, consisting entirely of clay sloping entirely in the same direction, passes through the

bazaar and down into the khud to the westward ; its relations are, however, very obscure.

From Khaira Gali to Cliangli Gali there are two roads ; of these the main one ascends on

the west side of Chumbi Peak, and the other, or back road, KhairaGali to Chaugli Gali, . , . ,

generally in a dangerous state, only passable tor men, takes

the eastern side. A sketch section along part of it, with remarks thereon, will be found in

Dr. AYaagen's paper in Geological Survey Records, Yol. 5, p. 15. Following the main road

upwards rocks of different age from those previously mentioned will be found, though some

of the limestones are sufficiently like the nummulitic ones to escape anything but close

scrutiny, and sometimes even this leaves them doubtful. The observation has been made

that the nummulitic limestones may be detected by their bituminous smell ; this is frequently,

though not always, the case ; but a better test seems to occur in the lumpy character, seldom

long absent from the nummulitic beds.

These limestones and other rocks seen at intervals along the road have been referred from their frequently obscure fossils to the triassic and jurassic formations (see Dr. Waagen's paper just mentioned).

State of the roots.

Something of the confusion among the rocks here may be gathered from the observation that within the short distance of about two miles from KhairaGali to Changla Gali by the main road, the jurassic beds re-appear seven times, the triassic four times, and the nummulitic three times ; their places of contact being for the most part lines of fault or slip, of which fourteen or fifteen have been noted. The rocks are generally inclined at high angles from north-east and south west axial lines ; but even these are themselves inclined, and in places nearly vertical ; the positions of the beds affording no help towards restoring the original arrangement of the curves or the relations between the different groups.

For a short distance from KhairaGali nummulitic limestones and shales occur, their north-b3|,-westerly dip rising from about 35° to vertical, steady in the limestones, but crumpled, crushed, and contorted in the shales ; just beyond the vertical beds of limestone and separated from them by a slip

Jurassic,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Trias.

or fault are some black shales much overrun by debris. They are probably a portion of the Spiti shales (jurassic) coming through from the other side of the hill.

The road turns round a small shoulder of the hill here, and a few paces beyond are some shaly limestones with a five-feet band of shales, underlying about 150 feet, of hard dark-coloured ferruginous sandstones, shaly in their upper part. These dip at 70D north-west, and have been referred to the " Gieumal Sandstone," Upper J ura of Dr. Stoliczka, (see Memoirs, Geo logical Survey, Vol. 5, pt. 1).

The road turns sharply here to the right, entering an open khud, and the next rocks seen are black and gray, strongly and thinly-bedded, lime stones with some clay or rotten shale bands. The beds are steep, vertical, and bent over a nearly vertical axis. These limestones extend about 150 yards from the sharp turn mentioned, at which distance they have a strongly oolitic texture, overlying a thin-bedded zone. They contain a few fossils of triassic aspect. Although they appear to overlie the Gieumal sandstone and a few beds of the latter, with 5 feet of black shale both inclined towards the limestone, occur immediately beyond it, the junctions seem to be on lines of fracture and the limestone does not resemble the description of the cretaceous beds resting on the Gieumal sandstone series of Dr. Stoliczka.

Along with the small exposure of this sandstone and shale just mentioned are 100 feet or so of dark-coloured vertical limestone apparently belonging to the jurassic sandstone series, for a few beds of the latter, also vertical, are next seen, and a little further on, thinbedded, black and gray shaly limestones are also nearly vertical or dipping at a high angle, north-west, indicating an apparent alternation of limestones in the sandstone series.

Here another fault brings into the section contorted and vertical, dark gray and gray, thick and thinly-bedded limestones, seen for 250 yards. They are occasionally interstratified with shaly layers, and are at the further end of the exposure oolitic. In these beds traces of fossils are not numerous, but the rocks appear to be triassic.

Next seen is a mass of about 80 feet of vertical solid blue gray ferruginous sandstone calcareous in places and resembling that referred to the Gieumal series. It contains traces of fossils, which, however, could neither ho extracted nor made out, and it seems to be enclosed between two lines of fault.

Beyond this the road passes through vertical or highly inclined black and gray limestones, for 200 yards. They are partly thin-bedded alternating with shales, some are oolitic, and some largely composed of fragments of shells, among which are small oysters (one O. Haidingerii ?), easts of a large smooth Bivalve and of strongly ribbed shells, apparently Trigonice, also small Rfiynchonello! and some Gastropods. These are perhaps the most typical triassic rocks of the whole section.

Apparently brought into junction with these limestoues by a reverse slip or fault, is a small quantity of vertical Gieumal sandstone, with some layers of black shale.

Debris overshoots the hank for a short way, and at the 9th mile post, are gray sandy micaceous shales with limestone layers probably triassic, dipping to the eastwai'd at 155° and other angles.

A few paces onward the dip changes, coinciding with a break in the rocks, and thinbedded gray compact limestone which weather light yellow dip at 45° north by west for 100 yards. They contain beds full of small Oysters, and are believed to be triassic.

A very sharp turn in the road occurs here for another hundred yards, beyond which, gray, flaggy, and thin-bedded shales are seen, bent into bold curves, weathered of a light

Trias.

9th Mile.

part 2.] Wynne : Geology of neighbourhood of Mari TIitt Station, Punjab.

yellowish gray colour, and overlying some gray limestone occupying an arch in the beds. No fossils were found here, so that the position of the shales is doubtful. Debris then conceals the rock for a few paces, protruding from which are some black rusty and gray pisolitic shales.

Nummulitic.

Belemnites.

Just beyond the last named beds, nearly vertical nummulitio limestone and shales occur, the former having sometimes black filmy carbonaceous patches. These beds continue for 500 yards crossing the road with high northerly dips when not visibly curved. They contain pretty generally dis tributed — Sotalinai, little spines, small Nummulites, Corals, and Orb itoides ?

Near the upper end of this exposure of nummulitic limestone superficial debris occurs again, allowing, however, some thick, bedded oolitic limestone to appear, in contact with which some brownish gray shales highly inclined to the northward contain numbers of canaliculate slender Belemnites. From the arrangement of the rocks here, it is probable that the mass of nummulitic limestone is included between faults on each side. Close to this place, but further up the hill, are dark thin-bedded limestones succeeded by calcareous sandstone, over which is a thick mass of shales, in parts very black and concretionary, resembling the Spiti shale of Dr. Waagen's paper, except that no trace of fossils could be discovered in them. They are overlaid by a few feet of the dark rusty Gieumal sandstone, and are cut off by a fault from about 150 feet of blackish and gray flaggy impure limestone, with carbonaceous films and shaly layers, dipping to the west by north at 70°. These beds contain a group 10 to 12 feet thick, in which shale frag ments are closely compacted together. They are possibly of jurassic age. The upper portion of these limestones is very earthy and flaggy, and just at a spring beside the road, they are

separated by a band of very black sulphurous shale, from nummulitic limestones inclined as before at steep angles to the northward of west. At 9 feet upwards in these nummulitio beds another black shale band, about 3 feet 6 inches thick, occurs, but less pyriteous than the lower one which may

mark the base of the group. Between the spring mentioned (used as watering place for the Khairagali mules) and Changligali, the shales and limestones of the hill nummulitic group only are to be seen ; they present much contortion as usual, and contain in the way of fossils small HotalintB and little Corals of different kinds, as well as a large Gastropod in bad preservation.

Nummulitic.

Changligali.

From Changligali onwards by this road to Dungagali the nummulitic rocks predomi nate, but there are masses of unfossiliferous limestone believed to be triassic, and in two places nearer than Darwaza-kuss, the jurassic beds of sandstone, limestone, and " Spiti shale" are seen, the largest exposure of them being for several yards on each side of the 16th mile slab at a place called Kondragali .

Here the Spiti shales contain Ammonites and Inoceramus, Belemnites, Pectens, &c., and apparently uncanaliculate Belemnite casts with casts of Bivalves (perhaps Trigonice) occur in sandy beds nearer to a Mule dak chowki. Besides these there are distributed through the rocks hereabout obscure shells, bands of corals and beds largely made up of shell fragments in the limestones.

Nummulitic rocks recur in force for a mile south of Dungagali, again on top of Murchpuri Dungagali mountain, and all along the road from Dungagali to Kalabag,

about half a mile beyond which place, these rocks are seen almost in junction with the Attock slates, stretching from Mianjani mountain, (the highest in this country, attaining nearly 10,000 feet) away towards the south-west.

Down in the bottom of the khud between Dungagali and Kalabag, and also isolated at a much higher level under the last named post, there are some peculiar red beds the relations

Records of the Geological Survey of India,

of which have not as yet been worked out. They consist of bright red and purple clays, harder red earthy beds, hard blue and red-striped sandstones, variegated greenish and blackish purple earthy beds, and a mass of liver-colored and greenish clay or shale alternating with bands of white and gray finely crystalline gypsum and limestone. They extend for more than a mile down the valley of the Haro river, and at first sight seem allied to the gypseous rocks of the Subathu gi'oup, but it is difficult to understand how these could have come into such a position except by enormous faulting. It is perhaps possible that these rocks may belong to some of those " below the Trias " of Sir Ban mountain near Abbottabad (see Memoirs of Geological Survey, Vol. IX, p. 335), but until a closer acquaintance with the structure of the ground has been obtained, it is hardly safe to assign them to any particular stage. Their beds exhibit at least one anticlinal curve, and if normally placed, considering the undulating character of the rocks along the Abbottabad road high above, they ought to occupy a position very far down in the series. They are evidently the rocks referred to in Dr. Verchere's paper to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XXXV, as " Geyserian." Prom the foregoing descriptions and Dr. Waagen's paper, it will be seen that the Chumbi peak over Khairagali and the Abbottabad road, expose beside the nummnlitic rocks two of the secondary formations. Secondary rocks are also known to occur among the long spurs or ridges from this higher region, passing northwards of Rawul Pindi ; hence the conclusion may bo arrived at that a central mass of these rocks exists within the Murchpuri mountains. In none of the situations mentioned however are their exposures sufficiently simple to admit of strong assertions regarding their conformity or otherwise, but it is very probable from observations made in Hazara (Memoir's, Geological Survey, Vol. IX, art. 3) that the jurassic beds discordantly overlie the triassic series, while both of these and the nunrmulitic beds also are most likely quite unconformable to the Attock slates.

The chief interest connected with the rocks of the whole district is the identity of some of them and their fossils with the central Himalayan series examined by Dr. Stoliczka in Spiti, &c. ; also the resemblance between certain of the limestones and those of the Krol group pointed out by Mr. Medlicott, (Memoirs, Geological Survey, India, Vol. V, part 1, and Vol. Ill, part 2) as well as the connexion between the outer tertiary rocks hero and the Sub-Himalayan series of the latter author.

Mubeee, 1 A. B. WYNNE.

October 1873. j

Donations To Museum,

Six slabs of flexible sandstone. — Col. McMahon.

From the Portugese Commission at the Vienna Exhibition.

Galena ... ...

Argentiferous galena

Antimony

Tinstone

Tin from ditto

Massive iron pyrites

Natural asphalt in clay

Lava

From one of the Colonial possessions

CsS;'0VU-

alo i

ipri1

mm§m„

Syjj '

Tfaiut/

V Mua*rij

v

Wynne OrouaJ

Geolo Ojcal Survey Of

Reo 1'i'ds 187 4.

. Section , &houiglcujeKlj, OE O U U OI CA L, SURVEY' OF INDIA BacopAs 18 1

dotted, liJt es tfVvou- J'cc WbeJ" 1 *r cuxA spiers Thehne of section, ur not strceujht but, folio tvs thehiejW- jrourui -HiC, Abh o tixxb <xA TtooucX shown by' cc hcw'cL luxeibrohcrc, where, the, roaxL jjctsses behind, hills

Accessions to Library .

From the Australian Commission at the Vienna Exhibition.

Coal

Coke

Chromic iron Manganese and iron-ore Carbonate of copper, (malachite) Antimony, (grey sulphuret)

Barnett river, Queensland, Darling Downs, „ Victoria.

if

Brisbane.

Gladstone, Queensland.

Cloncurry.

loc,

loc?

Purchased.

Malachite ... ... Russia.

Accessions To Library.

Feom 1st January to 31st Maech 1874.

Titles of Books. ' Donors.

Catalogue of the Industrial and Technological Museum, 1873, (1873), 4to., Melbourne.

G. Elliott, Esq.

Clarke, Rev. W. B. — Address delivered to the Royal Society of New South Wales at the anniversary meeting held on the 22nd May 1872, (1873), 8vo., Sydney.

Clarke, Rev. W. B. — On the progress of gold discovery in Australasia from 1860 to 1871, (1871), 8vo., Sydney.

Collins, J. H. — A first book of Mineralogy, (1873), 8vo., London.

Ellis, Robeet. — On numerals as signs of primeval unity among mankind, (1873), 8vo., London.

Foster, J. W. — Pre-historic races of the United States of America, (1873), 8vo., Chicago.

Guyot, Arnold. — Physical Geography, (1873), 4to., London.

Haughton, Rev. S.— Principles of Animal Mechanics, (1873), 8vo., London.

Kinahan, G. H. — A hand book of rock-names, with brief descriptions of the rocks, (1873), 8vo., London.

Kinahan, G. H. — The water basin of Lough Derg, Ireland, (1873), 8vo., London.

The Author.

Kingsley, Charles. — Town Geology, (1872), 8vo., London.

Koninck, L. L. de. — A practical Manual of Chemical Analysis and Assaying, (1872), 8vo., London.

Krefft, G. — Australian Vertebrata, Fossil and Recent, (1871), 8vo., Sydney.

Latham, Baldwin. — Sanitary Engineering, Sewerage, (1873), 8vo., London.

Luynes, le Duo db. — Voyage d' exploration a la mer morte, a Petra, et Sur la Rive Gauche du Jourdain, Livr 9 — 11, 4to., Paris.

Pike, Nicholas. — Sub-tropical rambles in the land of the Aphanapteryx, (1873), 8vo., London.

Queensland, Australia. — Its territory, climate, and products, &c., 8vo., London.

V. Ball, Esq.

Raymond, R. W. — Mines, Mills, and Furnaces of the Pacific States and Territories, (1871), 8vo., New York.

Salter, J. W. — A catalogue of the collection of Cambrian and Silurian Fossils, (1873), 8vo., Cambridge.

Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vil.

Schomburgh, R.— Papers read before the Philosophical Society and the Chamber of Manu factures, (1873), 8vo., Adelaide.

Titles of Boohs.

V. Ball, Esq.

Donors.

Skertchly, S. B. J. — Physical Geography, (1873), 8vo., London.

The British Section at the Vienna Universal Exhibition, 1873 : Official Catalogue, with plans and illustrations, (1873), 8vo., London. V. Ball, Esq.

Thomson, C. W. — The depths of the Sea, (1873), 8vo., London.

Periodicals.

American Journal of Science and Arts, 3rd Series, Vol. VI, Nos. 35 — 37, (1873-74), 8vo., New Haven.

Annales des Mines, 7th Series, Vol. IV, livr. 4—5, (1873), 8vo., Paris.

L'Adminstb. des Mines.

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Series, Vol. XII, Nos. 72 — 74, (1873-74), 8vo., London.

Archiv fur Naturgeschichte. Jahg. XXXVII, heft 5, (1871), 8vo., Berlin.

Cosmos, Nos. 5 — 6, (1874), 8vo., Torino. Grino Cora, Esq.

Geographische Mittheilungen, Bd. XIX, Nos. 11—12, and XX, 1 — 2, (1873-74), 4to., Gotha.

Geological Magazine, Vol. X, No. 12, Now Series, Decade II, Vol. I, Nos. 1 — 2, (1873-74), 8vo., London.

Indian Economist, with Agricultural Gazette and Statistical Reporter, Vol. V, Nos. 3 & 5 — 7, (1873-74), 4to., Calcutta. Government of India.

Lehrbuch der Geologie und Petrefactenkunde, Band II, lief 4, (1873), 8vo., Braunschweig.

London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 4th Series, Vol. XLVI, Nos. 308 — 310, (1873-74), 8vo., London.

Nature, Vol. IX, Nos. 215—227, (1873-74), 4to., London.

Neues Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie, Geologic, und Pakeontologie, Jahg., 1873, heft 8 — 9, (1S73), 8vo., Stuttgart.

Ocean Highways, Vol. II, Nos. 8, 11 & 12, New Series, Vol. I, Nos. 1 — 11, (1872-74), 8vo., London.

Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, 2nd Series, Vol. Ill, No. 11, (1874), 8vo., Roorkee. Thomason College of Civil Engineering.

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, New Series, Vol. XIV, No. 53, (1874), 8vo., London.

Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars for the quarter ending 30th September 1873, (1873), Use., Melbourne.

Mining Dept., Victoria.

GOVERNMENT SELECTIONS, &c.

Bengal. — Report on the Administration of Bengal, Calcutta.

Bombay. — Selections from the Records of the Government of Bombay, No. 135, New Series. Correspondence regarding city surveys in Gujarat, (1873), 8vo., Bombay.

Government of Bombay.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Books. Donors.

British Burma. — Annual Report on the Civil Dispensaries in British Burma for 1872, (1874), 8vo., Rangoon.

Chief Commissioner, British Burma.

„ Report on the Excise Department in British Burma for 1872-73, (1874),

8vo., Rangoon.

Ditto.

„ Report on the Prison Administration of British Burma for 1872, (1874),

8vo., Rangoon.

Ditto.

„ Report on the Revenue Administration of British Burma for 1872-73,

Ditto.

Central Provinces. — Central Provinces Census, 1872 (1873), 4to., Nagpur.

Chief Commissioner., Central Provinces.

India. — Extracts from the Reports of the Trigonometrical, Topographical, and Revenue Surveys of India for 1871-72 (1873), 8vo., Calcutta.

Dept. Rev., Agric. and Commerce.

„ General Report of the Revenue Survey operations of the Upper and Lower Circles for season 1872-73 (1874), fisc., Calcutta.

The Survey.

„ List of Civil Officers holding gazetted appointments under the Government of India in the Home, Legislative, and Foreign Departments as it stood on 1st January 1874, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Government of India.

List of Officers in the Survey and Forest Departments on the 1st October 1873, (1874), fisc., Calcutta.

Dept. Rev., Agric. and Commerce.

Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 107. Report on the Political Administration of the Rajputana States, 1872-73, (1873), 8vo., Calcutta.

Government of India.

Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 109. Annual Administration Report of the Munnipoor Agency for the year ending 30th June 1873, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Ditto.

Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 110. Report on the Political Administration of the Territories comprised within the Central India Agency for 1872-73, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Ditto.

„ Walker, Col. J. T. — General Report on the operations 7 of the (Great Trigo nometrical Survey of India during 1872-73, (1873), .fisc., Dehra Doon.

The Survey.

Records of the Geological Surrey of India,

Titles of Boohs. Donors,

N. W. Pbovinces. — Census of the North-Western Provinces, 1872, Yol. I, General Beport, Vol. Ill, Sex Statistics, (1873), ., Allahabad.

Govt, of N. W. Pbovinces. „ Beport on the Administration of the North-Western Provinces for

Ditto.

Punjab. — Beport on the Administration of the Punjab and its Dependencies for 1872-73 (1873), 8vo., Lahore.

Punjab Goveenment.

TBAN SACTION S OF SOCIETIES, &c.

Amsteedam. — Jaarboek van het Mijnwezen in Nederlandsch Oost — Indie, Jahrg. II, Deel I (1873), 8vo., Amsterdam. Royal Society of Batavia.

Batavia. — Notulen van de alg. Best-Verg. van het Bataviaasch Genootsckap., Vol. X Nos. 1 — 3, (1872), 8vo., Batavia. Ditto.

„ Tijdschrift voor indische Taal-Land-cn Yolkenkunde, Ser. 6, Vol. I, all. 5 — 6, (1868-72), 8vo, Batavia. Ditto.

„ Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, Deel XXXVI, (1872), 8vo., Batavia. Ditto.

Beelin. — Monatsbericht der kiinig. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Sep tember to December, (1873), 8vo., Berlin.

Boyal Acad, of Beelin.

Beelin. — Teitschrift der Deutschen Geologiscken Gesellschaft, Band XIV, heft 4, and Band XV, heft 1—2, (1872-73), 8vo., Berlin.

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The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. X, December 1873. and No. 1, January 1874, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Ditto.

„ Becords of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. VII, pt. I, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

The Suevey.

Copenhagen.— Memoiros de l'Academie Boyale de Copenhagen, 5th Series, Vol. IX, Nos. 8—9, X, Nos. 1—2, (1872-73), 4to., Copenhagen.

The Academy.

„ Oversigt over det K. d. videnskabernes Selskabs, No. 2, (1872), 8vo.,

Copenhagen.

Ditto.

Dijon. — Memoires de l'Academio Imperiale de Dijon, 2nd Series, Vol. XIV— XVI, (1866-70), 8vo., Dijon.

The Academy.

Deesden. — Sitzungsbericlite der Naturwissensckaftlickcn Gesellschaft Isis in Dresden, Jahg. 1872, Nos. 10—12, and 1873, Nos. 1—3, (1873), 8vo., Dresden.

The Isis Society.

Accessions io Library,

n

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Edinburgh. — Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, Vol. VIII, pts. 3 — (1871-73), 8vo., Edinburgh.

The Society.

Florence. — Bollettino R. Comitato Geologico d'ltalia, Nos. 11 — 12, (1873), Svo., Florence.

Geological Commission oe Italy.

Glasgow. — Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, Vol. IV, pt. 2, (1873), 8vo., Glasgow.

The Society.

„ Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, Pal. Series, pt. 1, 4to., Glasgow.

Ditto.

Lausanne.— Bulletin de la Societe Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 2nd Series, Vol. XII, No. 69, (1873), 8vo., Lausanne.

The Society.

London. — British Museum— Catalogue of the specimens of the Hemiptera, Heteroptera, in the collection of the British Museum. Part VII, (1873), 8vo., London.

British Museum.

„ Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XLII, (1872), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XVII, Nos. 2—5, (1S73), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 162, pt. 2, with List of Fellows for 1872, (1872), 4to., London.

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. XXI, Nos. 144 — 147, (1873); 8vo., London,

Royal Society.

Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. XXIX, pts. 3 — 4, Nos. 115—116, with List of Fellows for 1873, (1873), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Ray Society — Lubbock, Sir John. — Monograph of the Collembola and Thysanura, (1873), 8vo., London.

Ray Society.

Report of the British Association for the advancement of Science held at Edin burgh and Dublin, 1871 and 1872, (1872-73), 8vo., London.

Moscow.— Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalists de Moscow, Annee, 1872, No. 4, and 1873, No. 1, (1873), 8vo., Moscow.

The Society.

Neuchatel. — Eulletin de la Societo des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel, Tome IX, pt. 2, (1873), 8vo., Neuchatel.

The Society.

New Zealand. — Catalogue of the Land Mollusca of New Zealand, (1873), 8vo., New Zealand.

Geological Survey of New Zealand.

„ Martens E. von.— Critical List of the Mollusca of New Zealand, (1873),

8vo., New Zealand.

Ditto.

so

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Pest. — A Magyar Kiralyi Foldtaniintezet Evkonyve, Yols. I — II, pts. 1 — 2, (1871-72), 8vo., Pest.

Royal Geological Institute, Hungary.

Mittheilungen aus dem Jahrbuche del' kon ungar Geologischen Anstalt, Band I, heft 1 — 2, Band II, heft 1, (1872), 8vo., Pest.

Ditto.

Philadelphia. — Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3rd Series, Vol. LXV, Nos. 5 — 6, and LXYI, Nos. 1—4, (1873), 8vo., Philadelphia.

The Institute.

„ Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Parts

The Academy.

Pokt-of-Spain. — Proceedings of the Scientific Association of Trinidad, Vol. II, No. 1, (1872), 8vo., Port-of-Spain.

St. Petersburg. — Bulletin de l'Acad. Imp. des Sciences de St. Petersburg, Vol. XVII, Nos. 4—5, and Vol. XVIII, Nos. 1—2, (1872), 4to., St. Petersburg.

The Academy.

Memoires de l'Acad. Imp. des Sciences de St. Petersburg, Series 7th„ Vol. XVIII, Nos. 8-10 and Vol. XIX, Nos. 1—7, (1872-73), 4to., St. Petersburg.

Ditto.

Turin. — Atti della K. Academia delle Scienze di Torino, 8vo., Torinso.

Vienna. — Abhandlungen der kais. konig. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Band IV and V, Nos. 4 — 5, (1870-73), 8vo., Vienna.

The Institute.

Jahrbuch der kais. konig. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Band XVII, No. 4, XVIII, Nos. 1 — 2, and XXIII, Nos. 1 — 2, (1867-73), 8vo., Vienna.

Ditto.

ft

Verhandlungen der kais. konig. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, 1867, Nos. 1—10, (1867-73), 8vo., Vienna.

1868, and 1873, Ditto.

Wellington.— Hutton, F. W., Catalogue of the Tertiary Mollusca, and Echinodermata of New Zealand, (1873), 8vo., Wellington.

Geological Suevey of New Zealand.

Yokohama. — Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Natiir und Yolkerkunde Ostasien, heft 3, September, (1873), fisc., Yokohama.

The Society.

April 9th, 1874.

Records

Of The

Geological Survey Oe India.

Geological observations made on a visit to the Chadekkul, Thian Shan range, by Dr. F. Stoliczka, Naturalist attached to the Ya/rTcand Embassy.

After a stay of nearly a month in our embassy quarters at Yangishar, near Kashgar, the diplomacy of our envoy secured us the Amir's permission for a trip to the Chaderkul, a lake situated close on the Russian frontier, about 112 miles north by west of Kashgar, among the southern branches of the Thian Shan range. Under the leadership of Colonel Gordon, we — Captain Trotter and myself — left Yangishar about noon on the last day of 1873, receiving the greeting of the new year in one of the villages of the Artush valley, some 25 miles north-west from our last quarters. On the 1st of January 1874 we marched up the Toyan river for about 20 miles to a small encampment of the Kirghiz, called Chungterek ; and following the Toyan, and passing the forts Murza-terek and Chakmak, we camped on the fifth day at Turug-at-bela, about 11 miles south of the Turug pass, beyond which, five miles further on, lies the Chaderkul. On the sixth we visited the lake, and on the day following retraced our steps, by the same route we came, towards Kashgar, which we reached on the 11th January.

Having had a shooting day at Turug-at-bela, and one day's halt with the King's ob living officers at the Chakmak fort, we were actually only nine days on the march, during which we accomplished a distance of about 224 miles. It will be readily understood, that while thus marching, there was not much time to search for favorable sections in out-of-the way places ; but merely to note what was at hand on the road. I can, therefore, only intro duce my geological observations as passing remarks.

Leaving the extensive loss-deposits of the valley of the Kashgar Daria, the plain rises very gradually towards a low ridge, of which I shall speak as the Artush range. It is remarka bly uniform in its elevation, averaging about 400 feet, somewhat increasing in height towards the west and diminishing towards the east, which direction is its general strike. This range separates the Kashgar plain from the valley of the Artush river, which cuts through the ridge about eight miles nearly due north of the city. Viewed from this, the entire ridge appears very regularly furrowed and weather-wom on its slope, indicating the softness oE the material of which it is composed. One would have, however, hardly fancied, that it merely consists of bedded clay and sand, mostly yellowish white, occasionally reddish, and some times with interstratified layers of greater consistency, hardened by a calcareous or silicious cement. On the left bank, in the passage of the river through the ridge, the beds appear in dome-shape, gently dipping towards the Kashgar plain on one side, and with a considerably higher angle into the Artush valley on the other. On the right bank at the gap all the

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

exposed beds dip southward, those on the reverse of the anticlinal having been washed away by the Artush river up to the longitudinal axis, and thus exposing almost vertical faces. These remarkably homogeneous, clayey and sandy beds may appropriately be called Artush beds, and although I could nowhere find a trace of a fossil in them, it seems to me very probablo that they are of marine origin and of neogcue age.

The southern slopes of the ridge are on their basal half entirely covered with gravel, which in places even extends to the top, assuming here a thickness of from 10 to 15 feet. Locally the gravel beds are sepewated from the main range by a shallow dopi'ession, forming a low ridge which runs along the base of the higher one, and from which it is, even in the distance, clearly discernible by its dark tint. The pebbles in the gravel are mostly of small size and well river-worn ; they are derived to a very large extent from grey or greenish sandstones and shales, black or white limestone, more rarely of trap, basalt, and of gneiss. With the exception of the last-named rock, all the others had been met with in situ in the upper Toyan valley. The pieces of gneiss belong to a group of metamorpbic rock which is usually called Protogine. It is mainly composed of quartz and white or reddish orthoclase, with a comparatively small proportion of a green chloritic substance. The white felspar variety generally contains as an accessory mineral schorl, in short, rather thick, crystals. I shall subsequently allude to the probable source from which the protogine pebbles might have been derived.

From Artush wo marched, as already stated, northwards, up the Toyan river, and for the next 22 miles one was surprised to find nothing but the same Artush — and gravel — deposits, the former constantly dipping at a high angle to north by west, and the latter rest ing on them in slightly inclined or horizontal strata; while among the recent river deposits in the bed of the valley itself the order of things appeared reversed. The gravels, having first yielded to denudation, were hero underlying the clays derived from the Artush beds, thus preparing an arable ground for the agriculturist, whenever a favorable opportunity offered itself. A few miles south of Clningterok the laminated Artush beds entirely dis appeared under the gravel, which from its greater consistency assumed here the form of a rather tough, coarse conglomerate. In the bend of the river the latter have a thickness of fully 200 feet, and are eroded by lateral rivulets into remarkably regular Gothic pillars and turrets. It is rare to meet with a more perfect imitation of nature by human art. The general surface of the gi'avel deposits is comparatively low, from 400 to 500 feet above tho level of the river, and much denuded and intersected by minor streams and old water courses.

At a couple of miles north of Chungtcrek the Koktan range begins with rather abrupt limestone cliffs, rising to about 3,000 feet above the level of the Toyan. Nearly in the mid dle of it are situated tho forts Murzaterek and Chakmdk, some ten miles distant from each other. Tho southern portion of this range consists at its base of undulating layers of greenish or purplish shales, overlain by dark coloured, mostly black, limestone in thick and thin strata, the latter bemg generally earthy. Tho limestone occupies all tho higher elevations, and, as is generally the case, greatly adds to tho ruggedness of tho mountains. About five miles north of Chungtcrek, I found in a thick bod of limestone an abundance of Megalodus triqueter, a large Pinna, a Spiriferina of the typo of S. Stracheyi, blocks full of Lithodendron corals, and numerous sections of various small Gastropods. Thinner layers of the same limestone were full of fragments of crinoid stems, and of a branching Ccriopora, the rock itself bearing a strong resemblance to the typical St. Cassian beds. In this place the shales, underlying the limestone, were partly interstratified with it, in layers of from 5 to 10 feet; and from this fact it seems to me probable that they also arc of triassic age, re presenting a lower series of the same formation.

Sloliczka : Visit to ilie CJiaclerhul.

Proceeding in a north-westerly direction, the A/eyM,s-limestones are last seen near Murzaterek. From this place the greenish shales continue for a few miles further on, much disturbed and contorted ; and at last disappear under a variety of dark coloured shales, slates, and sandstones, with occasional interstratified layers of black, earthy limestone. The strike of the beds is from cast by north to west by south, and the dip either very high to north or vertical. At Chakmak the river has cut a very narrow passage through these almost vertical strata, which rise precipitously to about 3,000 foot, and to the south of the fort appear to he overlain by a lighter coloured rock. It is very difficult to say what the age of these slaty beds may he, as they seem entirely unfossiliferous, and wo can at pre sent only regard them as representing, in all probability, one of the palaeozoic formations.

About five miles north-west of Chalcmak a sensible decrease in the height of the range takes place, and with it a change in the geological formation. The palaeozoic hods, although still crossing the valley in almost vortical strata, become very much contorted ; while, uncoir formably on them, r'ost reddish and white sandstones and conglomerates, regularly bedded, and dipping to north-west with a steady slope of about 40 degrees. The rocks, though evidently belonging to a comparatively recent (kaiuozoie) epoch, appear to be much altered by heat, some layers having been changed into a coarse grit, in which the cement has almost entirely disappeared. I have not, however, observed any kind of organic remains in thorn. A little distance further on they several times alternate with successive, conformably bedded, doleritic trap. The rock is either hard and compact, being an intimate, rather lino grained mixture of felspar and augite in small thin crystals, or it decomposes into masses of various greenish and purplish hues, like some of the basic greenstones.

. After leaving the junction of the Suyok and Toyan (or Chakmak) rivers, and turn ing northwards into the valley of the latter, the panorama is really magnificent. Shades of white, red, purple arrd black compete with each other iu distinctness aud brilliancy, until the whole series of formations appears in the distance capped by a dark bedded rock.

Although, judging from the greater frequency of basaltic boulders, we already knew that this rock must be found further north, we hardly realised the pleasant sight which awaited us on the march of the 4th January, after having left our camp at Kulja, or Bokum-bashi. The doleritic hods increased step by step in thickness, and after a few miles we passed through what appears to be the centre of an extensive volcanic eruption. Along the banks of the river columnar and massive basalt was noticed several times, with occasional small heaps of slags and scoriae, among a few outcrops of very much altered and disturbed strata of red or white sandstone, thus adding to the remarkable contrast of the scene. Iu front of us, and to the right, stretehed in a semicircle a regular old Somma ; the almost perpendicular walls rising to about 1,500 feet above the river, and clearly exposing the stratification of the basaltic flows, which were successively dipping to north-east, east, aud south-east. On our left, as well as in an almost due western direction, portions of a similar Somma were visible above the sedimentary rocks, all dipping in the opposite way from those ahead of us. The cone itself has in reality entirely disappeared by subsidence, aud the cavity was filled with the rub bish of the neighbouring rocks.

Passing further north we crossed a comparatively low country, studded with small rounded hills and intercepted by short ridges with easy slopes ; the average height was between 12,000 and 13,000 feet. This undulating high plateau proved to bo one of the head-quarters of the Kulja ( Ovls Polii), chiefly on account of the very rich grass vegetation which exists here. For this the character of the soil fully accounts. The entire ground was shown to consist of limestone gravel and pebbles of rather easily decomposing rocks, mixed with the ashes and detritus, evidently derived from the proximity of the volcanic eruption. Only rarely

84 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vii.

was an isolated basaltic dyke seen, or tlie tertiary sandstone cropping out from under the more recent deposits.

Viewing the country from an elevated position near our camp at Turug-at-bela, the conglomerate and gravel beds, well clad with grass vegetation, were seen to stretch far away eastwards, and in a north-easterly direction across the Turug pass ; while on the south they were bounded by a continuation of the somewhat higher basaltic hills. Towards the west I traced thorn for about seven miles, across a low pass at which a tributary of the Toyan rises in two branches ; while on the other side two similar streams flow west by south to join the Suyok river. To the north the proximity of a rather precipitously rising range shut the rest of the world out of view. For this ridge the name Terek-tagh of Humboldt's map may be retained ; its average height ranges between about 16,000 and 17,000 feet. In its western extension it runs almost due east-west, composed at base of a tough limestone conglomerate of younger tertiary origin, followed by white dolomitic limestone, and then by a succession of slaty and dark limestone rocks, the former occasionally showing distinct signs of metamorphism, and changing into schist. All the beds are nearly vertical or very highly inclined, dipping to north by west, the older apparently resting on the younger ones. North of Turug-at-bela the range makes a sudden bend in an almost northerly direction, and continues to the Chaderkul, where it forms the southern boundary of the lake-plateau. By this time the white dolomitic, and afterwards the slaty beds, had entirely disappeared, and with them the height has also diminished. A comparatively low and narrow branch of the range which we visited consists here entirely of dark limestone, which in single frag ments is not distinguishable from the Trias limestone of the Koktan mountains, but here it does not contain any fossils. The ridge itself, after a short stretch in a north-eastby-north direction, gradually disappears under the much younger conglomeratic beds.

Across tho Chaderkul plain the true Thian Shan range was visible, a regular forest of peaks seemingly of moderate and tolerably uniform elevation. The rocks all exhibited dark tints, but most of them, as well as the hills to the west of the Chaderkul, near the sources of the Arpa, were clad in snow. The lake itself was frozen, and the surrounding plain covered with a white sheet of saline efflorescence.

Brief sketch of tlie geological history of the hill ranges traversed. — In order that the preceding remarks may be more easily understood, I add a few words regarding the changes which appear to have taken place at tho close of tho kainozoic epoch within the southern offshoots of the Thian Shan which we visited.

Short as our sojourn in the mountains was, it proved to be very interesting and equally instructive. Humboldt's account of the volcanicity of the Thian Shan, chiefly taken from Chinese sources, receives great support ; but we must not speculate further beyond confiding in the expectation that both meso-and kaino-zoic rocks will be found amply represented in it.

As far as our present researches in the physical aspect of the country extend, we may speak of three geologically different ranges : the Terek range, which is the northernmost, the Koktan in the middle, followed by tho Artush range, below which begins the Kashgar plain. All throe decrease in the same order in their absolute height, the last very much more so than tho middle one. The first consists of old sedimentary rocks, the second of similar rocks in its southern parts, while younger tertiary and basaltic rocks occupy the northern portions, tho third is entirely composed of young tertiary deposits. The general direction of all the ranges is from west to east, or nearly so ; this direction evidently dating from the time when the whole of the Thian Shan chain was elevated. The undulating high plateau between the Terek and the Koktan is, near Turug-at-bela, about eight miles wide, the

Stoliczka : Visit to the Chaderkul.

distance between the two ranges diminishing westward, while in the opposite direction it must soon more than double. J udging from the arrangement of the pebbles, which, as already noticed, are half derived from limestone, the direction of the old drainage must have been from west to east, and must have formed the headwaters of the Aksai liver, which on the maps is recorded as rising a short distance east of the Chaderkul. Similarly, the gravel valley between the Koktan and Artush ranges indicates a west to east drainage, and its width appears to have approximately averaged 20 miles. About three miles north of Chungterek a secondary old valley exists, also extending from west to east, and is diametrically cut across by the Toyan river. In this valley, which was formerly tributary to the one lying more southward, the gravel beds accumulated to a thickness of fully 100 feet. As the Artush range did not offer a sufficiently high barrier, masses of the gravel passed locally over it or through its gaps into the Kashgar plain, which itself at that time formed a third large broad valley.

Thus, at the close of the voleayic eruptions in the hills north of Chakmak, we find three river systems all flowing eastward, and made more or less independent of each other by mountain ranges, about which it would, however, not be fair to theorize (in the present state of our knowledge) on the causes of their assumed relative position. It must have been at that time that the pebbles of protogine were brought down from some portion of the hills lying to the west ; and it would be interesting to ascertain whether or not this rock is any where in that direction to be met with in situ. When the turbulent times of Vulcan's reign became exhausted and tranquillity was restored, the whole country south of the axis of the Thian Shan must have greatly subsided, and the wider the valleys have been, the more effectively was the extent of subsidence felt. To support this idea by an observation, I may notice that north of Chungterek, at the base of the Koktan range, the Artush beds have entirely disappeared in the depth, and the gravel beds overlaying them dip partially under the Trias limestone, a state of things which cannot be explained by denudation, but only by subsidence and consequent overturning of the older beds above the younger ones. A similar state of things is to be observed on the Terek range, where the young tertiary limestone conglomerate is in some places of contact overlain by the much older dolomite. Now, if the broad valley of the Kashgar plain sank first, and gradually lowest, as it in all probability did, we find a more ready explanation of the large quantities of loose gravel pouring into it and accumulating at the base of the Artush range.

The sinking in of the volcanic centre north-west of Chakmak first appears to have drained off the former head of the Aksai river, making it the head of the Toyan instead; and to the north of the Terek ridge it was most probably the cause of the origin of tho Chaderkul. The subsidence of the country followed in the south, making it possible for the united Suyok and Toyan rivers to force their passage right across the Koktan range, strengthen the Artush river, cut with facility through the Artush range, and join the Kashgardaria. While thus indicating the course of the comparatively recent geological history of the ground, it must be, however, kept in mind, that this change in the system of drainage had no essential effect upon the direction of the hill ranges. This, dating from much older times, was mainly an east-westerly one, following the strike of the rocks which compose the whole mountain system.

Kashgar,

Records of ilie Geological Survey of India.

Note. — Since the foregoing paper was in typo, the calamitous nows of Dr. Stoliczka's death has been received. This opportunity is therefore taken of publishing a few last geological notes communicated in a private letter. The following is from a letter dated Kila Panj, Wakhan, 14th April 1874: —

" We crossed from Yangihissar to Sirikul in ten days ; and after two days' halt at that place, crossed Pamir Khurd in twelve days. The last few marches on this side were about the worst we had. The road is very bad, and the daily snow-storms so heavy, that on one day we were not able to make more than five miles. Wakhan itself is a miserably poor country ; and it is a question whether we shall be able to get enough supplies to take us back, if wo do not get something sent up from Fyzabad. Our ponies will require at least twelve days to recover from the fatigue they had on the little Pamir. Whether by that time the road by Pamir Kalau will bo open is very questionable.

"I ought to tell you something of the geology, but it is in very few words. There are no younger rocks the whole way than trias limestone. The Pamir Khurd proper is all gneiss and metamorphic schist. Do not imagine that the ' roof of the world ' is an elevated plain ; nay, it is a mere valley, well supplied with gneiss and boortsee, and from two to three miles in width. Prom the hills to the south, glaciers come down almost into the valley ; while the hills on both sides were deeply clad in snow ; so much so, that for several miles not even a few square feet of bare rock was visible. If wo go back by the Pamir, I shall try to make a halt of two days before reaching Sirikul, and examine the triassic limestone. Tho old slates give no hope of yielding any trilobites." — Editok.

On the foemeb extension of Geactees within the Kangra Distkict, by W. Theohaed, Geological Survey of India.

Tho subject of the former extension of glaciers along tho southern slopes of the Himalayan chain to far greater distances than they now

Preliminary remarks. , , . , , , , r

reach to, might at first seem of necessity to involve, tor the due treatment of so comprehensive a question, the examination of a far wider area than 1 am about to review in my present remarks, and this to a certain extent is true, for the phenomena in question undoubtedly form but a portion of a very grand and widely spread display of glacial conditions extended over an area which, from the insufficiency of our data, it were at present premature even to endeavour in tho most general way to indicate by limits; nevertheless, as it is hardly possible for tho more enduring results of long continued glacial conditions to bo better studied or moro characteristicly displayed than in the Kangra district, and as tho subject, moreover, is one which has been rather neglected by previous writers, I conceive that a few remarks thereon, oven confining myself to the limited area indicated, will not be altogether without interest and value as a basis whence future obser vations may bo extended both in an eastern and western direction.

Moraines, the most striking no less than tho most enduring of the products of glaciation, form so conspicuous a feature of the surface of so largo a portion of tho Kangra district, that the attention of the least observant traveller is rivetted by them, and I had hardly set foot in tho district before I was questioned as to the origin of those trains of loose stones so common near the hills, and whose general aspect was so different from the ordinary accu mulations of debris usually swept down by streams in such situations, and the magnitude of so many of the boulders in question rendering it obviously difficult to refer their transport to the agency of hill streams and suggesting rather the intervention of some mysterious or cataclysmal debacle.

Theobald : Ancient Glaciers of the Kang r a District.

Mr. H. B. Medlioott, in his paper on Himalayan Geology dated January 1864 in Medlicott in Memoirs, Geological "Vol. Ill of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Survey' peg13 155, was the first to draw attention to the presence of

'erratic' blocks along the "base of the Dhaoladhar" and to record their occurrence in this region " at so inconsiderable an elevation ns 3,000 feet," but no attempt is made to define the precise limits within which these erratics occur, or to map their course. In fixing their lowest limit too at 3,000 feet, Mr. Medlicott has somewhat erred on what may be termed the safo side, since the fort of Kangra, which is the midst of them, is no more than 2,419 feet above the sea, while 2,000 feet may in round numbers he taken as the mean elevation of the isother mal line, coincident with the limits of the terminal moraines. The statement, too, that erratics first appear on the " east about Haurbagh" is likely to convoy an erroneous impression as I shall hereafter show, since though undoubtedly there is a very sudden development, as it were, of these ' erratics' from Haurbagh westwards, yet their absence eastwards from this point, is due to denudational causes, and not to a sudden or local development of glacial phenomena continued along the flanks of the Dhaoladhar range, west from Haurbagh merely', but of this more in the sequel.

Dr. Verchbre, in his account of the Geology of Kashmir, tho Western Himalaya, and Afghan Mountains, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1867, Vol. XXXVI, Part II, page 113, describes erratic blocks north of the Salt Range, in Latitude 33°hT. and refers them to the agency of floating-ice ; but there does not seem anything in his des cription incompatible with the idea of these blocks being the disintegrated remnants of old

Dr. Verchdrc.

Notice of erratics and floating-ice.

moraines, rather than due to the transporting powers of floating-ice ; and it is, I think, rather more probable than otherwise, that they will prove to be strictly connected with the erratics of Kangra, and of cotemporary origin, during the glacial period to which mv present obser vations refer. Speculation on this point is, however, premature, and must wait the result of observations over tho intermediate area, which have yet to be recorded.

Tho task of tracing out the course of the moraines which descending from the Dhaola dhar range pushed boldly across tho Kangra district, is rendered unusually easy from the great contrast which exists between tho rock of which the great majority of erratic and moraine blocks constitution of moraines. consist and the tertiary clays and sandstones whereon they

lie. Near the boundary of the tertiary groups, the erratic blocks almost wholly consist of an easily recognised granitoidal gneiss, usually highly porphyritic, forming tho central mass of the Dhaoladhar range, and which rock, only towards the eastern extremity of the district, assumes a distinctly schistose or fissile habit, which proclaims its relation to the gneissose or metamorphic group of rocks, rather than to an intrusive rock or granite proper. After traversing, however, for some distance the area occupied by tertiary rocks, the moraines are found to consist, in addition to the gneiss of tho Dhaoladhar, of an ever increasing admixture of well rounded and water-worn boulders, from 4 inches up to 9 feet or more in girth, of the harder schistose and silicious rocks, derived from the coarse boulder conglomerates constituting the uppermost beds of tho Nahun, or miocene tertiary, group through which tho old glaciers ploughed their way. In proportion, too, with the decrease in number of the Dhaoladhar erratics, compared with the other materials of the moraine, a diminution in size may be remarked, till eventually only an occasional small boulder, to be detected only here and there if carefully looked for, remains of the Dhaoladhar gneiss, to indicate by its tell-tale presence the former extension ol the glacier on which it had travelled so far ; and it can therefore he readily understood bow, in some cases, the actual extent of a glacier may have been greater than that assigned to it, from the difficulty, in the absence of the familiar Dhaoladhar rock, of discriminating between materials properly belonging to an old moraine and the precisely similar materials

ss

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

whore the moraine has either ceased or become wasted and enveloped in deposits due to atmospheric and fluvial agency as opposed to glacial, the more so as the moraines themselves have, since the period of their final arrest, been everywhere subjected to the energetic opera tion of the former forces. The actual limits, however, within which it is doubtful if glaciers

„ , ... formerly extended or not, from the disintegration and

Power of denudation to obliterate J °

moraines regulated by conditions of rounding off by subsequent atmospheric action of their ter-

HmlL" °' minal moraines, are extremely narrow ; but the vast power of

denudation in particular places, and under favorable conditions of surface, and the ability of the existing rivers to remove every trace of former moraines, is in many places well illustrated in the area under review.

From general considerations there can be little or no doubt, that the valley of the Bias afforded passage to a noble glacier, to a point at least as low down as Nadaon, which would give a course of 120 miles in length from the snowfields at the sources of the river; but the present main channel of the river has since that period been so deeply and sharply excavated that not a trace (or such at least as a cursory examination would enable one to detect) exists of a moraine, such as we know must have resulted from and marked the course

of so extensive a glacier. At Sujanpur the moraine of the

Sujinpur (glacier). Moraine Suianptir glacier is seen pushed right across the present

breached by the Bias. J , 1

channel of the Bias, at a much higher level than that oi

the present stream, which has made a clean and deep cut through it ; yet, though the erratic blocks scattered round tbe Traveller's Bungalow at Sujanpur, and all over tbe truncated end of tbe moraine on tbe opposite side of tbe river, are of a large size, not a trace of one can be seen in tbe river bed beneath. This fact conclusively shows the power of the existing rivers (where from their narrowed channel, as at Sujanpur, their effective force is largely increased) to utterly remove all traces of such deposits as these old moraines even where they contain massive boulders of 12 feet in girth and upwards ; or what is rather more likely than any actual transport of such blocks is, that when once fairly sucked into tbe waterway, they are pounded to pieces by the incessant impact against them of the hard silicious boulders driven forcibly against them during floods. No one who has listened to the ceaseless thunder and muffled rattle of a swollen Himalayan stream can doubt the full power of such an agent to effect in time the above result.

Again, between Mandi and the bridge over the Bias, below that town, undoubted traces are met with of the old trunk moraine of tko Bias valley,

Trunk glacier of Bids. , , q

where the present valley is rather open ; but just above and for a long way below the bridge, the river gorge is swept perfectly clean, as with a besom, of all traces of a moraine, such as may he noticed a little higher up ; and this would seem to he generally the case where the valley narrows, or is unusually precipitous, either in the main channel of the Bias, or in the channels of its tributaries, the power of moraines to withstand the erosive action of rain and rivers depending far more on the physical character of the gorges they occupy, and the slopes whereon they repose, than on either their bulk and dimensions or the magnitude and character of the materials of which they are composed.

The TJ1 (Ool) river which enters the Bias above Mandi takes its rise in the continuation of that line of snowy peaks whence the glaciers of the Kangra district descended, and no one who has examined the district, or has a tolerable map to consult, can entertain the shadow of a doubt that an

enormous glacier must have once traversed the valley of

Absence on it of moraines, due to y_,e pji debouching into the Bias valley and uniting with its physical configuration, °

the great trunk glacier of that river above Mandi. But

no trace of any moraine could be detected in that portion of the U1 valley near Jatingri

part 3.] Theobald . Ancient Glaciers of the Kangra District.

examined by mo, and a perfectly adequate explanation of this circumstance is, 1 think afforded by the very steep character of the hill sides bounding the valley. The U1 valley is not only very straight, but remarkably steep, the sides iu many places forming an angle of not less than 00, ° so that any one who will reflect what sort of a slope in nature an angle of 60° represents, will easily understand how impossible it would be for such incoherent materials, as moraines arc made of, to effect a lodgment in such a situation, and resist for ages the combined effects of floods in summer and avalanches or snow slips in spring, to sweep them en masse into the yawning gulplr below.

A reference to the accompanying map will give a clearer idea of the general course, arrangement and relations to each other of the glaciers tion?fgfladEdiStriCt "d C"UmCta' which formerly traversed the Kangra district, than any

mere verbal description ; but neither the scale of the map nor the time I was enabled to devote to the subject suffice for any attempt at details as regards the various subordinate features and minor surface changes referable to the glacial period in question, though the sketch embraces all the essential points of the case.

Between Mandi on the east and Nurpur on the west (being the area to which my remarks are mainly confined) seveu principal glaciers descended into the valley of the Bias, which was then of course filled by a superb trunk glacier to which the above served as lateral feeders, and which taken in order from cast to west may be thus described.

The most easterly feeders of this glacier passed down through the village and hannah The Dailu -Uu ier °f Haurbagh in Mandi, and after being joined by several

equally large or larger glaciers from either side of the village of Dailu, the united glacier descended the narrow valley of the liana, river, which joins tl 10 Bias ten and half miles below Mandi. The most westerly feeder of this glacier was formed by the bifurcation of a huge glacier, which descending nearly opposite the village of Aiju, there split into two streams, one of which descended the Kana valley, whilst the other assumed an opposite course, and formed the most easterly feeder of the next glacier.

The Baijnath glacier.

This glacier was formed by the union of several large glaciers, which united below Baijnath and pursued a course down the valley of the Bimm river, which joins the Bias nearly midway between the mouth of the Rana above and the large town of Sujanpur below. The most easterly branch of this glacier has been noticed above, as coming from near the village of Aiju, whilst the most westerly branch was similarly formed by the bifurcation of a vast glacier, which pass ing down a little to tho east of the village of Banuri (Bunooree) was split into two streams against the cuneiform mass of hills some three miles south of that village.

This glacier is the smallest, as far as the area covered by it, of any under notice, and

. , . might bo regarded almost as a satellite of the next, with

The Banuri glacier. , . , °

which it was probably intimately connected, bill as some of

its moraines reach the Bias by a separate course it is enumerated with the rest, i (. consisted mainly of the westerly feeders of the glacier above described as bifurcating south of Banuri, with some obscurely defined contributories, still more to the west, and joined the Bias some few miles above Sujanpur.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The Haripur glacier.

Tliis very large glacier was composed of several parallel and inosculating streams, all running with a comparatively straight course past Burwar- The Sujanpfir glauer. nrh to the Bids at Sujanpur, the main stream having

evidently descended along the course of the Ncgal river.

This was the largest and most interesting glacier under notice. The most easterly feeders of it passed close under Dhar bungalow past Puthidr, and thence with a grand curve south of Nagroteh ; whilst the most westerly feeders descended close to Baghsu cantonments. Between these limits a number of glaciers descended from the lofty Dliaoladhdr range, pierced the outer range of schistose rocks, and coalescing below Kangra into one mighty stream ploughed their resistless way through the tortuous gorge of the Ban Ganga, past Haripur, and through the village of Godeir (below which large erratics are scarce) as far as the village of Ghurial (Ghooryal) or perhaps even farther.

This glacier might be appropriately named after the village of Nagroteh, near which it debouches into the plains, but as there is a better known Tlie Giij s'acier. village of that name, mentioned above, east of Kangra, it

will obviate confusion if the name of the river down which it passed is substituted. The most easterly feeders of this glacier descended a little west of Baghsu, the most westerly ones, a little west of Bihlu (Rihloo).

This glacier, the most westerly one in the Kangra district, was composed of two main branches, one from the east, flowing under Tiloknath, whilst The Jawali glacier. the other passed down close under Kotleli, below which

place the two united, flowing from nearly opposite directions, and together passed down the gorge of the Darh river, debouching into the plains at Jawali. Below Jawali the moraine of this glacier, mainly, perhaps, through the action of subsequent atmospheric forces, spreads out into a fan-shaped talus (and the same is more or less observable in the case of the Guj glacier also), so that its precise termination is not clearly marked, but it not improbably extended to the Bias either independently or after uniting with the last.

In speaking of the glaciers enumerated above I have used the past tense, as I am un certain if at the present day even so much as a permanent remnant remains of some of them ; though to the eastward of the region they originate in, towards the head of the U1 valley, snow-fields and glaciers are represented on the map. Whether or not shrunken remuantsof any of them still remain pent within the deeper vallies among the peaks of the DhaoMhar range, is of little moment, since the precise course pursued by them is no less plainly marked by the Cyclopean trains of boulders they have left behind them, than if they were still present to our eyes on their original proportions.

The moraines within the Kangra district present everywhere such similar features that a description of one of them will mutatis mutandis stand Moraines m Kangra. for aii the rest, the differences between them being confined

to their relative size, and the secondary characters impressed on them by atmospheric action, and the extent to which they have been cut into and abraded by existing streams. Descend-

Existing glaciers of l his region.

part 3.] Theobald : Ancient. Glaciers of the Kangra District.

Size of erratics.

ing from the central peaks of the Dhaoladlulr range, in the form of sinuous streams of boulders, rugged, angular, and massive, many of which attain over 50 feet in their greatest diameter, they traverse by narrow gorges the range of hills composed of schistose rocks, in tervening between the Dhaoladhar range and the plains of the Kdngra district, on reaching which they expand, inosculating and coalescing in the open ground to such an extent as to cover the greater portion not occupied and defended against invasion by hills. In fact

Former appearance of Kangra dis- s0 complete was the union of these glaciers that the whole trictof the area shown in the map to have been traversed by

them must have presented the appearance of one huge ice-field, if we can rely on the evidence of the perfect mantle of moraine material which now covers the ground.

The size of some of the gneiss blocks which have travelled well out into the plains is surprising, till the mind fully realises the quasi-omnipotent power of the agency involved in their transport. Near Busnur south of Rihlu, I measured one block embedded in a field by the roadside, 125 feet in girth, and in this and other cases the present dimensions are probably much under the original size of the block, from the desquamation of the surface under the action of frost, sun, and rain, and in some situations by the friction of stones swept against them by streams. Again, between Baglisu and four blocks in the immediate neighbourhood of the road measured in girth, respectively, 100, 125, 134, and 140 feet. Blocks of this size occur, of course, but seldom, but those from 70 to 100 feet somewhat more commonly, whilst blocks approaching 50 feet in girth are too numerous to reckon. So great is the abundance of the rocky fragments brought down by these glaciers, that the entire country just outside the narrow schistose range, which skirts the district to the north, is so covered with them as to leave no other rock visible ; and hut for the fact that none of these blocks can be seen in situ, and for the section occasionally revealed in a deeply cut river bed, the casual traveller might very naturally consider the whole area he was traversing to be granite or gneiss.

The process by which this condition has beon brought about is a very simple one, but at

Fan-shaped expansion of glaciers tbe same tiim' beMS PTOof ob the magnitude of

on quitting the hills. the forces at work, and the duration of the period during

which they were displayed. On quitting the narrow gorges in the hills wherein they had hitherto remained forcibly pent up between rocky walls, the glaciers at once expanded, partly through the natural tendency of a piled up mass, possessing the known plastic character ot glacier ice, to spread out on a level surface, under the simple operation of gravity, and partly to the lateral displacement which later glacial accessions descending such gorges would receive from the accumulated moraines of earlier years, heaped up in their direct path, either during periodical meltings or during the secular retrocession, probably not u continuously uniform process, of the isothermal line of the terminal moraines of the whole group of glaciers in question. Exception will doubtless he taken by some to the idea o! expansion through plasticity having had any appreciable influence in producing any lateral diversion of the moraine when they enter the plains, and I am prepared to admit the. subor dinate operation of this cause to the second one I have mentioned, but that it was a vera causa to a certain extent will, I think, be admitted, if due weight is given to the probable dimensions vertically of the glaciers in question. If, as has been conclusively established, a shallow glacier can quadruple its thickness when compressed between narrow limits, it cannot he theoretically denied the power of reassuming a shallower, that is, a more expanded form, when, on issuing from the hills, it becomes relieved from all pressure having a ten dency to counteract the ordinary effects of gravity on a plastic body, heavily weighted by the pressure of the enormous moraines supported by it, which can hardly be so insignificant as with time to produce no appreciable result. Thirty or 40 feet is no uncommon thick ness for one of these Kangra moraines, and I greatly doubt if in some cases a hundred feet

Records of lAe Geological Survey of India.

would not be an under estimate. If then we make allowance for the intermingled ice and snow, which must have cemented this prodigious mass together, we shall not greatly err if we calculate the pressure it must have exerted on the glacier, whereon it rested as equal to a stratum of solid granite of one-half that thickness, a force amply sufficient, when applied to such a thick stratum of plastic* glacier ice, as we must suppose to have been associated with such giant moraines, to have produced a very sensible lateral expansion of the ice river, initiative, if no more, of that expansion or lateral deviation, a tendency to which all the moraines, more or less, at present display on debouching from the hills.

Deviation of glaciers.

That later glaciers have thrust past earlier ones, and intersected their moraines, seems scarcely to admit of a doubt, thereby producing an irregu larity and confusion in the arrangment of the erratics and materials of moraines spread over the country, at first suggestive of the less regular or sporadic agency of floating-ice rather than of glaciers, whose frequent inosculation has been the real cause of the irregularity in the network of resulting moraines.

Along the course of the road from Kangra. to Bagiisu numerous illustrations of the conditions sketched above present themselves. Long lines Kangra to B:t0hsu. 0f nlorajn£,s are sell (0 abruptly and sink out of sight

beneath the soil ; sometimes indicative of the arrest, either temporary or final, of the parent glacier, at others of the disruption and truncation of a moraine by a glacier of later date pursuing a nearly coincident course. Near Bogli, after passing the temple and tank of Gangabarabi, the road skil ls a low ridge, with a well-marked moraine on the right — a long string of erratics, whose course is sharply defined ; but on turning the end of the ridge, and looking towards the village of leb-ki, the country is scon freely overspread with blocks in which no regular order can be made out.

The suggestion of Mr. Medlieott, as to the possible intervention of the agency of Floating-ice— no conclusive cvl-floating-ice, in distributing erratics in Kangra, here oe- Ueuoe of. earned to me, but I was eventually led to reject the idea,

from the fact that, as far as my observation goes, these erratics never ascend beyoud a certain relative height, which being no greater than that within which the traces of glaciers are found, goes far to disprove the intervention of any other agency for the distribution of the blocks in question. It is of course obvious that floating-iee and glaciers could not have cotemporaneously occurred over the same area, and the fact that no erratic blocks are known in Kangra, beyond the general limits attained by glaciers as fixed by their continuous Disproof of its former existence in moraines, is hence almost conclusive disproof of the agency of (floating-ice within the district. The erratic blocks are

so marked in character that they could scarcely escape detection, if they occurred beyond the limits above assigned to them, and this, for a negative argument, must he allowed unusual weight. If then the above conclusion is correct, the more perfect and lineal moraines are the youngest, and (trivial atmospheric denudation apart) exhibit the precise appearance they did on the waning of the glacial conditions in which they originated, whilst the more scattered and dissociated blocks must be regarded as the fragmentary remnants of more ancient moraines, whoso continuity has been long since destroyed by surface changes wrought by the altered course and direction of glaciers of a later period.

Prof. Tyndall very justly combats the idea of iee being regarded as a 'viscous' body, properly so-called, and would seem to touch the root of the matter, by limiting this so-called viscous quality of ice to a capacity of yielding to pressure, not tension, With this cardinal fact established, it is unfortunate that the terra 'plastic' was not always used in place of viscous,' as the essential idea of adhesiveness involved in the word 'viscid' or 'viscous,' in addition to the mere property of 'plasticity,' was not really necessary to the theories of hose who usei the term.

part 3.j Theobald : Ancient Glaciers of the Kdngra District.

All the Kaugra moraines have a very arched or 'hog-backed' outline, and are alw&3's separated by a more or less strongly marked valley or ravine from the hills round which they pass. In the case of the larger moraines, the resulting effect on the landscape is rather curious : hills viewed across one of these moraines have a peculiar sunken or ' hulldown ' appearance, from the crest of the moraine intercepting all view of their base, as the marine horizon does of a vessel's hull at a certain distance, and trees and villages situated on the opposite slope of one of these moraines from the observer are from the extreme curvature of its surface similarly concealed from view.

Another feature of the surface, occasionally very prominently displayed, is the rapid slope of a moraine across the valley wherein it debouches. This is well seen in the moraine west of Dailu bungalow, in the rapid slope of that portion which passes from Aiju down the course of the Edna river. The river running past the village of Dailu brings down no erratics above that village, but Dailu itself stands on the verge of an easterly branch of the same glacier which joins it lower down.

I will now describe certain physical peculiarities of surface in the Kdngra district Physical features in .Kungra result-directly connected with the glacial conditions which for ms from glacial couditious. merly prevailed there.

The Kdngra district may be ideally divided into three vertical areas or zones.

Firstly, a preglacial area embracing the whole country which contributed, from peak to

plain, towards the genesis and development of the glaciers 1st, prrglaeial area. -. . , ,. , . . , ,

under consideration ; speaking roughly and without any mea sured data to check the estimate, the above zone or area embraces all ground higher than from 250 to 300 feet above the mean level of the present streams.

Secondly, a glacial area, proper, embracing the entire area either occupied or excavated by the glaciers, which may be approximately fixed as com- 2nd, glaual area, proper. mencing at the bottom of the above division aud terminat

ing below at a level of about 150 feet more or less above the mean level of the present streams.

Thirdly, a postglacial area embracing the whole of the ground below the basal t l ie limit of the last division, and the result of aerial denudation

subsequent to the cessation of glacial conditions.

The first division calls for little remark save that it is the area within which we should most naturally expect to meet with erratics, deposited from floating-ice anteriorly to the formation of the moraines of the lower ground, had any such agency been in operation ; but I am unacquainted with any such, and therefore, no less than from the physical difficul ties such a supposition would involve, have rejected it for the simpler one of glaciers, whose former prodigious development is so stamped on the country. By floating-ice, I of course understand ice floating at or near the sea level, since the assumption of floating-ice in some elevated inland sea, of sufficient height to bring its waters within reach, or nearly so, of the ordinary glacial isothermal of its latitude, is perfectly unwarranted by evidence, certainly at least in the ICangra district; the only fine clayey deposit, the result of a tranquil mode of deposition, which could possibly be referred to such conditions, being a red clay of clearly postglacial age, which in some parts attains considerable development, and which may be referred to a postglacial period of lacustrine deposition coincident with a general subsidence of the whole Himalayan region and the gradual approximation of the general climate to that which at present obtains. This red clay covered at one time enormous areas in Kangra, and may not improbably mark a period of true lake formation, when along the southern slopes of the Himalaya lakes existed more extensively than existing indications would lead

94 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vir.

us to suppose ; but denudation has to a large extent removed all traces of this finer deposit, though still to he found here and there if sought for, as, for example, south of Nadaon and between Jawali and Nurpur.

The second division is emphatically the area of glacial display, and to it are restricted all the moraines and erratics, which are approximately in the position where they became fixed on the waning of glacial conditions, and nowhere can the relations of this to the other divisions be better seen than near the town of Kangra.

Approaching Kangra by the Jullunder road after passing the village of Dowlutpfir, the road commences the ascent of a steep ridge of hills at first Kangra. composed of pebbly sandstones with a little red shale,

which soon give place to thick beds of very coarse conglomerate, which throughout Kangra constitute the highest sub-division of the Is aim n group of tortiaries, of pre sumedly miocene age. The crest of the ridge is pierced by a tunnel, shortly after passing through which, and commencing the descent towards Kangra, a fine view is ob tained of the celebrated fort of that name, perched on a cliff, overhanging the boil ing river below, the cliff as well as some scarped heights beyond and above the fort consisting of the same coarse boulder conglomerates as those constituting the ridge over which the road is carried. When about half way down the road or rather more, a few large boulders of ' Dhaoladluir ' gneiss may be detected lying about, or wedged into clefts and gullies worn by surface water in the coarse conglomerate, and into which situation they have rolled from above, as these gneiss boulders in question are not weathered out of the conglomerate, but are the familiar erratics from the Dhaoladhar moraines. Continuing to descend, these boulders increase in number, till the stream (a branch of

Contrast between gneiss boulders tlie Ban Ganga) is reached, when its bed is seen to be

in stream and banks til' conglomerate. filled, and I may almost say, blocked, with enormous

masses of the Dhaoladhar gneiss, contrasting curiously in the eyes of a geologist with the beds of boulder conglomerates wherein the river gorge is excavated and wherein they are wholly wanting.

I should not omit to notice in this portion of the road opposite Kangra, the occurrence Immense boulder from the Nahun on the road side of a large boulder ol red quartzitic sandeonglumeratcs

. stone, of nearly 15 feet in girth. This boulder is un

doubtedly an erratic, but derived from the coarsest upper beds of the conglomerates so largely here developed, but which have nearly everywhere suffered so from denudation, that little, save huge boulders strewed about, indicates their former presence. This particular boulder is interesting from being the largest from these beds I have anywhere measured, and for a true water-worn and rolled boulder it may be considered immense, the second to it in size being, however, close on 12 feet.

Where the road crosses the stream the valley is narrow, but higher up it opens out more. Level of the base of the glaciers and is seen terraced on different heights, most of such about Kangra. ground being under cultivation. Just below the fort stands

the soldiers' church, and it would seem to mark nearly the lowest limit or level of glacial erosion proper, that is, the level of the bed of the old glaciers, or, perhaps, a trifle below it. The post office, on a slightly higher level, seems well within the vertical zone or valley of glacier erosion, and the mean between these two points may be taken as the approximate mean level hereabout of the base of the old glaciers. Passing on to the dak bungalow scattered erratics are seen on the steep sides of the valley, becoming scarcer as we ascend

This term of course applies to its original formation as a water-worn boulder in a coarse boulder conglo merate, not to its last vehicle of transport which 1 take to be ' glacial*

part 3.] Theobald, . Ancient Glaciers of the Kangra District.

to the immediate vicinity of the bungalow. Still, however, the dak bungalow, or rather perhaps the still higher Mission church, may be regarded as marking the highest level of glacier action; and to the action at a very early epoch of a glacier descending the course of what is now a deep valley beneath the dak bungalow to the north, I am inclined to refer the flat truncated outline of a hill which confronts the dak bungalow at a nearly similar elevation in that direction.

The difficulty of always satisfactorily determining the upper limits to which glaciers have reached arises from the paucity of moraine debris, and erratics in such situations, espe cially where the ground has been steeply carved out as near Kangra ; whilst the precise lower limits of glacier erosion are not uncommonly obscured by the subsidence in mass of the moraine, pari passu, with the subsequent fluviatile and non-glacier erosion which has lat terly supervened.

The third division, of postglacier erosion, calls for brief remark. Its area is freely covered by moraine debris and erratics, which, in the case of the large fragments, have simply subsided pari passu with that denudation which has removed the base whereon they rested. A very neat illustration of this process is seen in the bed of the stream beneath the road near the dak bungalow. The river takes a sharp bend round a sort of promontory sharply cut out of the old plateau in which the present river has excavated its bed, and above which the old glaciers passed at a higher level. The true character of the linear trains of boulders here seen, and the fact that they are moraines subsided in situ, are clearly shown. These linos of boulders evidently stretched down, quite irrespective of the present river, over ground, now represented merely by the narrow spit left by the river. On this spit the boulders are seen to rest, and if it might he possible for the stream to have imparted the linear arrange ment to these trains of huge boulders, it is obviously beyond the power of water to have washed them up against the face of the spit in the manner in which they occur.

A few words may not here be out of place touching the views held by Dr. Falconer Dr. Falconer on the absence of on the causes which have acted towards the conservation takes south of the Himalayas. 0f lakes in the Alps, and the probable reason of the non

existence of any lakes of similar magnitude along the vastly more colossal Himalayan range, where their presence might not unnaturally he looked for on a scale of even greater mag nitude than iu the neighbourhood of the Alps ; since the glacial phenomena previously described by me go far to invalidate the conclusions which Dr. Falconer, in ignorance of the former existence of the phenomena in question, was led to draw. Dr. Falconer, writing on this subject, regards the Alpine lakes (Falc. Palseont. Memoirs, Yol. II, page 651) as great fissuros with rivers running into them, which originated in the process of elevation of the whole chain. Precisely similar results in his opinion followed the elevation of the Himalayas, hut in the Alps a glacial period supervened, which filling these 'fissures' or lake basins with ice, prevented their being choked up with detritus, as would have happened under milder climatal conditions. For Iudia, on the other hand, " these lake basins were gradually silted up by enormous boulders and alluvium of every kind," since in these " tropical regions the ice never descended from the highest summits down into the plains."

Views of Dr. Falooner untenable.

Now, the condition of the Kangra district clearly renders the above view of Dr. Falconer untenable, since it is abundantly clear that glaciers descend ed well into that outer region, wherein we might expect lakes to occur, and it is clear that no material difference existed between the Himalayas and the Alps, quoad climate and the former prevalence of glacial conditions over both areas. Whether at any period lakes existed within the Himalayan area, comparable with those bordering the Alps, may be allowed to remain an open question, which, I am not disinclined

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

to think, will hereafter be answered affirmatively ; but whether they once existed or no, we have in the excessive erosion of the river channels traversing the drainage basins, wherein any such lakes must have stood, a cause fully adequate to account for their subsequent dis appearance. In the open ground of the Kangra district I have estimated the amount of erosion of the river beds since the termination of the glacial period as upwards of 100 feet, and there seems to me no fixed limit which we arc called on to assign in the ease of those larger rivers which descend from the main Himalayan chain, so that even had large lakes occupied positions along the main river vallies subsequent to the glacial period in question, we can still understand, from what is seen in the Kangra district, how such lakes may have emptied by the ordinary operation of those forces which are now and ever have been perpe tually at work deepening every Himalayan gorge. I content myself, however, with throwing out the hint, as the subject is too large a one to be discussed in a paper like the present.

' Nahun group.*

It remains only to add a few words on the period during which glacial conditions pre vailed in Kangra, and this is capable of being fixed with Kangra, tolerable exactness with regard to the tertiary deposits ot

the region.

The great bulk of the tertiary deposits of the Kangra district belongs to the 'Nahun division of Mr. Medlicott, approximating in age to the miocene of European geology. This group contains in addi tion to numerous Pachyderms and Ruminants (a correct and discriminative list of which is a most urgent desideratum), the remarkable Chclonian Colossoahvlys Allan, Fal.. This group of an enormous, but unascertained thickness, not less certainly than 10,000 feet, was tilted up and involved in the great disturbance its beds display, and moulded to the main orographieal features of the district prior to the development of the glacial conditions iii question.

The Nahun group is followed by a series of deposits of very inferior thickness, but not loss rich in remains of a varied fauna. Within the Kangra iva . g oup. district no direct evidence exists, from contact, of the rela

tive age of the glacier deposits and the Sivalik group ; hut the evidence afforded by the fauna, of that group is wholly in favor of its being postglacial, arid of the fauna being associated with conditions of climate analogous to those now existing. Without entering into greater detail, it is sufficient to mention in support of this view the occurrence of two living croco miles in the Sivalik beds, and several species of land and fresh-water shells still living, and the same association of extinct typos with the precursors of numerous species of living mammalia, as is seen in the pliocene deposits of the Narbada valley.

With regard to the occurrence of glacial phenomena along the Sub-Himalayan region east of the Kangra district. I think that future observations Glacial Phenomena east of Kangra. apeoial Erected to the subject will reveal an unexpected

amount of evidence, which, if not so obvious, will be found no less conclusive than that dis played in Kangra. The scope of my own observations only permits my saying that remnants

of moraines occur in the Sutlej valley as low down as Bilaspur, and erratic blocks, not now directly connected with any moraine, but probably transported to their present position by a prodigious trunk glacier

which descended the Sutlej valley without much reference Erratics in the Gumbor. ;ts present configuration, as low down as the mouth ol

the Gumber river and probably lower. The blocks 1 refer to a moraine at Bilaspur consist of the harsh Krol limestone forming the ridge which near that town is cleft by the valley or gorge of the Ullay river, down which a glacier passed into the trough of the Sutlej. Anyttqng( however, like a connected moraine of this Sutlej glacier no longer remains; but to its disintegration and removal is no doubt largely due the enormous sheets of recent con-

Moraines at Bilaspur.

part 3.1 Theobald : Ancient Glaciers of the Kangra District.

glomerate, which literally choke the Sutlej valley, and which may be well seen, among other spots, at Dihur (at the ferry on the Mandi and Bilaspur road), at Bilaspur, and at Bubhor; where the Sutlej debouches into the Una dun.

Approaching the Sutlej from the direction of Mandi, when a little better than a mile

from the ferry, the whole of the high ground behind the Section of the Sutlej above Dihur. ... , . „ . , , . ... . , c ,

village ot lvangra is found sheeted over with beds or sandy

gravel evidently the upper beds of a thick deposit of either fluviatile or lacustrine origin, mantling round the hills of harsh Urol limestone hounding the valley, which to a great extent it must have originally filled. On descending towards the river these sandy hods give place to coarse gravels, which still lower down pass into the coarsest boulder shingle, mainly com posed of a heterogeneous mixture of Himalayan rocks, among which the Krol limestone of the neighbouring hills is a prominent ingredient. Among the rest, scattered boulders of the porphyritic gniess of the Dhaoladhar are seen, from their size of unquestionable glacier origin, and these may be traced as low as Dihur, of various dimensions up to 8 or 10 feet in girth, associated with numbers of boulders of nearly the same size of the hardest schistose and trappean rocks, from the region of the inner hills, and all at one time probably trans ported to the vicinity by glacier agency.

At Bilaspur in the bed of the river beneath the Rajah's Garden, I remarked erratic blocks of hard schistose rocks from 12 to 15 feet in girth, but to what precise distance down below the Gumbcr mouth

these can be traced I cannot say.

Erratics at Bilaspur.

But what a vision of the past is not here raised by these simple boulders lying neglected

Reflections r'ver bank or uset or ie 'Sn°We purpose of cleans

ing the clothes of man's emmet-like race. As there can be little doubt that the glacial conditions to which these blocks testify, were induced mainly by the simple elevation of the whole Himalayan area, so there can be equally Lttle doubt that such elevation was effected without materially affecting the grander orographical features of the country, and hence it comes that we must picture to ourselves as the agent employed in their transport a mighty trunk glacier, debouching somewhere above Bubhor, after a course of some 350 miles, a spectacle unmatched for grandeur at the present day in the loftiest regions of either hemisphere.

Without pursuing farther all the arguments which might be adduced, it will suffice here to summarise the conclusions which may be drawn from the glacial phenomena of the Kangra district —

1st. — That prior to the deposition of the Sivalik group, the whole Himalayan area stood at an elevation not less than 12,000 feet and perhaps 15,000 feet, higher than at present.

2nd. — That in consequence of this superior elevation, the whole of the Sub-Ilimalayan region north of the Duns (which had then no existence) exceeding 1,500 feet elevation, was subject to the incursion of glaciers, which from the magnitude of the drainage area whence they descended were of the most colossal proportions.

3rd. — That the Sivalik period was marked by a subsidence of the whole Himalayan area, a corresponding retrocession of glacial conditions, and a return, during the reign of the Sivalik fauna, to conditions not very dissimilar to those now obtaining in the region.

Note. — There arc many features in Mr. Theobald's paper very tempting for the critic ; but they must be left to the intelligence of the readers. One omission he has made is fairly open to

Records of llie Geological Survey of India.

editorial comment; the more so, as it affords a most instructive illustration of what threatens to become a very serious stumbling-block in geology, involving, as it does, the ignoring, abandon ment, or even the inversion of the fundamental principle of the science. The evil indicated is, the blind adoption, or application, of the homotaxeous method in the classification and nomencla ture of formations.

Glacial phenomena, and the ' glacial period,' having been lately very prominently under dis cussion, it will astonish many that in a paper treating specially of the former enormous extension of the Himalayan glaciers, no mention should be made of the possible connection of this fact with the glacial period ' ; the sole cause assigned for the case of the Himalaya being a supposed greater elevation of from 12,000 to 15,000 feet. The local time assigned by Mr. Theobald for the Himalayan glacial period may be correct ; there is no doubt of its being posterior to the disturb ance of the IS' Allan group, and to the excavation in it of the existing drainage system; and the reason given for its being anterior to the Sivalilc group (as properly restricted by Mr. Theobald) is at least plausible. But here the fallacy steps in : the Sivalik formation is ' pliocene ' ; the glacial period ' is post pliocene ' ; it is therefore needless to consider the relation of the latter with the prepliocene glacial period of the Himalaya, as well attempt to identify it with our Talchir (palaeozoic) glacial period.

It is enough to state the case, to show the danger of it. Palmontologists are cutting them selves adrift in loosening their hold upon the chain of physical causation. Are they in a condition to say that oven the Sivalik fauna (as restricted) could not be contemporaneous with the posttertiaries of Europe, as is implied in the above argument ?

It is plain that the possible, not to say probable, connexion of the glacial periods here and in Europe offers an incomparable means of fixing the contemporaneity or correspondence of the extinct faunas of such distant regions. The importance of this possibility will not be lost sight of. — Editor.

On the Building and Ornamental Stones of India, by V. Ball, m. a., Geological

Survey of India.

In the year 1871, when at home on leave, my friend Professor Hull, Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, informed me of his intention of bringing oat a work on Build ing and Ornamental Stones, and invited my assistance in reference to the portion of it treating of India. Fortunately my promise of assistance was made conditionally upon my having leisure sufficient to hunt up all available authorities on the subject, as since 1871 up to the present time (April 1874), I have been almost constantly on the move, and during the short periods I have spent in Calcutta my time has been taken up by other more pressing occupations, so that I have found it utterly impossible to attempt to do anything like justice to the subject.

Professor Hull's book having been published in 1872, the present notes are printed in the Records as an instalment of what may hereafter be written. In a country covering so large an area as India, and where, in spite of the comparatively little use made of stones in modern British buildings, building stones have been employed for a long period of time by the natives, ample material exists for a very much more extensive account than the pre sent. My chief difficulty has been to compress the principal facts within the limits available for the purpose.

By giving full references to the principal authorities on the subject, the reader is placed in possession of a means of acquiring fuller details than there is room for in the present account.

Theobald ICoutrcu

Records 1874

!

Ball: Building and Ornamental Slones of India.

Throughout the Gangetic valley the public buildings which have been erected under the

Character of Anglo-Indian buildings. a,USP!oeS °f the British have until Tuite recently been built

almost exclusively of bricks. In many cases the difficulty of obtaining a building stone within an easy distance of the towns situated in the alluvial valley, and in all the consideration of primary economy, have led to the employment of perishable bricks instead of lasting stone in the construction of our officers' courts, private residences, &c.

Even in parts of the country where good building stones are to be obtained, bricks are often the only material regularly used.

It is no doubt this feature of Anglo-Indian architecture which in part gave rise to the saying that if the English left India, in a century after their departure no sign of their occupation, save that afforded by a few empty beer bottles, would remain.

Unfortunately the use of bricks cannot be justified even by the appropriate or ornamental Architectural results from the use character of the results. If durability is sacrificed, we are of bricks. justified in asking if not for ornamental structures at least

for buildings calculated to make this trying climate somewhat more endurable. But what do we find ? To quote the words of Major (now Colonel) Medley : " Who does not know the scene of desolation that comes over one at first sight of some of our Indian cantonments: the straight and dusty roads, the rows of glaring white rectangular barracks, the barn-like church dilferiuoonly from a barrack in the presence of a square tower and classical ! portico, the Eoman Catholic Chapel ditto, only smaller and with bright green doors all round "? and again : " It

must, I think, be allowed that the true principles of architectural construction for buildings in the east, which are to boused by men habituated to an entirely different climate, have not as yet been discovered ; a mosque, for instance, has a pleasant temperature both in winter and summer, while a Gothic church in India is, as a rule, either very hot or very cold. I do not say that Gothic churches are unsuitable to India, but only that they are so as we now build them."*

Temples and houses built in the native style, though often somewhat close and ill ven- Native buildings suited to the tilated, are generally considerably cooler than any Europeau climate. buildings. This is particularly true of the massive stone

structures of the north-west.

In new countries, such as Australia and America, the engineer or architect often experi- Evidence of durability of material ences a difficulty in determining the durability of materials

afforded by native buildings. which he may will to Even in England this diffi

culty is not unknown, as is evidenced by the failure of the stone used in the construction of the houses of Parliament ; but in India, in the civilized parts, wherever building material occurs, ancient temples or other native buildings are almost sure to be found. These furnish all the information which can be required as to the durability of the stone when exposed to the atmosphere.

The other qualities in building stones — strength, appearance, and susceptibility for

„ , ornamental treatment — can all be determined by simple and

Other qualities admit of speedy vji.ti.iii i , , , ,.

tests. readily applied tests ; but there is no known speedy test ot

durability.

The presence or absence of certain minerals, or some peculiarity in the structure, are Causes of disintegration causes sufficient to determine the decomposition, which may

bo more or less protracted, but which must eventuate in the disintegration of the stone and the consequent disfigurement, if not total destruction, of the building in which it has been employed.

Prof, Papers ou Indian Engineering, Vol, I, pp. 201-2,

Records of the Geological Survey of India,

With examples of stone work which range in age from before the Christian era up to modern times, the engineers and architects of India have an immense advantage over those of newer countries.

It should be scarcely requisite to observe that the proof of a certain formation affording

Care requisite in section of material. °od building stone is not sufficed to justify the conclusion

that all the stone of that formation is equally durable. Yet the passing of individual block's of stone is under these circumstances, there is reason to believe, often performed in an imperfect manner. Cases might he quoted where ill-chosen stones have not proved equal to the work which might justly be expected from the material bad a little care been used in the selection, and thus, too often, a material has received a bad name and evil reputation where in truth its qualities have not been put to a fair trial.

Although locally, in the construction of bridges and other works where stone has been Skilled stone-workers more numer-employed, vast numbers of coolies have been trained so as ous formerly. to become very fair stone-cutters, still the number of highly

skilled artizans is probably less than it was in former times, when the inhabitants of almost every district in India into which Aryans penetrated erected their temples of stone. In many cases these temples, to the present day, exhibit admirable workmanship in the most difficult materials.

To show bow little has been done towards developing and rendering these resources of The building: stone resources of India available, it is only necessary to refer to the grim india undeveloped. advertisements which daily meet our eyes in the newspapers,

of tombstones of Aberdeen granite and Italian marble.

In further illustration of this, I may mention that at Raniganj, 120 miles inland from Calcutta, I have seen at the potteries enormous granite mill-stones for crushing quartz which had travelled probably 15,000 miles to their present destination, while within a radius of 20 miles several places could be indicated whore stone suited to -the purpose could be ob tained were quarries only opened up.

With increased facilities for carriage, by rail and canal, and with some modification of

„ , , the traditions in favor of Public Works Department bricks,

Prospect of future development.

we may yet look forward to a time when the splendid build ing materials existing in India* will be brought into more general use for our public and private buildings. And we may thus yet hope to see structures of an ornamental aud lasting character worthy of our position in this country.

The order in which the several classes of materials are arranged in this paper is that followed by Professor Hull —

I. — Granitic and Gneissose Rocks.

II. — Basalt and Teaps.

III. — Seepentine, Potstones, and Soapstone .

IV. - — Maeble.

V. — Gypsum and Alababtee.

VI. — Obnamental Stones.

VII. — Limestones, Kunkue.

VIII. — Sandstones, Quaetzites.

IX. — Lateeite.

X. — Slates.

Some trials of Indigenous limestones from the Vindhyans and from Karnul for lithographic purposes appeared to give promising results ; but the large quantity of stones which are used in the Presidency towns are still, 1 believe, exclusively imported from Europe,

part 3.] Ball: Building and Ornamental Stones of India. 1 0 i

I. — Granite and Gneiss.

Most of the so-called granite of India is a granitoid gneiss, a resultant of the excessive metamorphism of sedimentary rocks. To what extent true eruptive, igneous granite occurs in the peninsula is quite unknown. Granite, which from its physical relations one may venture to conclude is of truly igneous and eruptive character, is not however absent. But, as a rule, the physical relations accompanying exposures of perfectly unfoliated granites in the metamorphic ai-eas of India are not of a sufficiently definite character to enable one to assert with confidence the nature of the origin of those granites. There is no crucial test which can be applied to determine tbis question. Even microscopical examination of the minei-als is not now considered to afford in all cases an infallible guide. But even if it be, it is not of easy application, and cannot be made use of in the field.

These remarks seem a necessary preface to the following account, as travellers and antiquarians, who have described buildings, have not often attempted to characterise, more than by some very general term, such as granite or sandstone, the materials of which those buildings have been constructed.

The metamorphic rocks occupy a very considerable area in India.

East of a line drawn from Eotasgarh on the Son through Umarkantak to Goa, the greater part of the country consists of metamorphic rocks. The younger rocks which do occur in that area are for the most part limited to comparatively inconsiderable basins, Metamorphic rocks, not to mention small exposures within the limits of the great basaltic flows of Western India, also occur in Bandelkaud, Each, the Garo and Kasia Bills, and in the Himalayas. Whether these all belong to the same age or not is a question of much difficulty and uncertainty. The probability is that they do not. lithologically there is sufficient general resemblance to justify their being all classed together in this account.

The varieties of materials suited to building purposes are of course very numerous. There are those caused by structure and those due to composition. By the former character they are divisible into foliated and non-foliated. The simplest form of the latter is a binary compound of quartz and felspar, or pegmatite, sometimes appearing as graphic granite. Then there are the ternary compounds, consisting of the two minerals just mentioned, with the addition of mica, hornblende, or talc, which are known respectively as granite, syenite, and protogiue. Various modifications of these four varieties are produced by the presence of foreign minerals, such as, oligoclase, schorl, garnet, epidote, magnetic iron, &c.

As building stones the dense crystalline unfoliated varieties are the most durable. The presence of garnets or magnetic iron is likely to be detrimental, as these minerals under the influence of the atmosphere are apt to disintegrate, and so mar the appearance, if they do not ultimately endanger the stability, of the edifices in which stone containing them is employed.

I shall now endeavour to give some enumeration of the principal localities where these rocks have been used for the supply of building stones, and point out the features of the principal examples.

In the alluvial tracts of Bengal ancient buildings of stone are of most uncommon occurrence. Towai'ds the west, however, in the rocky districts and on their borders, evidence is not wanting that the art of working in stone was practised whenever the material was available. In the Ganges close to Colgong there are several small hills which form islands in the present bed of the river. These hills consist of piled masses of a very compact grey granite, which in olden times used apparently to be resorted to for material for the construe-

102 Records of the Geological Survey of Lidia. [vol. vix.

tion of temples. The old holes for the wedges are still to be seen, and one enormous slab, which was partially split old, was never removed, and still clings to its place.

In Behar many temples are to be found in the construction of which granite was em ployed. At Gya some of the Buddhistical rails and the floorings of temples, &c., are of granite.

At Barabar Hill occur, so far as I know, the only instances of artificial caves excavated in these hard rocks. In sandstones and trap, as we shall see hereafter, not a few instances can be quoted.

Throughout the Chutia Nagpur Division sandstones are generally more or less accessible, so that temples built of granite are of by no means common occurrence. But as we proceed southwards along the eastern coasts from Midnapore through Orissa, the use of granite seems to be more and more common.

At Neeltigur Hill, in Pergunnali Ultee, in Orissa, Hindu temples and deities are of garnetiferous gneiss, as are also some large figures in the Black Pagoda at Pori.

On Mahendragiri Hill, iu the district of Ganjam, I observed an example of what I have since been informed was not uncommonly the practice with regard to the construction of these temples. On the top of the bill is an unfinished temple built of huge blocks of porphyritic gneiss, which ou their exposed faces are rough and uncut. The practice appears to have been, uot to have attempted any ornamental work until all the stones of the building were iu position and then to have pared them, so to speak, into shape. One of the stones which I measured in this temple had the following dimensions, 9' X 3' 9" X 3', which would indicate a weight of about 8 tons.

The natives get over the difficulty of accounting for such megalithic structures by as serting them to be supernatural, or by saying that " there were giants in those days.

In his report on the Nilgbiri Hills, Mr. H. Blanford pointed out several places where excellent building stones could be obtained from the crystalline rocks. But not much use has hitherto been made of them. In Mysore a variety is obtained, which is split into posts 20' long, which are used for the support of the electric telegraph wire. As readily accessible examples of the useful and ornamental purposes to which the gneisses of Southern India have been put, Mr. King instances the following

A polished slab of quartzo-felspathic gneiss in the Durbar hall in the Rajah's palace at Taujore, which measures 18' x 16' X 2' 1|".

A small temple in the north-west corner of the Pagoda Court at Taujore, which is " a perfect gem of carved stonework," the elaborate patterns on which are as sharp as when they left the sculptor's hands.

Other beautiful examples of carving are to be seen at the Rock Pagoda of Tricliinopoli, at Yolcandapuram, and at the Chellumbrum Pagoda. " Even at Trivalur near Negapatam, at the eastern extremity of the great delta of the Cauvery, nearly sixty miles from the nearest gneiss quarries, the great pagoda and tank are surrounded by walls of massive gneiss.

"As an instance of the peculiar susceptibility of gneiss to fine carvings, the rings appended to the drooping corners of some pagoda buildings may be mentioned. These rings, the links within which are moveable, and the projecting corners, are carved out of single blocks of gneiss, such as may be seen at the Strimustrum Pagoda."

Mr. King also mentions the use of blocks of gneiss in the construction of walls, bands of tanks, beach groynes at Tranquebar, culverts, bridges, &c.

rt 3.] Ball: Building and Ornamental Slones of India.

The ancient Druid-like remains called Karumbar rings which are found in various parts of Trichinopoli generally consist of rough blocks of gneiss. In parts of Chutia Nagpur old settlements of the Ivols made use of gneiss in the erection of Menhers and Dolmens. But, at the present day, the Kols who erect such memorials for the most part dwell in a part of the country where flags of schist and slate are readily accessible, and they therefore do not use gneiss.

In Madras Mr. Foote says that the beds of very hornblendic gneiss which occur "at Palaveram, Cuddapary Choultry, and Puttandulum are largely quarried for the manufacture of articles of domestic use as well as for building purposes."

Other varieties in different localities in Madras are mentioned ; some of these have been quarried to a considerable extent.

Except for purely local purposes, the construction of bridges, &c., where, upon econo mical grounds, the rock nearest to hand has been made use of, the varieties of granite, gneiss, &c., on account of their hardness, have not commended themselves as building materials to English engineers. So far as I know, there are, throughout the country, no British buildings of importance, in the construction of which these materials have been used.

References.

Orissa

Blanford, Nilghiris King, Trichinopoli ...

Foote, Madras

Balfour's Cyclopaedia, Art. Granite

Mem. Geol. Surv., India, I, p. 277.

p. 244, IV, p. 367. X, p. 131.

II. — Basalt.

Trap. — Any one who has paid attention to the subject is aware that the greater part of Western India, the Dekan, and the Central Provinces is occupied by a vast accumulation of eruptive rocks which are generally spoken of as Dekan trap. From north to south these rocks extend from a point 100 miles south of Gwalior to the vicinity of Goa, and from west to east from Bombay to Umerkantak, thus covering an area of about l-6th of the peninsula, south of the Ganges. Roughly estimated, we may put down the area in which these rocks prevail at 200,000 square miles.

On the eastern side of the peninsula too, rocks, which, without going into details of the mineral constituents, may be conveniently spoken of generieally as trap, occupy a by no means inconsiderable area, as in the Rajmehal Hills.

From the evidence afforded by the sedimentary beds with which these rocks occur inteibedded, those in the west appear to be referable to the close of the cretaceous epoch, while those of the oast (Rajmehal) belong probably to the jurassic.

The whole of the trap rocks which are used for building purposes are not, however, exclusively derived from the two above-mentioned sources. In many other of the recognised formations in India the trappean rocks occur as dykes ; sometimes these are basaltic, but, in the older formations, diorites prevail.

In the Dekan and Rajmehal areas, other rocks arc not altogether absent, as there arc not only the sedimentary, interstratified rocks above mentioned, but also, on the outskirts, the deeper valleys occasionally disclose rocks of older formations.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The former, however, are not generally suited for building purposes,* and are therefore less used than trap, which, though sometimes difficult to cut, is, if well chosen, a most durable material, and is moreover susceptible of much delicate and artistic treatment.

As might he anticipated in the Delean area, from the enormous thickness of these rocks which occur, the lithological varieties are numerous. These varieties are due both to differ ences in mineral composition and degrees of compactness.

With regard to the relative adaptability to building purposes of the various kinds of rock which are most commonly met with, Mr. Blanford remarks : " None of the beds containing zeolites, interspersed in irregular strings and veins throughout the mass, are good. They are too soft, brittle, and liable to decompose. None of the ash beds are equal in strength, toughness, or resistance to the atmosphere to the solid basalts, and no rock of a red colour should ever be taken for building purposes. It is almost always decomposed. Amongst the very best beds are the porphyritic basalts, such as those which form so large a proportion of the rocks on the Thull Ghat."

Mr. Bell says : — " The best I should consider to be the bluish-green basalt, which is very hard and heavy, having a specific-gravity about 3'0, and which rings like a metal on being struck."

Probably the first use to which the trap rock was put in India was in the manufacture of stone implements or celts, of which specimens are occasionally found, in some cases far removed from the places where the rocks occur.

To a very early period must be referred that form of architecture which consisted in hollowing out and sculpturing the rock in situ into temples and dwelling places, of which we have magnificent examples in the caves of Adjanta, Ellora, and Elephanta. These caves contain sculptures and inscriptions indicative of their Buddhistical or early Brahminical origin. Several of these caves are assigned to a period from 200 to 150 years B. C.

At Gya, according to General Cunningham, some of the Buddhistical rails are made of basalt, others being of granite and sandstone.

Coming down to a more recent period, we find on the eastern side of India trap from the Rajmehal Hills made use of for lintels and door posts in Hindu temples, and not unfrequently for the images contained inside. Trap used in this partial manner may be seen in many of the old buildings in the vicinity of Rajmehal and the ruined city of Gaur : occa sionally, too, in temples in the Burdwan District. The black marble of many writers is pro bably only this material. When covered by the native offerings of ghee, it is often, without doing what in the sight of the people would be regarded as desecration, impossible to make out the material of which the images are made.

In the famous Black Pagoda at Pori trap is said to have been much used. This mate rial was probably derived from dykes in the metamorphic rocks.

In the Dekan and surrounding trap country this material has been used in the construc tion of forts and native buildings of various kinds.

One of the most magnificent works in trap is stated by Dr. Balfour to be an unfinished tomb of one of the Gwalior princes at Poona.

Recently it has been extensively used in the construction of bridges and stations on the lines of railroad which traverse tho trap country, but I understand that from causes for which the stone is not altogether in fault, but rather the lime and workmanship, the work has not given complete satisfaction.

An exception will be found noted on a following page.

Ball : Building and Ornamental Slones of India,

In the city of Bombay trap has been used to some extent, but chiefly in rubble masonry. All the finer buildings in Bombay are constructed of a very different material, as will be mentioned in its proper place.

The principal use to which the trap rocks of the Rajmehal Hills are at present put is for the supply of Calcutta with road metal.

References .

Building materials, Bombay Island, Carter's Geology of Western India, Bombay, 1857, p. 161.

Building stone in Western India, Merewether, Prof. Papers of Ind. Eng., Roorkee, Vol. VI, 1859, p. 130.

Geology of Bombay Island, Wynne, Mem. Geol. Surv., Ind., V, 1884, p. 173.

Geology of Western India, Blanford, Mem. Geol. Surv., Ind., VI, 1869, p. 379.

Masonry in a trap country, H. Bell, Prof. Papers of lad. Eng., Roorkee, Vol. I, 2nd Series,. 1871, p. 162.

III. — Serpentine.

Serpentine in sufficient quantity to be deserving of mention in this enumeration is of rare occurrence in India. In the sub-metamorphic rocks of Western Bengal, I have occa sionally met with it in small quantities. In the district of Singhbhum, south of the station of Chaibassa, it occurs in beds of a white limestone.

In the Madras presidency, in the eastern part of the Kadapa District, a beautiful serpentinous marble is said to occur, but it has not been much used hitherto.

Dykes of serpentine, possibly the result of alteration of some original igneous rock, occur most uncommonly in the tertiary sandstones of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Some of the purer varieties might, if obtainable in large blocks, be used for ornamental purposes. A black variety streaked with green, which occurs at the head of Port Blair, particularly attracted my attention. So far as I know, no attempt has been made to work it.

Serpentine is said to be found in parts of Upper Burma, where it is worked and exported to China.

Potstones. — Chloritic schists, passing, on the one hand, into talcose, and, on the other, into serpentinous rocks, occur not uncommonly in the -sub-metamorphic and somewhat less frequently in the metamorphic series.

In buildings the varieties' of this material have only been used on a small scale for ornamental purposes, for which some of them, as being tough and at the same time easily carved, are particularly suited. More extensively they are used in the manufacture of altars, idols, plates and bowls.

In the southern part of Manbhum, on the frontiers of Singhbhum, there are numerous workings, which generally take the form of narrow mines which are deserted during the rains. From these mines a considerable quantity of stone is annually extracted ; the blocks are roughly dressed to the shape required, be it for Lingam, plate or bowl. They are then fixed in a rude lathe and cut into form and given a smooth surface. When finished, they are carted off to Burdwan, where they are in great demand, and a portion are sent on to Calcutta for sale.

In the neighbourhood of Gya too, there are many large mines and quarries of this stone, which supply a considerable trade in idols and utensils.

One class of the varieties used stands fire well, while the other does not. The former is of course the most esteemed by the natives. The cracking of the latter is probably due to the water of combination in the more chloritic varieties, which becomes released on the appli cation of heat.

] 06 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vil.

In many of the ancient temples in Chutia Nagpur images made from this material are not uncommonly met with.

The beautifully sculptured doorways of the Black Pagoda uear Pori are of this material, which was probably obtained from the Nilghiri Hills in Orissa.

In some of the more finished temples at Bobaneswar there are large well polished and highly sculptured slabs of potstone let into the walls. (Stirling).

In parts of Trichinopoli these rocks are applied to similar purposes.

Soap-stone. — The very beautiful steatitic material so much used for delicate carvings in Agra, though genetically related to the rocks mentioned under the above head, seems deserving of separate notice in this enumeration.

This rock is obtained in the territories of the Raja of Jaipur. In Agra it is chiefly used in the manufacture of small ornamental articles, but has not yet entered into use as a material for architectural decoration, although it is admirably suited to the purpose.

Reference.

Keene— On the Stone Industries of Agra.

1Y. — Makble.

Marble in India is better known from its great beauty in the few places where it does occur and its successful employment in the ornamental architecture of some of the cities of North-Western India, Rajputana, Guzerat, and a few other places, than from being gen erally distributed throughout the country.

The Taj at Agra which was erected by the Emperor Jehangir, to the memory of his favorite wife Nur Jehan, is built of polished white marble, and is by many competent authorities considered to be one of the most beautiful and perfect structures in the world.

The material for this glorious monument, as well as for many others, was obtained in the Jaipur territories.

But the special purpose to which the marble of Jaipur has been put, and for which it is so admirably' suited, is the manufacture of screens, the delicacy of the tracery on which can in many cases bo only compared with lace. This work is known by the name Jalee. Besides marble, sandstone is sometimes, however, employed for this purpose, as the following descrip tion by Mr. Keene will show : " It is a fine filagree of marble or sandstone fretted into an almost endless net-work of geometrical combinations, such as can only be understood by seeing the carvings themselves or good photographs of them."

In the opinion of Mr. Fergusson, the Jalee work of Ahmedabad in Guzerat is still finer ; but the style of the two is quite different.

According to Mr. Keene, the finest example of this form of work to be met with in Northern India is the following; he says: "But all the marble-work of this region is surpassed by the monument which Akber erected over the remains of his friend and spiritual counsellor Shekfi Suleem Ckistee at Fatipur Sikri (1681 A. D.). In the north western angle of a vast courtyard 433 feet by 366 feet is a pavilion externally of white marble, surrounded by' a deep projecting dripstone, of white marble also, supported by marble shafts crowned byr most fantastic brackets shaped like tho letter S. The outer screens are so minutely pierced that they actually look like lace at a little distance, and illuminate the mortuary chamber within with a solemn half-light which resembles nothing else that I have seen. The whole of this elaborate work, including the strange but most pleasing design of the brackets, appears to have been produced by the resident stone-cutters

Ball : Building and Ornamental Stones of India.

of the place — uneducated meu earning probably an average wage of about a penny a day.

I believe that no instance of such pure patient workmanship, so dignified, yet so -various, is to be found in the world." In a very beautifully illustrated Work on the Architecture of Ahmedabad by Mr. T. C. Hope, b. c. s., with architectural notes by James Fergusson, photographs illustrative of this work and of buildings in sandstone will be found ; many of these buildings are comparatively modern, and some are quite recent. It would appear that the art of working in these materials has been more fully conserved in Guzerat than in any other part of India. But it has been by no means lost or even discontinued, though it is not extensively practised now in the northern cities.

I am informed by my friend Mr. Haeket that at Eialo in Jaipur the Juice is still made, and that the traceries in it are as delicate as any which are to be seen in the Taj. Other quarries near Jaipur are also in operation. In the " Hand Book of the economic products of the Punjab," by Mr. Baden H. Powell, there is a list of marbles of which the following are the principal : (1) an inferior marble which, however, takes a good polish from Narnul, in the Pattiala territory ; (2) grey marble from Bhunsi ; (3) black marble from Kashmir ; (4) white and veined marble from Sardi in Jhelum ; (5) yellow marble from Manairi, Yusufzai.

In the Narbada valley, the marble rocks, justly famous for the excessive beauty of the deep gorge cut through them by the river, consist of a tolerably pure white saccharine limestone. This is the strongest local development of the calcareous element which occurs with the schists in the Bijour series of rocks.

The marble, except locally in some of the temples, has not been used for building purposes. It is much jointed on the surface, and has been a good deal crushed by tilting into the present vertical position of its beds and by the trap dykes which traverse it. But it seems probable that large blocks might be extracted, and it is possible that portions might be obtained of sufficiently fine quality for statuary purposes* but I am not aware of any attempt having been made to use it in this way.

I must add, however, that according to Dr. Balfour's Cyclopcedia, a block sent to the Paris exhibition of 1855 (?) was pronounced to be equal to Italian marble for statuary purposes.

Several localities in Bengal might be mentioned, where more or less pure crystalline limestones occur, hut these are not of much economic importance. Silica, tremolite, and serpentine are the chief foreign minerals which occur in these crystalline calcareous rocks.

In his work on building stones, Mr. Hull mentions among other localities Syepore, Gya, and Durha in Bengal as localities where marble occurs in India. The name Syepore (whence the mineral called Syeporite) has its origin in a clerical error, and the names should stand as Jaipore or Jaipur, as it is now spelt, and Jaipfirite. I am not aware of any marble being found at or near Gya, though the black basalt used in the temples there may very possibly have been so called by some visitor or antiquarian. As for Durha I am quite unable to trace any place bearing the name in Bengal proper. Possibly it may be Dura, near Bhurtpur, in the Agra district of the North-Western Provinces. If so, the marble in use there probably comes from Jaipur.

In the IChasia Hills it is said that much of the nummulitic limestone would produce most durable and occasionally very handsomely veined marble. It would answer well for ordinary purposes, chimney-pieces, slabs for tables, garden seats, and for flooring tiles.

In Southern India there are several well known localities where more or less ornamental and durable marbles are obtained ; samples of these have been from time to time collected,

Some parts are obviously too silicious to be so employed.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

polished and exhibited both in Madras and Europe ; favorable reports have been published, and there the matter has been allowed to rest.*

In the Palnad, according to Mr. King, there are some particularly well colored marbles. There are also breccia beds of various colors " in the western scarps of the Jummulmudgoos and the bottom of the slates in the Chey-air field." Dr. Balfour describes the marbles of the Kadapa District as being of various shades of green.

At Coimbatore, according to Mr. H. Blanford, there are crystalline limestones suscep tible of a high polish, and very transparent, which would afford a very beautiful material for internal decorations, the effect of which would be enhanced by the judicious selection of slabs of various tints. Pink and grey, occasionally approaching white, are the prevailing colors of the stone."

In Burma, for statuary purposes, marble is largely employed. The material for the well known sitting and recumbent figures of Gaudama is said to be obtained chiefly from the Tsygen Hills near the village of Mowe in the district of Madeya.

References.

Medlicott, J. — Nerbudda ... Mem. Geol

Oldham, T. — Khasia Hills ... „

Blanford.— Coimbatore ... „

King, W. — Trichinopoli and Kadapa „

Keene. — Agra — Stone Industries of Agra.

Powell, B. H, — Punjab — Punjab Products.

Balfour. — Madras, &c., Art. Marble — Cyclopoedia

V. — Gypsum.

As a building stone gypsum has been very little used in India. To some small extent it is manufactured locally, where it occurs, into ornaments, and is occasionally employed for mixing with lime to produce a hard and shining surface on chunam work. The manufacture of plaster of Paris from calcined gypsum appears to be unpractised by and unknown to the natives.

Gypsum in quantities of importance and deserving of notice is found only, so far as 1 know, in the Salt Range in the Punjab, parts of the Lower Himalayas, Spiti, Kach, and Madras.

Its manner of occurrence at these various localities varies much.

In the Salt Range, according to Dr. Fleming, + gypsum occurs scattered in irregular beds and huge mass throughout the marl in which rock-salt also occurs. It is " for the most part of a light grey color, with a shade of blue and translucent on the edges. It has a saccharine appearance, but masses in which a coarse crystalline structure prevails are by no means uncommon. Red varieties also occur, and beds of a dark grey earthy gypsum are generally associated with the saccharine kind."

It is said to be very abundant at Pind Dadun Khan. It also occurs at Mari, Kalabagh, and Surdi, where it contains quartz-crystals of various colours, which are known as Mari diamonds, and are much used by the natives for necklaces, &c. The marl on Mount Kuringil is also said to contain abundance of gypsum.

Dr. Fleming suggested the gypsum of Pind Dadun Khan being made use of by the Public Works Department for building purposes.

The marl in which this gypsum occurs is considered to be of silurian age.

. Surv., India, II, p. 135.

„ I, p. 185.

„ I, p. 247.

„ IV, p. 370, & VIII, 282.

According to Mr. Balfour's Cyclopoedia: "Specimens sent to the great exhibition in 1851 were favorably reported upon as indicative of a valuable material, adapted to sculptural and ornamental purposes, t Jour. As. Soc., Bengal, XXII, p. 250.

Ball : Building and Ornamental Slones of India.

In Mr. Medlicott's account of the Sub-Himalayan rocks of North-Western India* he states that gypsum occurs in several parts of the district ; it is found in lumps in the ferrugi nous clays of the Subathu group, and at Sahansadhara, below Masuri, it occurs in small irregular veins through limestone.

Mr. Mallet has described the deposits of gypsum in the Spiti valley. He believes them to be derived from thermal springs, as the masses occur at all levels unstratified and amor phous, and what is more to the point, the thermal springs are at present depositing gypsum with the carbonate of lime. The origin is traced to chemical reaction between iron pyrites and carbonate of lime, the former abounding in the underlying black slates.

Mr. Mallet concludes his observations thus : " The compact unaltered portions of the

gypsum are of a snowy whiteness, and would form a beautiful material for ornamental pur poses. All of it, from its apparent purity and freedom from iron, &c., might be manufac tured into very superior plaster of Paris. One fatal bar, however, exists to its economic employment, namely, the mountain carriage across the entire breadth of the Himalayas."

In Each Mr. Wynne! reports the existence of gypseous shales below the regular nummulitic beds ; but the deposit of gypsum appears to be inconsiderable there.

In Madras gypsum occurs in several places. " It is most abundant in the Ootatoor beds (cretaceous), especially in the belemnite clays to the east of Ootatoor and in the unfossiliferous clay to the north-east of Muravuttoor.§

It might be obtained in any quantity for ordinary purposes, such as moulds ; but for casts it is generally too impure ; however, selected portions, chiefly in the form of transparent plates of selenite, would answer for a small demand for the latter purpose.

Dr. Balfour, in his Cyclopaedia, besides the above, also enumerates the following localities. The Chingleput District, Sadras, Ennore, the Bed Hills, Nellore, Masulipatam, and Bangalore.

Gypsum is used by the natives medicinally, and can be obtained in most bazars in small quantities.

VI. — Ornamental Stones.

The use of ornamental stones in buildings in India, either in the way of mosaic or on a larger scale, has not been much practised latterly.

Probably the finest extant example is afforded by the inlaid work in the Taj at Agra. The following is a list of the stones used there as ascertained by Dr. Voysey : —

Name.

Locality.

Lapis Lazuli

Jasper

... Basaltic trap of Hindustan.

Heliotrope

... Basaltic trap of Hindustan.

Chalcedon Agate

Chalcedony

. . . ( Basaltic trap of Hindustan ; also from

Cornelian

Sarde

Plasma, or Quartz and Chlorite . . .

Yellow and striped marble

Clay slate

P

Nephrite or Jade ...

?

Mem. Geol. Surv.,

India, Vol. Ill, p. 177.

t

„ V, p. 167.

„ IX, p. 266.

§

„ IV, p. an.

no

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The following passage will give some idea of the elaborate character of these mosaics: "A single flower in the screen around the tombs, or Sarcophagi, contains a hundred stones, each cut to the exact shape necessary, and highly polished ; and in the interior alone of the building, there are several hundred flowers, each containing a like number of stones."

In various parts of the basaltic areas of India varieties of agates and jasper occur in considerable abundance, and are collected aud sold to lapidaries, who cut them into useful and ornamental articles; but they are not much used for mural decoration or mosaics at the present day. In the valley of the Narbada and Sone such pebbles are found somewhat abundantly. I believe there is no case of the original matrix, the basalt, being worked for them, but the gravelly beds of some of the tertiary rocks, which consist mainly of debris from the basalt, are mined in several places. In Western India the mines at Ruttunpur, east of Broach, are the principal. The stones found thero are sold to the lapidaries of Cambay and Jabalpur.

In the Rajmehal Hills very beautiful agates, common opal, and other varieties of silica are abundant, but are not, so far as I know, sought after or collected.

At Vellum, in Trichinopoli, some tertiary grits contain pebbles of rock crystal, smoky quartz, cairngorm and amethyst, which arc cut by the local lapidaries.

References.

Voysey, Asiatic Researches, Vol. XV, p. 429.

Blanford, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. VI, p. 219.

King, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. IV, p. 370.

Keene on the Stone Industries of Agra, 1873.

VII. — Limestone.

Under the head of Madble I have separately described those varieties of limestone which, from their crystalline structure and ornamental appearance, are entitled to be so dignified. In the present section I shall confine myself to an account of the chiefly, but not exclusively non-crystalline varieties which are used or are available for use as building materials or for the manufacture of lime.

By far tbe most important deposits of rock limestone in the northern portion of the peninsula of India are those which occur in the Vindhyan series. In the lower Vindhyans occurs a group of tliin-bedded limestones which in the places where they are best exposed have a total of several hundred feet in thickness. At Eotasgarh it is chiefly quarried for burning. It is brought down tbe Sone in boats and into tbe Ganges, by which means it is distributed over a considerable area of country. When the Sone canal is opened this trade will probably become more regular, and it is possible that Calcutta may be supplied from this source, a contingency much to be desired in view of the great expense of Sylbet lime, which is that which is principally used at present.

Attention has been drawn to this limestone too as being, within a reasonable distance, the only source of a material of steady, known composition capable of affording a suitable flux for employment in the proposed iron-works in the Raniganj country.

It should be mentioned, however, that tbe steady composition can only be depended on in individual layers, as the proportion of associated argillaceous matter varies in successive layers.

This rock has been traced as far west as tbe neighbourhood of Katni on the Jabalpur line ; at Murwara, dec., quarries have been opened where tbe J abalpur railway crosses tbe outcrop.

part 3.] Ball : Building and Ornamental Slones of India.

Higher in the Vindhyan series the Bander group includes a limestone which is not only used as a source of lime, but as a building stone in the Dumoli district, where it is preferred to the lower sandstone ; the same is said to be the case in the vicinity of Nimacli.

Some of this stone was reported on favorably for lithographic purposes, but it has never come into use.

In several parts of Bengal occupied by the metamorphio rocks limestones occur, but they are in general too much impregnated with foreign minerals to be of use either as build ing stones or as sources of lime.

In the neighbourhood of the Kkasi Hills the so-called Sylhet limestone is extensively manufactured into lime for the Calcutta market. The principal factories are at Chatak and Sonamganj, and along the banks of the river Surma between these two villages. The quarries are " near the village of Tungwai or Tingye, from which tho stone is brought to the neighbourhood of Pondua and to Chatak. Other very large quarries are in the vicinity of the great orange groves between Teria-ghat and Lacat, from which also the stone is con veyed to Chatak for burning." This limestone is of nummulitic age.

Under the head of marble will be found a notice of tho portions of it which come under that denomination. How far it has been used as a building stone, locally, I have no information, hut there is no reason to doubt that good building stone eoukl be obtained.

In Western India limestones occur in the metamorphio and the Bijour series; they are, however, usually too silicious to be employed in the manufacture of lime, and I can find no notice of their being employed as building stones ; hut some of the highly calcareous Bagh beds and the nummulitic limestones of Guzevat are used to a certain extent. Regard ing the latter, Mr. W. T. Blanford says : " It is difficult to obtain it in large masses, or to trim it neatly. It is employed by the natives for bowries, temples, &c., other compact calca reous beds being nsod for the same purpose."

In the north-west of India the limestones of the Lower Himalayas are, some of them, applicable to building purposes, and "some fit for ornamental or monumental purposes might be found among tho thick-bedded, hard limestones of the Krol group."

The lime in this area is chiefly made from a porous tufa, which occurs along the flanks of the limestone ridges.

In Southern India limestones of at least three distinct geological periods are used as building stones. The oldest of these are the crystalline limestones of the metamorphio series. At Coimbatore there is a limestone belonging to this series which has attracted some attention, as it would make a good building stone as well as being a source of lime ; while portions are highly ornamental, as is mentioned under the head of marble. This limestone is described by Mr. Blanford in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, and at greater length in the Madras Journal of Science. Mr. King also, in his Geology of Trichinopoli, mentions this rock and gives some additional localities. He states that it has been used as a building stone in connection with the Madras andBeypur railway, and has given complete satisfaction.

The two series of metamorphosed rocks occurring in Southern India, and which are known by the names Kadapa and Karnfil, each contain limestones. For building pur poses those of the latter seem to be the most important. The Karnul series belongs, it is considered, to the same general age as the Vindhyan of the northern parts of India. Mr. King remarks in reference to these rocks. " Tho limestones, where they are at hand, have been largely used by tho people of the country, the larger villages in the Khoond-air valley having their better houses built of well-selected and dressed Nergee beds, while the wells of the Kadapa and this valley are all lined with this stone." Mr. King anticipates that the railway and canals will tend to dcvclopc the use of these building materials.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

There are still to be mentioned the limestones of cretaceous age which occur in South ern India. These are of two kinds, one being purely sedimentary, the other derived from coral reefs. As building stones they are somewhat extensively used by the natives, but, according to Mr. H. Blanford, " are ill qualified for exposed exteriors, where they rapidly yield to the heavy tropical rains."

References.

Mallet ... On the Vindhyan series, Mem. Gcol. Surv., India, VII, p. 113.

Oldham ... Kh£si Hills, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, I, p. 181.

Medlicott ... Lower Himalaya, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, III, p. 170.

Blanford, W. T. ... Western India, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VI, p. 380.

Blanford, II. ... Southern India, Nilghiri Hills, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, IV, p. 201, and I, p. 246.

King, W. ... Trichinopoli and Karnul, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, IV, p. 370, and VIII, p. 282.

PoBEBUNDER STONE OK MlEIOLITE.

The name miliolite was given by Dr. Carter to a rock which is found in the neigh bourhood of Porebunder in Guzerat. Though somewhat oolitic in structure, it is not of

oolitic age, and therefore the above name was given to distinguish it.

It is considered to be of newer tertiary, probably pliocene age. In Guzerat its greatest development is in tbe Gir Hills, where, as also in some of the valleys, it rests upon an arenaceous clay. It is a wide spread deposit, and is said to occur on parts of the coast of Arabia and in Kacli.#

As it appears in Guzerat it is a somewhat coarse calcareous grit, abounding in foramiuifera towards the west, but containing fewer organisms, and being more argillaceous towards the east. As a building stone it is admirably suited to many purposes, but is said to be incapable of sustaining great pressure. It is largely quarried about twelve miles from Porebunder, from whence it is shipped to Bombay and other places.

In Bombay it has been largely nsed for building purposes, more particularly in the construction of the recently erected Government buildings.

References.

Carter

Theobald

„ Guzerat, M. S.

Wynne

... Kach, Mem- Geol. Surv., India, IX, p. 81.

Balfour

Mere wether

... Building stone in Western India, P. P. of I. E., VI, 1869, p. 137.

Kunkur ob Gutin.

The calcareous concretions which occur in the alluvial clays, and which are known under one or other of tbe above names, occupy a very important position as a building material, being in very many parts of tbe country the only source of lime. In addition to this, some of the more massive varieties are used as building stones in parts of India as in the Central Doab.

In the bridges on the Ganges Canal between Kurki and the Nanun Pork block kunkur has been largely employed, except for the archwork. In the case of the Kasimpur bridge the external faces of the arches themselves have, however, been made of this material.

In the vicinity of this section of the canal the block kunkur is readily procurable.

Block kunkur was also much used in the bridges on the Fatehgarh and Koel branches of the Ganges Canal. It is thus described by Colonel Sir Proby T. Cautley : " In extremes,

the stone may be described, in its most perfect state, as a gray semi-crystalline rock, tough,

The Kach rock, which has been supposed to represent the miliolite, is, according to Mr. Wynne, devoid of organisms.

Ball : Building and Ornamental Stones of India.

with occasional amygdaloidal or irregularly shaped hollows, dispersed through its mass, the hollows being filled with earth. In its most imperfect state (I allude simply to the block kunkur which is available for building purposes) these hollows are more numerous, and they give to the rock a honeycombed appearance to which I have before adverted. It is found in extensive tabular masses or strata (generally accompanied by sand), the upper and lower sides of which are slaty and apparently imperfectly indurated ; the induration, in fact, increases towards the centre, where it is frequently of the hardest description of the newest lime rocks, and of a crystalline character."

Owing to the honeycombed surface of the stone, it was found necessary to protect it by stucco from the direct action of the water and of the atmosphere. This rock has also been used, where readily obtainable, in the construction of buildings connected with the railroad.

Block kunkur, similar to the above, is obtained in parts of the Jamna below the ordi nary water level. Its more common form is in nodules, and in this form its occurrence is so general throughout alluvial soils in India wherever they exist that it were useless to attempt to indicate its geographical distribution in detail.

The better qualities of kunkur contain 70 per cent, of carbonate of lime ; from this down wards the proportion constantly varies with the amount of clay or sand which is taken up.

Besides its usual employment for mortar, it is, when burnt and powdered without slaking, an excellent material for hydraulic cement. To this purpose of course only certain varieties are applicable.

VIII. — Sandstones.

Several of the recognised formations in India afford sandstones admirably suited for building, and some of them have from very early times been largely drawn upon for the supply of materials for this purpose.

Among these formations the great Vindhyan series stands pre-eminent. The difficulty in writing of the uses to which these rocks have been put is not in finding examples, but in selecting from the numerous ancient and modern buildings which crowd the cities of the North-Western Provinces and the Gangetic valley generally, and in which the stone-cutter's art often appears in its highest perfection.

The Lower Vindhyans,* consisting for the most part of shales and more or less flaggy limestones, and from the inaccessible position of the rocks in some of the principal places where they occur, as in the Son valley and Bandelkand, have not been worked to any great extent.

The Kaimurs, however, have been worked extensively at Chunar, Mirzapur, and Purtabpur, as well as at minor intermediate points. The sandstones are in general fine-grained and of reddish-yellow or greyish-white colors. They occur in beds which are said to vary in thickness — at Purtabpur and similarly elsewhere, from 6 inches to 8 feet. These beds often spread for long distances without any joints or fissures to break the continuity, in conse quence of which very large blocks can and have been extracted for various purposes.

In the Riwa group, overlying the Kaimurs, the sandstones are not so much used for building purposes.

" This is due partly to the beds being frequently coarse and harsh, and greatly subject to false bedding ; partly to the fact that the Riwas do not occur much close to the Gangetic valley or to large cities. Some portions are, however, of superior quality, and supply all local wants."

Above the Bias come the Lower Banders, which are described as being, for the most part, coarse, harsh, and gritty, and occurring only in thin beds.

The following particulars are chiefly taken from Mr. Mallet's Memoir.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The Upper Banders, however, make up for the deficiencies of the underlying group by affording two varieties of excellent building stone, one dark-red, sometimes quite unspotted, sometimes streaked and dashed with yellowish-white spots.

The other is a yellowish-white, very fine grained roclc, perfectly homogeneous both in texture and colour.

The latter is said to be, on the whole, the better building stone on account of its more uniform coloring and its being not so liable to disintegration from the effects of long con tinued exposure.

Probably the earliest use to which any of the rocks of the Vindhyan formation were put to was in the manufacture of stone implements, many of which, formed of the denser indurated varieties of sandstone, have been found in India.

So far as I have been able to ascertain there are no cave temples, or at least none of much note in the Vindhyan sandstones. But there are memorials of a very different class, many of which date from a period before which the idea of using stone in the construction of houses had not been entertained. At any rate, there are no buildings or remains of buildings which can with safety be regarded as belonging to so remote a period.

These memorials are the great monoliths or lots, many of which bear the edicts of Asoka, the protector of the earliest Buddhists, and who reigned about 250 B. C. Besides these pillars he is said to have erected 84,000 Buddhist sanctuaries called stupas or topes.*

Some of these monoliths are of great size, and are generally polished throughout the portion intended to be exposed. They were surmounted by carved and ornamented capitals, upon which figures of lions or elephants were placed.

The polished portion of the shaft tapered uniformly from base to summit, and in every way these remarkable monuments testify to considerable skill in the stone-cutter's art. Still it would appear that this art was not made use of in the erection of buildings, and when the first stone temples were excavated and adorned a century later, the stone architecture, as pointed out and described by Mr. Fergusson, was a " mere transcript of wooden forms," showing that at that time the art of using stone for these purposes was only being then first adopted, and that though the material was changed, the workmen continued to use the designs suited to wood. It was only gradually through several succeeding centuries that the forms and designs became suitable to the material. £

It is considered by the best authorities that the palaces, temples, and buildings generally of those early times were mainly constructed of wood, as they are for the most part in Burma and Siam at the present day.

The resemblance between these monoliths and those of Egypt, some of which have been taken away into Europe, cannot fail to strike the attention. The connection is believed to be more than a mere apparent one, the discussion of which, however, belongs to the province of the Antiquary.

As these lats afford the most striking evidence which can be given of the size of the stones which are obtainable from the Vindhyan sandstones and the durability of the material, I append the following enumeration of the principal of them which are known. The details are chiefly from General Cunningham's Archaeological reports : —

Balfour's Cyclopedia, Article Asoka. t Stone monuments, Fergusson, 1S72, p. 456.

t It is right to add that this deduction of Mr. Fergusson is contested by Babu Bajendra Lai Mitter. See Jour. As. Soe„ Beugal.

List of remarkable Monoliths in India.

Ball : Building and Ornamental Stones of India.

Mr. Mallet mentions two large blocks which are found " about a mile south-east of Rupas near the quarry from which they were cut the dimensions of these suggest a near connection with those enumerated above. Not improbably they belong to the Asoka period. One is a circular column 34/ 6" long, with upper and lower diameters of 2' 8" and 3' 3". The others a parallelopiped 42' 6" long by 5' 3" x 3' 8" and 5' 9" x 4' 1", with an estimated weight of nearly 60 tons. The neighbouring villagers appear to know nothing of their history.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The quarries at Dehri on the Son are the most eastern of all those which have .been opened in the Vindhyan rocks. At present they are largely worked in connection with the Son irrigation and canal projects. The stone 'is a compact whitish sandstone susceptible of artistic treatment, and, what is of more importance for the present purpose to which it is put, strong and durable.

The next point of importance where there are quarries is Chunar. The vicinity of the Ganges has, during a period of at least 2,000 years, afforded a ready means of transport for the excellent building stones which are obtained from the Kaimur l'ocks at Chunar.

The East Indian Kailway now affords an additional means of transport, but is, however, I believe, not very much used for the purpose, water carriage being so very much cheaper.

Benares, and other cities and towns of less note, both in ancient and modern times, have largely used Chunar sandstone. The ghats at Benares, the palaces, the walls, the minarets, and many of the temples are built of this material. To Calcutta a certain quantity is brought for paving and tombstones, &c. The only stone church in Calcutta is St. John's, which is built of Chunar stone.

It has also been used to some extent in other buildings in Calcutta, but for paving pur poses, as has elsewhere been shown, the so-called Burdwan stone has also been employed.

The next quarries to be mentioned are those of Mirzapur, which, with those of Purtabpur and Seorajpur, have supplied Mirzapur and Allahabad with material for the construction of their buildings, both ancient and modern. The stone for the Jamna bridge was, according to Mr. Mallet, obtained from some quarries a few miles up the river, whence it was brought down in boats.

From this the limits of the Yindhyan rocks sweep southwards in a great bay, and the next place where they have been worked to any large extent is in the neighbourhood of Gwalior, where they have been used in the construction of forts, temples, &c. It may be men tioned too that in the exposed faces of sandstone there are carved some figures of Titanic dimensions.

Although, as was remarked, the sandstones of the Kiwa group are not generally used, still " in the neighbourhood of Hosungabad and also in the SCpri and Gwalior districts some thin red flags from £ to 1 inch thick are much used for roofing."

Perhaps the most important quarries in India are those in the upper Banders to the south of Bartpur, at Fatipur Sikri, and Kupas, which have furnished building materials since before the commencement of the Christian era to the cities of the adjoining plains. Por tions of the Taj at Agra, Akber's palace at Fatipur Sikri, the Jamma musjid at Delhi, and generally the grandest and the meanest buildings in Agra, Delhi, and Mutra (Mathura) have drawn upon these quarries for their materials.

To quote Mr. Mallet again : " Tire palace of the Rajah of Bartpur at Deeg, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful edifices in India, testifies at once to the excellence of the stone employed and the skill attained by the stone-cutters of that district. Cupolas resting on slender shafts of 2 and 3 inches diameter, arches supported on strong, yet graceful pillars, windows formed of single slabs of stone perforated into the most elaborate tracing, meet one at every turn."

In conclusion, it may be mentioned that the sandstones both here and at Chunar have been largely used for telegraph posts ; the facility with which some of the varieties split renders it possible to obtain posts 16' long of material which will resist white ants and the action of the weather.

Thus the ancient pillars of Yindhyan sandstone have been instrumental in annihilating time by preserving in an imperishable record fragments of the history of upwards of two

part 3.] Ball : Building and Ornamental Stones of India.

thousand years ago, while the posts of to-day have been subservient to the destruction of space, for it may be said that the telegraph which bears our messages from Calcutta to Peshawur over a distance of 1,500 miles in a few seconds of time practically overcomes space.

The preceding remarks refer only to the Vindhyan rocks, as exhibited in the great Vindhyan and associated ranges on the south of the Gangetic valley. In order to complete this notice, it will be necessary to allude to the occurrence of rocks believed to belong to the same geological period in other parts of the peninsula.

Between Sambalpur and Raipur in the valley of the Mahanadi, a series of sandstones shales and limestones, considered to be contemporaneous with some of the Vindhyan series, occupy a considerable area. But in that wild part of the country there has as yet been no local demand for building stones.

Again, rocks referable to the Vindhyan series occur in the country to the south of Nagpur, in the region about the confluence of the Weinganga and Warda rivers.

In the Kamul district south of the Kistna there is another series of limestones, shales and quartzites which is considered to be referable to the Vindhyans.

Mr. King, in his description of these rocks and the underlying Kadapa formation, says : " There is no lack of good and easily wrought stone all over the district ; but these can only become of value as they are locally required or as the means of communication are opened out over the district."*

For further examples of the uses to which these sandstones have been put in ancient times reference should be made to General Cunningham's Archaeological Survey Reports.

Among the sandstones of the Damuda series (the representative of the carboniferous period in India) there are several varieties which are suited for building purposes and which have already to a small extent been made use of.

Throughout the Damuda valley where these rocks occur, they have been used in the construction of temples, some of which are of considerable antiquity. Among the finest examples three Jain temples at Barakar are deserving of particular notice, as exhibiting some rather elaborate carving which has stood well.

But still more ancient work in this material is to be seen in the caves of Sirguja and Chang Bokkar, which bear inscriptions in the old Pali character, testifying to their extreme antiquity.

In recent times the sandstones at Barakar have been quarried largely for local use in the construction of the Barakar bridge and for various purposes in connection with the East Indian Bailway. A considerable portion of the new High Court in Calcutta is also built of this material. Being readily accessible at the terminus of the Barakar branch of the railway, this rock will probably always be more or less used for purposes to which brick is not suited.

In Hazaribagh and Ranchi some of the sandstones of this series have been used to a small extent, and the flaggy beds of the underlying Talchirs to a somewhat larger extent for paving the European barracks, &c.

References to these sandstones will be found in the numerous reports on coal-fields in the Memoirs and Records of the Geological Survey.

References.

Voysey, on the building stones and Mosaic of Akberabad or Agra, Asiatic Kesearches, XV, 1825, p. 429. Owen, Purtabpur stone quarries, P. P. on I. E., II, 1865, p. 81.

Blanford, W. T., Western India, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VI, 218.

Mallet, Vindhyan series, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VII, p. 116.

King, Kadapa and Kamul formations, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VIII, p. 281.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The sandstones of the various groups included in the Mahadeva series have been largely used ; the members of the lower groups are, however, in many cases either too friable or contain too much iron to be lasting when exposed to the atmosphere.

In the Bagra group, a sub-division of the Mahadevas, there are sandstones applicable to building purposes, and which have been used to some extent locally. The Tawa viaduct is built of these sandstones.

Some of the beds of sandstone in the Jabalpur group yield an useful building material. A very dense indurated variety, which occurs in the station of Jabalpur, has been quarried to a considerable extent for local purposes.* § The viaduct over the Narbada below Jabalpur furnishes the most important example of the applicability of the sandstones of this group to building purposes.

Close to Katak (Cuttack) there are some sandstones which Mr. B1 an ford considers to be younger than the Mahadevas, but the exact age of which is, from the absence of fossil remains, still uncertain. These sandstones were used in the construction of temples at Bobaneswar, and to some extent for various building purposes in Katak ; but laterite and gneiss seem to have been more largely employed. Some ancient caves at Kundageree have been exca" vated in these rocks. t

The intertrappean rocks of the Eajmehal series, whose contained fossil plants present a markedly jurassic facies, consist of sandstones, flag beds, and shales. The two former are occasionally employed for local building purposes, but cannot be considered to be of much importance.

The compact sandstones of this series at Conjeveram and several other places offer, according to Mr. Foote, a very easily dressed and moderately durable building stone.

In reference to the jurassic rocks of Kach, Mr. Wynne says : " The finer grained

slightly calcareous yellow sandstones of the lower jurassic group form tolerable building stone ; and some of the close, hard silicious grit bands, though difficult to trim or dress fine, would afford a very lasting material for rough work."

Several other sandstones are locally used. Mr. Wynne gives a list of the different building stones used in Bhuj, as furnished to him by His Highness the Eao of Kach.

Rocks of this age are found in the Rajmehal Hills, U'tatur (Ootatoor), and at various places on the east coast between Trichinopoli and the Godaveri and in Kach.J

The Bagh beds, which belong, it is considered, to the cretaceous period, contain some good sandstones suited to building purposes. Mr. Blanford, in his report on Western India, says : " The massive sandstone of the Deva and those which occur throughout the country

to the south of Allirajpur and Bagh would furnish excellent material. The gritty calcareous bed at the top, where it is not too cherty, would be well adapted for construction and could be easily worked.§

Medlicott, Records, Geological Survey, V, p. 77.

t References.

Building materials of the district of Cuttack, Jour. As. Soc., Bengal, XI, p. 836. Memoirs, Geological Survey, I, pp. 250 and 277.

Records, Geological Survey, V, p. 59.

X References.

Oldham, Jour. As. Soc., Bengal, and Pal. Ind.

Foote, on the Geology of Madras, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. X, p. 132. Wynne, Geology of Kach, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. IX, p. 93.

§ Blanford, Western Iudia, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VI, p. 380.

Ball : Building and Ornamental Slones of India.

The rocks of the Sivalik and Nahan groups which represent the upper and middle tertiary period of Europe are generally too unconsolidated to form durable building stones. These rocks, as is well known, form the outer ranges of the Himalayas at various places from west to east-

Mr. Medlicott remarks : " Those stations, as Dagshai, Kasaoli, Subathu, Dhurmsala,

which are built on the eocene groups of the Suh-Himalayan series, have an unfailing supply of good building material in the massive sandstone rocks. Among the older rocks there is no stone fit for anything but that for which rough rubble may he used. There are several examples of native architecture along the border of the plains for which an excellent building stone was obtained from rocks of the Sivalik group, but it must have been found in detached blocks and discontinuous hands, the mass of the rock being quite unfit for the purpose. Stone fit for ornamental or monumental purposes might be found among the thick-bedded, hard limestones of the Krol group."*

Quartzites.

The gradation from the loosest and most granular sandstone to the most intensely vitrified quartzite is so complete that it is impossible to draw a sharp line of demarcation between them. I therefore place the quartzites with the sandstones in this enumeration. Were the arrangement a purely geological one, a large portion of them would have to be classed with the schistose or gneissic rocks.

If we except those varieties of the Vindhyan and Karnul sandstones which are some times called quartzites, the use of rocks coming under this denomination has been very inconsiderable. Indeed the only instance known of a quartzite being regularly quarried is in the Susinia Hill in Manbhum. The works there were carried on for some years by the Burdwan Paving Stone Company, and large quantities of the stone have been used in Calcutta for pavings, copings, and other similar purposes. There are several varieties of this material found ; in some there is a large proportion of felspar, when it should be called granulit rather than quartzite.

Although these rocks have been so little used, the Bijaur or suhmetamorphic series, in many parts of the country, afford quartzites suitable for building purposes ; wherever these occur in the vicinity of Vindhyan sandstones, the latter will naturally be preferred, as they are in most instances much more easily worked. The vitreous fracture of many quartzites is in fact a bar to their employment where much finish is required.

IX. — Laterite.

The term laterite has been applied generically to a group of rocks which play an important part in the superficial geology of India. The common character which persists throughout all the varieties of laterite is the possession of a ferruginous element which is in the form of brown hydrated peroxide on the surface, sometimes as the black magnetic ore inside. The reddish-brown appearance, due to the presence of the peroxide, explains the origin of the name ( later , a brick) which was, I believe, first conferred upon it by Dr. Buchanan.

The various forms in which laterite occurs are due to differences of composition and differences of structure. The combinations of these two qualities produce almost infinite varieties. The principal structural varieties are either nodular or cellular, the former being the younger, and it is supposed, in a measure, derived from the latter. The varieties in composition vary much in the quantity of the peroxide which they contain and in the character of the other materials. Both classes pass off into mere detrital laterite, to the ferruginous element in which they have no doubt mainly contributed.

Medlicott, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, III, p. 175.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

This is not the place for going into details or enumerating the various theories winch have been suggested to account for the origin of this most singular deposit. It may be mentioned, however, that no theory accounts satisfactorily for the sources whence the large amount of iron can have been derived.

The distribution of laterite in India is widespread throughout the Peninsula, Ceylon, and in Burma. It occurs not only as a costal deposit underneath the Eastern and Western Ghats, but also in many parts of the interior, not unfrequently capping lofty hills and plateaus to a depth of several hundred feet, often producing the dead level surfaces which constitute a striking feature in Indian scenery. Although perhaps it shows its finest deve lopment on or in the vicinity of trappean rocks, it occurs resting on rocks of all periods, occasionally far removed from any exposure of trap. It has not been observed, I believe, in any part of the Himalayas.

As a building stone, though it can hardly be called ornamental, it possesses some quali ties which render it acceptable in the eyes of the natives ; it is easily worked, hardens on exposure, and wears well. In the costal districts many temples, some of considerable anti quity, are built of laterite and appear to have stood well. In the Kajmehal Hills there is a small fort built of neatly cut blocks of laterite without mortar. These blocks have retained their original sharp edges.

In Midnapur and Orissa slabs of from 4 to 5 feet long are extracted by cutting a groove round the slab above and another underneath, a few wedges are then driven into the latter, and the slab splits off. This or a nearly similar process is used for the extraction of blocks of laterite in all parts of the country where it is worked by natives.

Mr. King, in his Geology of Trichinopoli, says : " Where of poor quality, the laterite

soon crumbles away when exposed to the influences of weather and moisture, as may be seen in the basement of many of the houses in the Port of Tanjore. The laterite has there weathered away, leaving the walls perfectly honeycombed, and the layers of mortar, which are more durable, standing out as a regular net-work." In a note Mr. Foote adds : " The laterite in this case was in all probability badly selected, for in all my subsequent observa tions of this stone as a building material, it would appear that continued exposure to at mospheric influences, or wet, as in the case of tanks or bowries, only tends to improve the stone. Most of the religious edifices and tanks constructed of this stone show the lines and angles of the carvings as sharply as though fresh from the builder's hands."

Mr. H. Blanford also remarks : " At Andanapet I noticed some carved blocks forming part of an old and ruined pagoda the mouldings of which were as perfect as when first cut. Owing to its porous structure, however, laterite is but little fitted for fine sculpture."

Laterite has been largely used in the works in connection with the irrigation operations in Orissa. The anicut on the Kossai at Midnapur has been altogether built of this mate rial. The stone for these purposes has, I believe, given the engineers much satisfaction.

The Yellour anicut at Chetia-tope near Bhowagiri in the Trichinopoli district is partly built of laterite.

Dr. Balfour gives the Arcade Inquisition at Goa, St. Mary's Church, Madras, and the old fortress at Malacca, as examples of its use in the construction of buildings by Europeans.*

References.

Midnapur, Orissa, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, I, p.'277.

W. T, Blanford, on Laterite, Mem, Geol. Surv., India, I, p. 280. H. Blanford, Southern India, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, IV, p. 200, King, Trichinopoli, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, IV, p. 372.

Balfour, Cyclopaedia, Art . Laterite.

Ball : Building and Ornamental S/ones of India.

X. — Slates.

For building purposes, more particularly for roofing, slates have not been much used in India, except in some of the stations of the North-West Himalayas. This is probably due to two causes, the first and principal being that in the oriental style of flat-roofed archi tecture which is generally adopted for British buildings in India, slates could be only partially employed, and in the alluvial districts their place is amply filled by tiles.

Secondly, most of the slates known to occur in India, are either non-cleavable, or, if cleavable, retain also their laminated faces. The laminated slates are difficult to work into sufficiently thin layers, and are not much used, as an undue amount of timbering becomes requisite to support the weight of slates of this character.

At Dalhousie there are some large quarries in which there are slates and schists of various qualities. The best are said to be much more schistose than Welsh slates, still they are readily fissile, can be easily dressed, and can be obtained of considerable size. The fissile plains are in this instance parallel or nearly so to those of lamination.

The slates in use at Simla* are, according to Mr. Medlicott, distinctly laminated, and in every way inferior to those obtained along the flanks of the Dhaoladhar, and which are Used at Dalhousie and Dhurmsala.

Slates, the qualities of which are not so well known, are also obtained at Ferozpur, Pali, Chimnawar, and Sonah, all in Gurgaon, and at Attook, Abbotabad, and Spiti.

At Chiteli, in Kumaon, occurs a slate which it was proposed to employ for roofing pur poses at Ranikhet and other places. Mr. Hughes, comparing this slate with the Welsh standard, writes : " It differs from the latter in splitting along the lines of lamination instead of the planes of cleavage. It is coarser in texture, more silicious (sandy), heavier, and has a duller ring on being struck." The supply is ample for all possible requirements, and slabs of a foot square, j of an inch thick, can bo obtained easily.

In the submetamorphic rocks (Bijaur series) of Chota Nagpur slates not uncommonly occur. In these the fissile planes are for the most part those of lamination. In Manbhum I met with a bed, however, which had most distinct cleavage structure, but there was also a tendency to split along the layers of lamination ; thus, this rock breaks up into regular prisms at the surface, but it is not impossible that a good slate might be obtained, as the material is compact and dense.

In Chaibassa the school-boys have only to run down to the stream near the town to obtain a new slate for doing their sums on.

In the Karakpur Hills, near Monghir, slates have been extracted.

The demand for slate is so small in Calcutta that I do not think it probable that these slates will ever be quarried to any large extent.

In the Champanir beds between Soorajpur and Jumbooghora, north-east of Baroda, there are some slates which, as far as can be judged from their appearance at the surface, are considered promising by Mr. Blanford.

In the Bijaur series near Bagh there are also slates which are not so fine grained as the preceding, but some of which might perhaps answer for roofing purposes.

Some of the slates which have been used at Simla for roofing temples are said to have lasted for hundreds of years.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Clay-slates occur both in the Kadapa and Karnul formations in Madras ; but though thin slabs can be obtained, they are not suited for roofing purposes, and where harder and more durable stone is obtainable their employment for flagging is not recommended.

References.

Powell, Panj&b Products.

Medlicott, N. W. Himalayas, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, III, p. 176.

Hughes' notes on the slates at Chilli, Kumaon, Records, Geol. Surv., India, III, p. 43.

Blanford, Geology of Western India, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VT, p. 217.

King, Kadapa and Karndl formations, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VIII, p. 281.

Second note on the mateeiais foe iron manufacture in the Raniganj Coal-field, by Theodore W. H. Hughes, a. r. s. m., f. g. s., G-eologieal Survey of India.

In continuation of my former paper* on the raw materials for iron smelting in the Raniganj field, I have a few analyses of iron ore and kunkur to record which will afford a more complete series for computing their values than already exists.

Iron-ore. — The percentage of iron in several different samples of ore from various spots in the Raniganj field has been given in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, f but the impurities were not separately estimated. In the following analyses the amount of alumina, lime, phosphoric acid, and insoluble residue, besides the iron, is indicated ; and a useful comparison can be instituted between the Raniganj ores and those of other countries. All the samples are derived from the iron-stone measures, known geologically as the iron stone shales group, and they were collected entirely in the western portion of the field : —

Bagunia No. 1.

Bagunia No. 2.

Boldih.

Chalbalpur.

Kulti.

'o

&#x27;C3

*cd

S

Sibpfir.

Remarks.

Insoluble

(a). A little magnesia and sulphuric acid

occur in the Chal balpur, Chin&kuri, and

Sesquioxide of iron

Malakold ores. Being small, it was not quan-

Protoxide of iron

titatively determined.

Alumina

Lime...

Magnesia

a

a

a

Phosphoric acid...

'71

57

Sulphuric acid ...

'55

a

a

a

Loss on ignition

Total

Metallic iron

Records, Geological Survey of India, 1874, Vol. VII, Pt. I, p. 20. f Memoirs, Geological Survey of India, 1860, Vol. Ill, Art. 1, p. 194.

part 3.] Hughes: Materials for iron manufacture, Raniganj Coal-field. 123

Phosphorus. — An abstract of the phosphorus contained in these samples shows that the minimum quantity is '23 per cent., while the maximum is T12 per cent. : —

Bagunia

23

31

Boldih

Chalbalpur

Kulti

62

89

Sibpur

Malakol#

These results indicate that much of the ironstone might be employed for the production of iron, but that some of them are bad.

It is possible that the quality of certain beds may be regular or nearly so, in respect to the amount of phosphorus they contain, and that by selection we may avoid the use of such bands as may be unsuitable. This feature must be determined before a final opinion can be expressed on the value of the ironstones.

Proportion of iron. — The proportion of iron is much larger than that contained in the bulk of ores employed in England ; and some specimens are much richer than is indicated by the foregoing analyses.*

Kunkur. — These samples were examined by Mr. Tween, showing the amount of oxide of iron, alumina, insoluble residue, water and organic matter contained in them. The mini mum quantity of carbonate of lime is 54 per cent. —

Barmdri,

Ramnagar.

Sanktoria.

Insoluble

Oxide of iron and alumina

Carbonate of lime...

Water and organic matter

Other samples of kunkur from the above localities gave of carbonate of lime—

Barmurt ... ... ... ... 61 '1 per cent.

Kiimnagar ... ... ... ... ... w.98 #

Snktoria ... ... ... 66*12

The finest specimens were since furnished by Mr. Hynd, of Basera. They contained as much as 79 5 per cent. A few analyses (in subjoined table) placed at my disposal by Mr. Dejoux show a range from 56'94 to 78'50 per cent, of carbonate of lime, giving an average result for the entire series of analyses of about 65 per cent. With this proportion of car bonate of lime, kunkur will be quite capable of acting as an efficient flux.

Raniganj .

Raniganj.

Raniganj.

Barr4kar.

Bhiokund.

Carbonate of lime

Carbonate ot magnesia

20

Oxide of iron

Clay

Total

ioo-oo

ioo-oo

ioo-oo

¥ A sample from the Madapftr properly of the Raniganj Coal Association yielded as much as 52'45 per cent, of iron, and lateritc from the same locality gave 25'38 per cent., which is above the average for that form of ore.

124 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vir.

Limestone. — Besides kunkur there is some impure rock-limestone near the village of Paharpur at the base of Panchet Hill. It is a well known bed, and is marked on the revised map of the Raniganj field. It contains 56'43 per cent, of carbonate of lime, and varies in thickness from 12 to 15 feet. A large quantity of stone might be obtained from it, but it possesses the. disadvantage of dipping at a high angle.

Calcareous nodules. — There is, in addition to kunkur and rock-limestone, another source of flux, and that is the calcareous nodules in the clay beds of the Panchet series. The average proportion of carbonate of lime was found to be 66'8 per cent. The importance of this supply is quite subordinate to the kunkur, but it is well to hear it in mind.

Calcareous concretions also occur in the Talohir series.

Limestone beyond the field. — In reference to limestone beyond the field, I have no additional information to record regarding the stone discovered by my colleague Mr. Mallet ; hut I have had an opportunity of inspecting a small quantity of limestone brought from the south side of the Damuda near Raniganj. It looks extremely pure, and if it occurs in anything like quantity, it would be of great value.* I scarcely anticipate, however, that it will be found in abundance, and the kunkur will, in the event of any attempt to establish large iron works, probably be the flux on which to rely.

Use of kunkur in Birbhhm iron works, 1860. — Kunkur was successfully employed in the Birbhum iron works, and Mr. Blanford, when reporting upon them in 1860, records as a fact that Mr- Casper, the manager, found it advantageous to partially burn the kunkur and then to slake it, in order to separate the more impure external parts.

This process could only he advantageously applied to the more regularly concretionary varieties of kunkur, showing centrical concentration, for the ordinary form of this rock is without any distinctive purer core.

Relative quantity of ore and kunkur. — I stated in my former paper that equal quanti ties of ore and kunkur would he required for the production of iron in a blast furnace. In the Birbhum works, a less proportion of kunkur was found to be sufficient, only 3 of kunkur to 7 of ore being necessary. Charcoal, however, was the fuel then employed, whereas in my experiments, coke containing as much as 30 and 40 per cent, of ash was used, and the ore was not quite so clean. With better coke, and an ore with an average of 42 per cent, of iron, the amount of kunkur requisite would be less. In estimates of the cost of manufacture, however, it is as well to he on the safe side, and equal quantities ought to bo allowed for.

Malleable iron. — For the production of malleable iron, the direct process, which, I am indirectly informed, has been quite recently perfected by Dr. Siemens, greatly improves the prospect of the undertaking in India, for the impure as well as for the purer ores. One of the chief objections made to this process by iron-masters in England, that a greater propor tion of the iron passes into the slag than occurs in the present method of manufacture, does not apply to the case in India, where a saving of materials is quite a secondary consi deration to that of a saving in skilled labour.

The advantage claimed for this process, of not bringing the phosphorus into combina tion with the iron, removes one of the most serious impediments to the development of the great advantages for iron manufacture otherwise possessed by the Raniganj coal-field.

Since writing the above, I have visited the locality whence the limestone was taken. It occurs as nearly pure calc-spar in small veins, striking N. and S., through a decomposed bed of gneiss. It will pay lor extraction for special purposes, but cannot be looked to as a source of flux.

tart 3.] Hughes : Manganese ore in the Wardha Coal-field.

Manganese oee in the Waedha Coal-field.

In connection with the question of iron-manufacture in India, it will be of interest to notice a discovery I made this year, within the limits of the Wardha coal-field, of a deposit of manganese ore, which is at present an ingredient of great service in the process for convert ing iron into steel, although its prime function in that process, and the presence of a certain proportion of manganese in the best steel, are questions still under discussion.

In 1869 I drew attention, in the manuscript report of my season's work, to the occurrence of manganiferous sandstone in the Kamthi series, but the proportion of manganese to the other constituents of the sandstone was altogether too small to render my discovery any thing more than merely interesting. This year I was fortunate enough to meet with a much more available source of manganese, and it is this source which I wish to draw attention to.

The ore occurs in botryoidal masses in the red clays of the Kamthi series around Malagarh Hill. These concretionary lumps as usual contain much foreign matter, but the proportion of oxide of manganese is considerable. An analysis by Mr. Tween gave:

Manganese ore —

Loss on heating

Oxide of manganese

Iron and alumina

Sand and clay

Total

The physical characters are those of psilomelane, which is a proto-peroxide of manganese ; hard, having a bluish black colour, submetallic lustre, and a brownish black streak.

Of the ores of manganese this is about the most abundant. It is closely allied to pyrolusite, and by some mineralogists is considered to he only an impure variety of it.

I did not attempt to estimate the probable quantity procurable from the beds in which this ore occurs, as I wished before tracing it out closely to have its value determined analytically. I remember, however, being impressed with the idea that there was a large amount of it, of more and less purity than the sample I sent to our Museum.

None of our Indian iron-ores are known to contain more than a trace of manganese, and the independent ores of this metal seem to be somewhat scarce.

In the Panjab it is said to come from Jammu, which may mean anywhere within the extensive Himalayan territory of the Maharaj of Kashmir.

In Madras it is said to occur near Vizianagram, in Karnul, Maisfir, and the Nilghiris.

In Burma, it has been reported upon by our own officers and others.

In Bombay an earthy mixture of iron and manganese oxides, occurring as a dark brown powder in magnesian limestone, was found this year by my colleague Mr. Foote, at Bhimgarh in the Belgaum district. Its composition is —

Water and organic matter

Oxide of iron and a little alumina

Binoxide of manganese

Insoluble

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The consumption of manganese ore has hitherto been very unimportant in India ; but if the extensive plans now under consideration for the conversion of the pure iron-ores of Lohara be ever carried out, we may expect a considerable demand for manganese.

Theodore W. H. Hughes.

Calcutta, 1st July 1874.

Donations To Museum.

May 21st.— Part of lower jaw of Mastodon, from the bed of the Chumbul, Dholepore. Presented by D. A. Dunn, Esq., c. e.

Specimen of the rock from bottom of a deep well (550 feet) at Bihaneer. Presented by Colonel McMahon, Hissar.

Accessions To Library.

Feom 1st Afeil to 30th June 1874.

Titles of Books. Donors

Bescbreibung der kolonie Victoria, (1873), 8vo.

V. Ball.

Blum, De. J. R. — Handbuch der Lithologic odor Gestcinlebre, (1860), 8vo., Erlangen. Catullo, T. A. — Dei Terreni di sediment Superiore delle Venezie, (1856), 4to., Padova. Collins, James. — Report on the Caoutchouc of Commerce, (1872), 8vo., London.

Dawson, J. W. — The Story of the Earth and Man, (1873), 8vo., London.

Delesse, M. — Lithologie du Fond des Mers. Texte, Tableaux, and Atlas, (1871), 8vo., Paris Feesenius, De. C. R. — Quantitative Chemical Analysis, (1873), 8vo., London.

Geikie, James.— The Great Ice Age, (1874), 8vo., London.

Geinitz, De. H. B. — Dyas oder die Zeclistein formation und das Rothliegende, Heft, I (1861), 4to., Leipzig.

Gilpin, Wm. — Mission of the North American People, Geographical, Social, and Political (1873), 8vo., Philadelphia.

Jukes, J. B.— The Students' Manual of Geology, 3rd Edition, (1872), 8vo., Edinburgh. Molleb, J. D. — Institut for Mikroskopie, Preisveozeichniss Mikroskopischer Praparate (1873), 12mo., Wien.

Nicholson, II. A. — A Manual of Paleontology, (1872), 8vo., Edinburgh.

Phillips, J. S.— The Explorers', Miners', and Metallurgists' Companion, 2nd Edition, (1873), 8vo., San Francisco.

Twentieth Annual Report of the Regents of the University of the State of New York (1868), 8vo., Albany.

Winchell, Pkof. A.— The Geology of the Stars, 8vo., Boston.

Periodicals.

American Journal of Science and Arts, 3rd Series, Vol. VII, Nos. 38—40, (1874), 8vo. New Haven.

Annales des Mines, 7th Series, Vol. IV, livr. 6, (1873), 8vo., Paris.

L'Adminstk. des Mines.

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Series, Vol. XIII, Nos. 75—77, (1874), 8vo., London.

The Authok.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Boohs. Donors.

Geographische Mitttieilungen, Band XX, No. 3, (1874), 4to., Gotha.

Geological Magazine, New Series, Decade II, Yol. I, Nos. 3 — 5, (1874), 8vo., London.

Indian Economist, with Agricultural Gazette and Statistical Reporter, Vol. V, No. 8, (1874), 4to., Calcutta.

Government of India.

London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 4th Series, Vol. XLVII, Nos. 311—313, (1874), 8vo., Londou.

Luynes, le Due de. — Voyage d' Exploration a la Mer Morte, a Petra, et sur la Rive Gauche du Jourdain, livr. 12 — 14, (1874), 4to., Paris.

Martini und Chemnitz. — Systematisches conchylien-cabinet, lief. 210 — 224, (1872-74), 4to., Niirnberg.

Nature, Vol. IX, Nos. 229—235, & X, 236 to 240, (1874), 8vo., London.

Ocean Highways, New Series, Vol. I, No. 12, (1874), 4to., London.

Palreontographica, Vol. XIX, lief 6 & 7 ; XX, Abtli. I, lief 1 — 6 ; Abth. II, lief 1 — 4; XXI, lief 1 — 5; XXII, lief 1 — 4; with supplement and atlas, (1871- 73), 4to., Cassel.

Pfeiffer, L. — Malakozoologische Blatter, Band XIX, XX, and XXI, Bg 1 — 13, (1872), 8vo., Cassel.

„ „ Novitates conchologicce, Land-conchylien, lief 40 — 43.

Supple. Ill, lief 32 — 37.

„ Iv, „ 9-19.

„ V, „ 1 — 3, 4to., Cassel.

Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, 2nd Series, Vol. II, No. 12, (1874), 8vo., Roorkee.

Civil Engineering College, Roorkee.

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, New Series, Vol. XIV, No. 54, (1874), 8vo., London.

Quarterly Journal of Science, No. XLII, (1874), 8vo., London.

Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars for quarter ending 31st December 1873 (1874), Use., Melbourne.

Mining Dept., Victoria.

Sandberger, Dr. P. — Die Land und Susswasser-concliylien der Vorwelt, lief 4 — 10 (1871-73),. 4to., Wiesbaden.

GOVERNMENT SELECTIONS, &c.

Bengal. — Report of the Meteorological Reporter to the Government of Bengal. Meteoro logical Abstract for 1873, (1874), Use., Calcutta.

Government of Bengal.

„ Report on the Revenue Survey operations of the Lower Provinces from 1st Oc tober 1872 to 30th September 1873, (1874), Use., Calcutta.

Ditto.

Bombay. — General Report on the Administration of the Bombay Presidency for 1872-73, (1874), 8vo., Bombay.

Government of Bombay.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Coorg. — Report on the Administration of Coorg for 1872-73, (1873), 8vo., Bano-alore.

Government of Coorg.

Madeas. — Report on the Administration of the Madras Presidency during the year 1872-73, (1874), 8vo., Madras.

Government of Madras.

Mysore.— Report on the Public Instruction of Mysore for 1872-73, (1873), 8vo., Bangalore.

Government of Mysore.

„ Report on the Administration of Mysore for 1872-73, (1873), 8vo., Bangalore.

Ditto.

N. W. Provinces— Report by the Board of Revenue on the Revenue Administration, North-Western Provinces, for 1872-73, (1874), Use., Allahabad.

Govt, of N. W. Provinces.

TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES, &c.

Albany.— Colvin, V. — Report on a topographical survey of the Adirondack Wilderness of New York, (1873), 8vo., Albany.

The Author.

Berlin. — Abhaudlungen der konig. Akad. der Wissens. zu Berlin, (1804-71), 4to., Berlin.

„ Monatshericht der konig. Preuss., Akademie zu Berlin, January — April, (1874), Svo., Berlin.

The Academy.

„ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologisehen Gesellschaft, Band XXV, heft 3, (1873), 8vo., Berlin.

The Society.

Bordeaux. — Actes de 1' Academic des Sciences, belles lettres et arts de Bordeaux, Vol. I — XI, (1839-49), 8vo., Bordeaux.

Boston. — Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. II, pt. II, Nos. 2 & 3, (1872-73), 4to., Boston.

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. XIV, pp. 225 — end, & XV, pts. 1 — 2, (1872), 8vo., Boston.

Ditto.

Buenos Aires. — Annals del Museo Publico de Buenos Aires, pts. 1 — 9, (1864-71), 4to., Buenos Aires.

Calcutta. — Archmological Survey of India: Report for 1871-72, Vol. IV, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Home Department.

„ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, Vol. XLIII, pt. I, No. I,

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Nos. 2 — 5, (1874), Svo., Calcutta.

Ditto.

„ Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, New Series, Vol. IV, pt. 2, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Ditto.

„ Records, Geological Survey of India, Vol. VII, pt. 2, (1874), Svo., Calcutta.

The Sueve y.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Bootes. Donors.

Cambridge Mass. — Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, New Series, Yol. IX, pt. 2, (1873), 4to., Cambridge.

The Academy.

„ Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. VIII,

Ditto.

„ Proceedings of the American Association for the advancement of Science,

Copenhagen. — Memoires del'Academie Royals de Copenhagen, 5th Series, Vol. X, Nos. 3 — 6, (1873), 4to., Copenhagen.

The Academy.

„ Oversight over det kongl. d. vidensltabernes Selskabs, No. 1, (1873), 8vo.,

Copenhagen.

Ditto.

Dijon. — Memoires de l'Academie Imperiale de Dijon, 2nd Series, Yol. XI, (1864), 8vo., Dijon.

Gottingen. — Abhandlungen der konig. Gesells. der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, Band XVII, (1872), 8vo., Gottingen.

The Society.

„ Nachrichten von der k. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften aus dem Jahre 1872, (1872), 8vo., Gottingen.

Ditto.

Konigsbeeg. — Schriften der konig. Physik.-okon. Gesellschaft, Jahg. I; II, Abtb. 1 & 2, & III Abth. 1 & 2, (1860-63), 4to., Kdnigsberg.

Lausanne. — Bulletin de la Societe Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 2nd Series, Vol. XII, Nos. 70 & 71, (1873), 8vo., Lausanne.

The Society.

London. — British Museum— Gray, Dr. J. E. — Hand-list of the Edentate, Thick-skinned, and Ruminant Mammals in the British Museum, (1873), 8vo,, London.

British Museum.

„ Journal of the East India Association, Vol. VII, No. 3, (1874), 8vo., London.

The Association.

Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool during 1872-73, No. XXVII, (1873), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, (1874), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and List of Members, 1873, Vol. VII, pts. I & II, Nos. 58 & 59, (1874), 8vo„ London.

The Institution.

Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. XXI, Nos. 147 — 150, (1873-74), 8vo., London.

Royal Society oe London.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Books. Donors.

London. — Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Yol. XXX, pt. I, No. 117, (1874), 8vo., London.

Melbourne. — Geological Survey of Victoria — Smyth, 8vo., Melbourne.

The Society. R. B. — Report of Progress, (1874),

The Sitbvey.

Moscow.— Bulletin de la Soeiete Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, 1863, Nos. 1—4, and 1873, No. 2, (1863 & 1873), 8vo., Moscow.

The Society.

Munchen. — Abhandlungen der Matk-phys. classe der k. b. Akad. der. Wiss. zu Miinchen, Baud XI, Abtli. 2, (1873), 4to., Munchen.

The Academy.

Sitzungsberichte der Math-phys. classe der k. b. Akad. der Wiss. zu Miinchen, 1872, heft 2 & 3, 1873, heft 1 & 2, (1872-73), 8vo. Miinchen.

Ditto.

Annalen der konig. Sternwarte bei Munchen, Band XIX, (1873), 8vo., Miinchen.

Ditto.

Der Antheil der Entwickelung der Electricitats, lehre, (1873), 4to., Miinchen.

Ditto.

„ Dollinger, J. von. — Rede in der offentlichen sitzung der k. Acad, der Wissens,

Ditto.

„ Yerzeichniss der Mitglieder der k. b. Akad. der Wissens., (1873), 4to., Miinchen.

Ditto.

Philadelphia. — Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3rd Series, Vol. LXVI, Nos. 5 & 6 ;

The Institute-

Rome.— Bollettiuo R. Comitato Geologico d' Italia, Nos. 1 — 4, (1874), 8vo., Rome.

Geological Society of Italy.

Salem. — Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. IV, Nos. 1-12, (1872), 8vo., Salem.

The Institute.

St. Petersburg. — Bulletin de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, Vol. I— VI, (1860-63), 4to„ St. Petersburg.

Strasbourg. — Memoires de la Society des Sciences Naturelles de Strasbourg, Tome VI, livr. 2, (1870), 4to., Strasbourg.

Toronto. — Canadian Journal of Science, Literature, and History, New Series, Vol. XIV, No. 1, (1873), 8vo., Toronto.

The Canadian Institute.

Vienna.— Hauer, F. Rit. von. — Geologische Uebersichts karte der Oesterreichisch — ungarischen Monarchie, Blatt, Nos. 4, 7, 8, 9, 11 & 12, (1869-73), 8vo., Wien.

The VrENNA Institute.

„ Verhandlungen der k. k. Zool. botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, Band XXII, (1872), 8vo., Wien.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Washington. — Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1871-72, (1872-73), 8vo., Washington.

Dept. Agric., U. S, A.

„ United States Geological Survey — Cope, Peof. E. D. — Synopsis of New

Vertebrata from the Tertiary of Colorado obtained during the summer of 1873, (1873), 8vo., Washington.

P. V. Hayden.

United States Geological Survey — Gannett, H. — Miscellaneous Publications.

No. 1, Lists of Elevations in that portion of the United States west of the Mississippi River, (1873), 8vo., Washington.

Ditto.

United States Geological Survey — Gannett, H. — Miscellaneous Publica tions. No. 2. Meteorological Observations during 1872 in Utah, Idaho, and Montana, (1873), 8vo., Washington.

Ditto.

Wellington. — Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, Vols. IV and V, (1872-73), 8vo., Wellington.

Wiesbaden. — Jahrbiicher des Vereins fur Naturkunde iin Herzogthum Nassau, heft I — XXIV, (1811-70), 8vo., Wiesbaden.

Zdeich. — Neujahrsblatt von der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft auf das Jahr., 1873, No. 75, (1873), 4to., Zurich.

The Society.

Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich, Jahrg. XVII, heft 1 — 4, (1872), 8vo., Zurich.

Ditto.

Nouveaux Memoirs de la Societe Helvetique des Sciences Naturelles, Band XVII— XXIV, (1860-71), 4to., Zurich.

Records

Of Tjte

Geological Su1Ivey Of India.

The Auriferous Rocks of the Dambal Hills, Dharwar District, by R. B. Foote, F. G. S., Geological Survey of India.

It had long been known that the sands of various streams taking their rise in the Dambal Hills contain gold ; but the sources from which this stream-gold was derived were not positively determined, and it was with the object of settling this point that I was officially deputed to visit the hills in question at the close of last field-season.

The results of my examination of that region show that one source of the gold is to be found in at least one auriferous quartz reef, which will be described further on.

Stream-gold is known to occur also in several other places in Dharwar and Bclgaum Districts, but, as far as I could ascertain, in very much smaller quantities. One locality in the Kuladgee District is doubtfully reported as auriferous. These occurrences will be again referred to.

The Dambal Hills are situated in the Gudduek Talook, some miles south-south-east of ... ... the town of Gudduek, and are locally known as the Kap-

Geographical position. , , , . " , , „ ,

patgode, being so called after the temple sacred to Kappat Iswara, which stands on the western flank of the main hill, in long. 75° 45' east, and lat. 15° 13' north. They form the northern part of a belt of elevated ground extending in a single or double ridge north-north-west from Harpunliully, in Bellary District, across the Toongabadra to Bingud Kuttee, 3 miles west of Gudduek, where the ridge sinks into the great, black, regur-covered plain of Dharwar. The Kappatgode itself forms the highest part of the ridge, which there rises about 1,000 feet over the surrounding country in a hold, steep mass, whose flanks, though bare of jungle, are much obscured by debris, and during the rains well covered with long lemon-grass.

The rocks which form this ridge and all the adjacent country for many miles around

, . , ... . . . belong to the great gneiss formation of Southern India, and

blocks belong to the gneissic senes. , , ° . . '

have here been subjected to immense disturbances, pro ducing great contortions and fractures, and in parts a much greater degree of metamorphism than is usually met with, which adds greatly to the difficulty of unravelling the very obscure stratigraphical features of these hills. A complete solution of these stratigraphical obscurities will only be obtained by extending the survey both north and south of the auri ferous tract, to which alone I confined my attention, as my time was limited and moreover much encroached upon by frequent heavy rain-storms. Immediately north of the Kappat gode Hills the continuity of the ridge is broken by a cross valley running nearly due east and west, and opening into the plains immediately west of Dambal. This valley is drained by the Dhoni nullah, which falls into the great Dambal tank, whence its waters eventually

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

drain into the Toongabadra. On the south side of this valley the hills widen out consider ably owing to the presence of a third ridge, but contract again to the south of the Kappatgode.

The ridge in its northern part, lying beyond the gold tract (where it is single and its

„ , structure quite simple) shows a double series of hsematite

Geological structure of the ridge. , , i . ,,

schist beds intercalated between chlontic and other

schists of great thickness, which to the east touches a broad band of highly silicious and often granitoid gneiss, on which stands the town of Gudduck. I found no section showing the exact relations of these two series ; but it is most probable that the granitoid series, which may conveniently be called the Gudduck series, overlies the chloritic and ferruginous beds. On reference to the map accompanying these notes, it will be seen that further south a third hematite schist band appears at a still lower level, also accompanied by chloritic, hornblendic, and micaceous schists, and bends round on itself in a sharp curve immediately north of the Kappatgode, thus forming an anticlinal ellipsoid, which is crossed by the road running from Dambal to Soortoor. To this series I will give the name of the Dhoni series, from the village of Dhoni, which stands on it. This series is noteworthy, because containing several important beds of grey and greenish-grey crystalline limestone of considerable thickness, which would yield a building stone of great beauty and excellence, and far cheaper to work than any of the granitic rocks of the neighbourhood. If pure enough to yield good lime on burning, it would prove of great value in the event of the railway extension between Bellary and Hoobly being carried out, through a country otherwise poor in limestones. The principal beds lie in two groups, the one 2 miles north-west of Dhoni, the other 3 miles west-south-west of that village. Overlying this to the westward are other hocmatitie beds, the representatives doubtless of those before named, if not, indeed, the extensions of the same. As these beds form the mass of Kappatgode Hill, 1 will call them, and their more northern representatives, the Kappatgode series. The character of the associated schistose beds has changed, however, from chloritic to argillaceous, and the predominant color of the rocks from green to reddish buff or mottled whitish. Owing to the great development of cleavage, the true dip of these argillaceous schists is in many places perfectly obscured, and their relation to the rocks next following them to the westward very problematical. This next series consists of chloritic and hornblendic schists, intimately associated with a massive dioritic rock. This dioritic rock, though in parts strongly resembling some of the diorites forming the trap-dykes, which occur so frequently in the gneissic region, does not appear to be an irruptive rock, but rather a product of excessive metamorphism. The schistose rock appears to pass by imperceptible graduation into the highly crystal line mass. Nowhere did I find the two dissimilar rocks in close apposition, but every where some feet or yards in thickness of rock intervened, showing the graduation of the special characters. This series, which I will call the Soortoor series, after the large village of that name, at which the principal gold washing is carried out, occupies a band of country some 4 to 5 miles broad, which is bounded to the westward by a band of granitoid gneiss of undetermined breadth. The position of this granitoid band (which may be called the Moolgoond series) relatively to the Soortoor series is uncertain ; but it is probable that the latter series is the younger of the two.

All the streams said by the natives to be auriferous rise within the limits of the tract occupied by the Soortoor series; and the upper course of the Soortoor nullah, the richest of all, lies entirely within the area occupied by the pseudo-diorite, and associated chloritic schists.

Quartz reefs occur in all the rock series above enumerated, but those lying within the

limits of the Soortoor series are tho best defined, and, with Quartz reefs in the Soortoor series. „ , ,, ,

a few exceptions, have the most promising lie, their direction

being mostly north-by-west, south-by-east, or parallel to the strike of the bedding. The

surface of the principal reefs has been much broken up, doubtlessly by gold-seekers.

Foote : Auriferous Rocks of the Bambal Hills.

The quartz reefs occurring in the other series are mostly well defined, and, with two or three exceptions, run in different directions. Many run in the linos of strike of the bed ding, hut many cut across it in various directions.

The most remarkable quartz reef in the whole auriferous tract, and the only one from which I succeeded in obtaining gold, lies about a quarter of senes,1 'ot Hute-Ku1tttereeffpats0de a Illile east t,lc eastern boundary of the Soortoor series,

on the eastern slope of a ridge lying north-west-by-north of Huttee-Kuttee, a small village on the road between Dambal and Soortoor. This reef, which runs north-by-west, south -by-east, lies in the line of bedding of a series of reddish ferruginoargillaceous schists with chloritic bands, both containing numerous cubical crystals of pyrites now converted into limonite by pseudomorphosis. Tbe reef is rather less than half a mile in its entire leugth, and only, in a small part of this is it a well-marked vein. Both the southern and northern extremities are very irregular, thinning out to a mere thread, or a few parallel threads in places, and then swelling into hunches, to thin out again a few feet fur ther on. The reef does not cross the valley of the Guleeguttee nullah to the north, but thins out and disappears on the side of the ridge. The quartz is the ordinary dirty white variety, and includes a few little scales of chlorite along the lines of jointing, together with occasional cubes of pyrites, which, like those in the schists, have been pseudomorphosed into limonite. Parts of the quartz are ferruginous, the impure oxide of iron occurring in strings and lumps. The specimen of gold I obtained here is imbedded in such a ferruginous string. Though very small, it is quite recognizable, and shows a great resemblance to various pieces of stream-gold obtained by washing. It is of a very rich color. The piece of quartz con taining it lay among the debris, beside the. top of the reef at its highest part, where it has been much broken up by gold-seekers, by whom irregular' mining operations have been carried on along the course of the reef. Much of it has been completely broken up, aud the hill side thickly strewn with fragments. Three rude sinkings hardly deep enough to deserve the name of pits, and a considerable length of shallow trenching along the course of the vein, remain still visible. Besides these, there is an old pit sunk on the east side of the wall-like part of the reef some little distance down the slope, probably with the object of ascertaining the continuity in depth of the reef. This seems to have been sunk by some one having more advanced ideas than the authors of the diggings on the back of the reef ; but I could ascertain nothing certain or satisfactory as to whose work it had been. To the north-west of the reef a number of little short veins and bunches of quartz had been attacked in shallow trenches, and had had their surfaces knocked to pieces by the same people, who were, according to my guide (a coolie from the village of Dindoor), a company of native gold smiths who lived in the now totally deserted village of Guleeguttee (Kubun Ivutkuttee of the Revenue Survey Map). These works had been carried out at some period prior to any time within the memory of my informant. The patels of Dhoni and Soortoor and others, of whom I enquired concerning these diggings, either could not or would not give me any information about the people by whom they had been made. I am rather inclined to suspect that the pit last mentioned was sunk by the Manager of a Gold Company which was got up durum the Bombay share mania, aud which Company, under the guidance of a practical Australian miner, sunk a lakh and a half of rupees in the search for auriferous quartz, and obtained no returns but a few small nuggets of Australian gold, sent down from time to time by the judicious manager to allay the anxiety in the shareholders' minds till a convenient season came for him to disappear without having accounted for his expenditure. The only positive trace of his proceeding which I came upon or heard of was a pit about 15 feet deep, sunk on tbe south side of a quartz reef belonging to another series lying south of the village of Dhoui.

Reconk of the Geological Survey of India.

The Huttee-Kuttee reef is about 5 feet thick on the average, whore well-defined and wall-like. The strike, as before-mentioned, is north-by-west, south-by-east, with an easterly dip of from 40° to 50°. Much of the reef has been broken down, but a length of about 35 yards remains like a cyclopian wall, and forms a very conspicuous landmark from the east.

The only other reefs deserving separate mention form a group lying about a mile to a

. „ . . mile and a half south of Dhoni village, on the north-east

Eeefs in the Dhoai series. „ . , ,

hank ot the Kappatgode mass. Unlike the reefs already

referred to, the reefs in this group consist, not of ordinary milk-white quartz, but of a dis tinctly bluish or deep grey diaphanous variety, with a varying amount of enclosed scales of white or pale mica. These reefs may, according to their courses, be assigned to two subor dinate groups, of which the one was north-west by south-east, the other north-east-by-east, south-west-by-west. The members of the latter sub-group are much the best defined, and form dyke-like veins 5 to C feet wide and from 400 to 600 yards long. The other set, lying on the cast side of the small stream, which flows from the north-east side of the Kappatgode into the Dhoni nullah, a little east of the village of Dhoni, ai'e less well-defined veins, but of considerably greater length than the former.

None of the reefs in the Dhoni series run in the lines of bedding of the chloritic, hornblendic, and micaceous beds they traverse ; but there are a very large number of bunchy strings of quartz of the ordinary milky white variety which run in the lines of both bedding and cleavage, but all of a size far too small to show on any but a very large-scaled map. These, as well as the diaphanous quartz reefs, contain remarkably little iron oxide ; the super ficial staining they show is due mainly to the decomposition of included portions on the surrounding rock.

The remaining quartz reefs noticed in the auriferous tract on the east flank of the Kappatgode, on the west flank of the ridge running north and north-west from the Kappat gode, and in the valley to the north-west of Dhoni village, are all of the ordinary variety of quartz running more or less in the strike of the bedding, and presenting no noteworthy peculiarity. As in all schistose rocks of the ordinary types, an immense quantity of free quartz occurs throughout their mass, in the form of lamiHEB, strings, bunches of all possible sizes. It is from these, rather than from the debris of larger veins in reefs, that the innumer able lumps of quartz covering the face of the country generally are derived. As the country is in most part utterly devoid of any vegetation except grass, all the larger occurrences of quartz are conspicuous objects in the landscape, need but little searching for, and are easily prospected.

The almost invariable association of gold with the different sulphides of iron, lead, copper, &c., in quartz reefs, is well known; and hence Beefs in which a sulphide was in prospecting the reefs I have before referred to, I paid fuu""' great attention to the indications of the presence or absence

ot sulphides, besides searching for metallic gold. In only three did I obtain positive evi dence of the existence of a sulphide — the sulphide of iron — in the lorm of cubical pyrites. These three were the Huttee-Kuttee reef and the two parallel reefs to the east of V enkatapoor, but the number of inclosed crystals is in each case very small. It is largest in the Huttee- Kuttee reef. Much of the quartz in the different reefs is what the Australian miners technically call "mouse eaten;" that is, full of cavities formed by the weathering out of other mineral substances which had been enclosed. In the great majority of cases it was clear from the form of the cavities left that the enclosed minerals had been chlorite or horn blende. Hone of the cavities were cubical. In one reef in the Dhoni group I noticed some small and rbomboidal cavities, probably due to the removal of enclosed crystals of calcspar. Free gold is often found left behind in such cavities in really auriferous reefs in Australia

Foote : Auriferous Rucks of the Damlal Hills.

and elsewhere ; but none was met with here. All the reefs observed lie above the surface of the surrounding country, and have hence been far more exposed to weathering influences, which might account partially for the absence of sulphides in the reefs, but which will not account for the absence of the characteristic cavities they should have left behind.

Prom the great paucity of sulphides a proportionate paucity of gold is to be reasonably inferred in the reefs of the Kappatgodc area. I must have broken off several hundred pieces of quartz while prospecting, but not one contained any visible gold; while that found loose at the PIuttee-Kuttee reef contains but a very small quantity — a mere speck. A number of carefully selected samples was brought away from the most promising looking reefs, to ascertain whether they contain gold in so finely divided a state as to bo invisible to the naked eye, which is frequently the case in Australian and Californian reefs. These were assayed at the Calcutta Mint through the kindness of Colonel Hyde, and in the Survey laboratory by Mr. Tween, but noue of them yielded any gold.

Even if the reefs were moderately auriferous, the pioneers in mining operations would have many serious difficulties to contend against ; the distance from the coast, and at present from any railway, would make the setting up of machinery very expensive. No timber or fuel of any kind is obtainable except at very great distances, and water would be very scarce except through the rainy season.

Alluvial Gold.

The washing for gold in the sands borne by the various streams flowing through the „ T , auriferous tract is carried out by a class of men called

J algars, and they are now very few iu number compared to what is reported about them in former years. I could only hear of three, two of whom were at Soortoor, and the third lived at Seerhuttee, in the Sangli Jaghir. I obtained the services of the two former, and made them wash for me in the Dhoni, Soortoor, Jilgerree, and other nullahs on the west flank of the Kappatgodc. Of these nullahs, the Soortoor nullah was by them stated to bo the richest, and this statement was fully borne out by the results obtained when washing there in my presence. Next in pro ductiveness came the Dhoni stream, but the yield was greatly smaller, and hardly enough to remunerate them for their labour. In the Jilgerree nullah they got a yet smaller return ; and in the other nullahs, including that at foot of the Kappat Iswara ravine, only a very few exceedingly minute spangles were obtained, just sufficient to show that gold was not entirely absent from the detrital matter.

The plan pursued by the J algars when I lot them follow their own devices, was to take

Process of selecting wash-dirt. "P the loWOT part °f the latest fl°°d dep0sit fr0m tLe rocky or clayey bottom of the nullahs, not from the deepest part of the bed, but from the point at which a strong length of current slacked off, owing to a change in the direction of the stream. Another favorite sort of place from which to collect 'wash-dirt,' was the small alluvial terrace between the water at low flood level and the present high flood level. From this they collected the rain-washed surface, and in the case of the washings in the Soortoor and Jilgerree nullah, obtained much bettor results than from washing the material obtained in favorable positions from pockets in the beds of either nullah. In another washing in the Soortoor nullah, the wash-dirt selected was the kuukur crust depo sited on the decomposing surface of a band of chloritic schist. This was altogether the richest washing made in my presence. Unfortunately the proceeds of this washing were, by inadvertence, mixed up with those of another, going on at the same time a little further down the nullah. Tho united results Were said by the Jalgars to be a very good day's work. The second washing was made from a stuff collected at the base of the old alluvium bank, which

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Process of washing.

there consisted of a bed of coarse shingle mixed with clay and fine ferruginous pisolitic gravel

(a product of decomposition of iron pyrites), overlaid by Section of alluvium at Soortoor. , , , . p . , , . , , , ,

black clay followed by a second but rather less coarse bed of

shingle, on which rested the regur forming the soil of that part of the valley of the Soortoor

nullah. The yield of this washing was rather less than that of the last mentioned. For the

two washings I had four men at work for three hours at a place of their own selection — their

favorite place according to their assertion ; two men washed and other two dug and carried

the material to the washing place. The quantity of wash-dirt put through the washing box,

I estimated at 1 ' cubic yards, from which the quantity of gold obtained weighs a trifle over

6J grains, worth 9 annas in round numbers, at the rate of £3-17-6 for the ounce (troy)

of gold.

The method of washing adopted is simple, but might bo made more effective at very little expense. The wash-dirt is scooped up with a small stout, broad hoc with a short handle, and carried in a basket or largo wooden tray to the washing box, which has been fixed at the water's edge and propped up with stones to the required slope. The washer sits on a large stone in the water close to the side of the box, which is an oblong construction, made of light planks and open at one end. Ic is about 3 to 3J feet long, 20 inches wide, and 9 inches deep, and strengthened with clamps. A stick of some elastic kind of wood is jammed against the sides and bottom at the lower and open end to form a catch. This done, the washer begins to ladle water on the wash-dirt, kneading it the meanwhile with the left hand and throwing out all the larger pebbles. The ladle or rather . scoop used by the Jalgars was made of a long calabash, with one end cut off. It was held by the middle, an oblong hole having been cut into the incurved side, and a couple of small sticks tied across diagonally to the corners and fixed with strings passed through small holes. The elder man of the two, however, preferred to use a tin pot with cross handle, which had been given him by a former Collector of Dbarwar. This goes on till a layer of sand has been formed in the box, so thick that the stick at the lower end is no longer a sufficient catch, and a second stick is jammed in and the washing process re-commenees till the sand layer has risen almost level with the second stick ; both sticks are then removed, the washer stirs up the layer of sand with a short, stout piece of wood and then sweeps everything into the large wooden tray held below the open end by the assistant. The washer then takes the tray, places it in the water, and performs the needful shaking and washing, technically called " panning off," till nothing remains at the bottom but fine sand, generally of black color. He then tilts the tray a little, and by judiciously dropping water out of his hand on the small layer of sand drives all the lighter particles forward and leaves the spangles of gold exposed. This small residue is then collected care fully by washing down into a half cocoanut shell, and taken home to be treated with mercury.

From the shortness of the washing box and the very rude way of stopping the open end, and from the evidently careless style of manipulation, there

Process of washing susceptible of mugj- p,e considerable waste. Much better results would improvement.

doubtless be obtained by using a box more like the Cali fornian "Long Tom," which is generally 12 feet long, 20 inches wide at the top, and widening to 30 inches at the open end, besides being furnished with various ledges to catch any heavy material. The first man who wrote about the Kappatgode gold tract — that admirable observer, Captain Newbold, f. B. s., whose early death was so great a loss to the cause of science generally in India — was also of opinion that the washing was very carelessly and wastefully performed. My friend, Major Bartholomew, Superintendent of Police in Dbarwar District, who with mo watched the Jalgars at work in the Dhoni nullah, was, like myself, much struck by the rudeness of their appliances and the careless way in which they proceeded. I find it difficult, therefore, to understand the verdict of a Mr. J. Seholt, apparently a practical miner,

Paut 4.J

Foote : Auriferous Rocks of the Rambal Hills.

who wrote in a letter to the Times of India (quoted in Balfour's Cyclopmdia of India, article Gold), that he never in his whole experience met with such careful and effectual washing as that of the Kappatgode Jalgars, surpassing oven the Chinese, who, in Australia, were consi dered perfection in that respect.

Small extent of workings.

The Jalgars ply their trade of gold washing only after heavy rains, and, as the Soortoor men informed me, for one month in the year, during which no agricultural operations are in progress. Their earnings are very various, and range from 5 to 50 rupees in a season apiece. They affected not to know of any gold in situ, and told me I was wasting my time in prospecting the quartz reefs. As it might be an idea of policy in their minds to keep to themselves as much of their knowledge as they fancied convenient, it would not he safe to attach too much evidence to their statements but that they were home out hy the statements of the patels of Dhoni and Soortoor, and numerous other villagers, whom I questioned through Major Bartholomew, who kindly acted as my interpreter to the Canarese people. The same information had been given me hy the mamlatdar of Chikkodi, in Belgaum District, a shrewd Brahman, who had been for a considerable period the mahalkare of Moolgoond close to Soortoor. The mamlatdar of Gudduclt also confirmed the information I had previously obtained.

Captain Newbold, in his resume of information about gold tracts, published as No. 4 of his papers "On the Mineral Kesources of Southern India," speaks of the banks of the auriferous nullahs being crowded with Jalgars after heavy rains — a very different state of things from what now prevails, and from which it may be inferred that the yield of gold has greatly diminished. It is very likely that such is the case; but another cause which has had great influence in diminishing the number of gold-washers may, I think, bo found in the greatly increased prosperity prevailing in Dharwar District, since the American war created such a demand for cotton that immense wealth was poured into the district and gave a strong impetus to all sorts of other and more certain industries which have absorbed the great number of half idle men, who in former years devoted themselves to gold hunting in the rainy season.

Another writer on the Kappatgode gold tract— the Mr. Scholt, already quoted— formed a very low estimate of the alluvial gold return. According

Salt's estimate of the alluvial to the epitome of his letter' to the Time.? of India given in

Balfour's Cycloptedia, he confidently stated that the alluvial deposits would never pay, as the deposits in which the gold occurs are confined to a few insignificant nullahs and " blind water-courses " occupying the slopes and flats, the bed-rock in every case being exposed more or less, denoting a very scanty supply of wash-dirt, the native gold-washers (a very limited body) confining their operations to a stratum not ex ceeding 5 inches in depth. Twelve days' work at Soortoor yielded to Mr. Scholt from 2 to 3 rupees worth of gold (about a pennyweight).

I have already mentioned that the Jalgars did not try to get wash-dirt from deep pockets in the beds of the streams, the situations generally found most productive in the Australian and Californian gold washings. It was impossible to try the most promising places in the several nullahs at the time of my visit owing to the constant heavy rains. In the dry weather they might, however, be excavated by damming back the little streamlet that would alone remain then, aud by simply baling out the hollows ; but very little water would be then available for washing. The probability is that a little more gold would be found, but that as that operation has doubtless been carried out in former times by the natives themselves, no wonderfully rich pockets would be found to repay expenses; for it must be borne in mind that the inhabitants of the Kappatgode region are not ignorant savages like the Australians, who did not know the value of the precious metal.

llecords of the Geological Survey of India.

The annual outturn of wash gold from the Soortoor, Hurtee, and Dhoni nullahs, was

estimated hy Captain Newbold to be about 200 ounces after Outturn of gold. , ... , , , ,

an average monsoon. What it may be at present, I did

not 'succeed in ascertaining, but I think it may be safely set down at less than the tenth part

of the former amount. The fact that so very few are attracted to the gold washings

at present, appears to my mind very strong evidence of its not being a very profitable

occupation. The poverty of the reefs is borne out by the very small yield of alluvial gold;

and the inevitable conclusion appeal's to me to be that there are not sufficient prospects of

success to justify any outlay of capital in mining works on a largo scale.

The stream-gold is found associated with a black sand consisting mainly of magnetic oihcr metals found with the gold iron in minute octohedra, and a black residue not affected by saud-the magnet. In the sand washed in the Dhoni nullah,

I found several minute rounded grains of a grey metal, which on further examination proved to bo metallic silver. A couple of little spangles of pale yellowish silvery hue were also obtained, which are doubtless electrum, the natural amalgam of gold and silver ; beside these were a few minute grains of bronze colour, which on examination proved to be a mechanical mixture of metallic copper aud oxide of tin. Newbold mentions having found a small fragment of metallic copper, grains of silver, and a few whitish metallic spangles which he took to he platinum ; a supposition which does not seem, however, to have been substan tiated. He also found gray silver ore in a fragment of quartz, hut did not trace the source from which the quartz had come ; nor was I more fortunate in that matter. In a green colored and very trap-like part on the pseudo-diorite, lying about a mile north-west-hy-north of Soortoor, I found very numerous octohedra of magnetic iron of minute size, hut very perfect, with numerous little lumps of copper pyrites and some iron pyrites. Iron pyrites of very white color, in minute parcels, is also widely disseminated in an adjacent black variety of the pseudo-diorite.

Captain Newbold's notes on the geology of the gold tract are very brief, but, like

„ , all his observations, very correct. The Kappatgode gold

Notes on previous observers. . , . . ,

region was subsequently visited and described by Lieu tenant Aytoun, of the Bombay Artillery, hut his description is unfortunately very meagre. He speaks of an exceedingly great development of iron pyrites in the gold region, and he observes that, "were it not that all the conditions on which the large development of the precious metals depends are here found in conjunction with the pyrites, it might he imagined that the small quantity of gold now found in the nullahs in this part of the Country was derived from this source. Iron pyrites, as it is Well known, often yield a small amount of gold." To my judgment the development of iron pyrites is small, except in the argillaceous schists near H utter-Kuttee, in which the cubical crystals are found in moderate numbers. Lieutenant Aytoun does not appear to have traced the gold to its matrix, though he inferred correctly that it is found among the chlorite slate hills to the west. He mentions having . obtained occasionally " small pepites of gold of a pear shape," but does not give the localities where they were found. His sections illustrating the geological structure of the hill group are correct in the succession of rocks shewn, but in various parts he seems to have taken the planes of slaty cleavage for planes of bedding.*

Dr. Carter, in his Summary of the Geology of India, in referring to Mr. Aytoun's paper, speaks of two hills, called the "Great" and "Little" Gold Mountains. These names seem to have gone out of use now, or to have no reference to the occurrence of the precious metal.

Geological structure of the basin of the Jhalpurba In the Collectorate of Belgaum, including the Gold Dis. triet, by Lieutenant Aytoun, of the Bombay Artillery. Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, Vol. XI page 8; also reprinted in Carter's Geological Papers on Western India.

part 4.] Foote: Auriferous Rocks of the Damhal Hills. U1

They were not mentioned by the Patel of Dhoni when pointing out all the different places seen from the summit of the Kappatgode.

Mr. Gilbert Elliott of the Bombay Civil Service, now Collector of Kuladgee, visited the gold tract in 1856 ; hut I am unaware whether ho wrote any report on it at that time, f think, however, that if he had re-visited the Kappatgode and the other gold localities with the practical knowledge of gold mining and prospecting he has since acquired in Australia, he would not lately have written so sanguinely about the prospects of gold mining in Western India.

My visit to the Kappatgode was greatly facilitated by the great assistance and personal kindness I received from Mr. Elphinstone Robertson, the Collector of Dhanvar, and Major Bartholomew, Bo. S. C., the District Superintendent of Police, to whom my best thanks are due.

Other atjriferous localities in Dharwar, Belgaum, and Kuladgee Districts.

Gold occurs but only in very small quantities at several other places besides the Kappat gode region. Chick Moolgoond in the Kod Talooka of Dharwar District, which I was unable to visit from its distance, is mentioned hv Newbold.

Lieutenant Aytoun mentions both Byl Hongul and Belowuddee, in the Sampgauul Talook of Belgaum District, as auriferous localities ; but in the case of the former gives no particulars by which to proceed in making search : he merely refers generally to the occur rence of gold sand in some streams. There are very few indications of quartz, except such as occur in laini me and hunches in the chlorit.ic schist. I only found one small reef which was of diaphanous blue grey quartz, containing no visible gold and no sulphides of any kind. The people at Byl Hongul maintain that gold is unknown there, a statement con firming the report of the talook ofiScials to the Collector of Belgaum with reference to enquiries I made of him. I visited the auriferous nullah of H utter-Kuttee, an abandoned village near Belowuddee, hut was unsuccessful in washing, and a series of samples of the alluvial detritus which I brought away proved on chemical examination by Mr. Tween to contain no gold. A sample of the auriferous sand which I obtained through the Collector of Belgaum was also found to contain no gold. The Patel of Belowuddee informed me that no gold has been washed during the past ten years. The Jalgars who used to frequent this locality came from Hoobly, in Dharwar District. The sand of this nullah contains very little magnetic iron, the almost constant associate of gold.

All the evidence obtainable is not favorable to the idea of gold being found here in any considerable quantity. What little has been found, was probably derived from some quartz reef traversing either the chloritic schists or the pseudo-diorite on which the nullah in question rises. I did not observe any reef in the valley, but much of its surface is masked by cotton soil or ferruginous debris formed by the decomposition of beds of hmmatitic schist which occur in large numbers in the gneissic series. These are the 'jaspideous iron beds ' of Mr, Aytoun's report, which he holds to be analogous to the quartz ranges and metamorphio parallel bands of the Dral Mountains and Australia, and thinks they will be louud to characterize the gold zone of Belgaum District.

Moorgod, m the Pursgurh Talooka of Belgaum District, is another locality where gold is obtained in small quantities. Unfortunately I was not aware of this when there, and had not an opportunity of re-visiting the place afterwards. My informant, the present mahalkare of Chandgurh, Belgaum Talook, a very intelligent Brahman, who had been mahalkare ot Moorgod for some years, told me that from 150 to 200 rupees worth of gold is annually co ecte in one of the nullahs near the town. The Jalgars in that ease are poor Mussalmans.

6 n° most piobably comes from small quartz veins in the chloritic schists, which are

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

ua

largely developed west of the town. 1 am inclined to regard this series of chloritic rocks as occupying the same horizon as the Kappatgode series ; but this cannot he determined till the geology of the intermediate country shall have been worked out.

Gold is said to occur at Sogul, four miles south-east of Moorgod, but I could not ascertain which of the two nullahs near the village contains the auriferous sand. The existence of gold there is denied by the talook officials, so it cannot be found in any great quantity.

The last place reported to yield gold is Gooludegud, in the Badami Talook of Kuladgee District. I am inclined to doubt it altogether, as I did not hear of it, though I visited the place three times. It could hardly have been unknown to the German missionaries of the Basle Society who are located there, and I should have certainly heard of it from them.

Remarks on certain considerations adduced by Falconer in support of the

antiquity of the human eace in India, by W. Theobald, Geological Survey

of India.

Few of the writings of the illustrious Falconer possess greater interest to the geologist or anthropologist than the paper entitled " Primeval man and his cotemporaries," written in 1863 ( vide Falc. Memoirs, Vol. II, page 570), or display bolder or more forcible speculation on a question foremost for interest among those to which the attention of the great paleontologist had been devoted. The question, moreover, is an eminently living one, and great as have been the discoveries already achieved, we may confidently expect still greater accessions to our knowledge of it in the future, especially that particular branch of it relating to India, and the existence of man there, during the latest tertiary times. Whilst, however, every advance in knowledge has tended in the direction of Falconer's arguments, and rendered increasingly probable the main conclusions he advocated, there are certain facts of which he was ignorant, which materially diminish the force of one of the arguments he employed in support of his general proposition.

The first argument in favor of the co-existence of man and the extinct animals of the Sivalik Fauna, was the probability that the idea of a gigantic tortoise met with in the Pythagorean and Hindu Mythology had originated in a traditional acquaintance with the huge Colossochelys atlas, which in size was physically comparable with and capable of con tending on equal terms with the largest elephant. The tortoise on which the elephant stood which sustained the world, the second Avatar of Vishnu in the form of a tortoise, and the elephant and tortoise which during their combat were borne off and devoured by the bird Garuda, are adduced as instances of this idea. "In these three instances, taken from Pythagoras and the Hindu Mythology, we have reference to a gigantic form of tortoise, comparable in size with the elephant. Hence the question arises, are we to consider the idea as a mere figment of the imagination, like the minotaur and the chimaera, the griffin, the dragon, and the cartazonon, &c, or as founded on some justifying reality P The Greek and Persian monsters are composed of fanciful and wild combinations of different portions of known animals into impossible forms, and, as Cuvier fitly remarks, they are merely the progeny of uncurbed imagination ; but in the Indian cosmogonic forms, we may trace an image of congruity through the cloud of exaggeration with which they are invested. We have the elephant then, as at present, the largest of land animals, a fit supporter of the infant world ; in the serpent Asokee, used at the churning of the ocean, we may trace a representative of the gigantic Indian Python; and in the bird-god Garuda, with all his attributes, we may detect the gigantic crane of India ( Ciconia gigantea ) as supplying the origin. In like manner, the Colossochelys would supply a consistent representative of the tortoise that sustained the elephant and the world together. But if we are to suppose that

Foote. Guld in Vharwnr

Records 1871

part 4.] Theobald : Antiquity of the Human race in India.

the mythological notion of the tortoise was derived, as a symbol of strength, from some one of those small species which are now known to exist in India, this congruity of ideas — this harmony of representation, would be at once violated; it would he as legitimate to talk of a rat or a mouse contending with an elephant as of any known Indian tortoise to do the same in the case of the fable of Garuda. The fancy would scout the image as incongruous, and the weight even of Mythology would not he strong enough to enforce it on the faith of the most superstitious epoch of the human race." — Page 575.

The above argument is plausible, if it may not be termed forcible ; but since it was written, additional light has been thrown on the subject, and it has been ascertained that the Fauna, habitually referred to by Falconer as the Sivalik, in reality comprised two Faunas, derived from two perfectly distinct groups, which were first discriminated by Mr. Medlicott (vide Memoirs, Geological Survey, Yol. III.) under the names of Naban and Sivalik, in 1864. Now, the co-existence of man with some, at least, of the extinct members of the Sivalik Fauna,' though not as yet established, is what the discoveries of any day may put beyond question ; and were the Colossoehelys a member of the more recent, Sivalik, fauna, Falconer's argument, quoted above, would, in my opinion, have great weight : but we now know that Colossoehelys was not a Sivalik species but a member of the older Nahan fauna, no species of which is certainly known to have survived to Sivalik times. Colossoehelys was among the fossils for warded by Colonel Burney from Ava, where it was associated with Mastodon latidens, Clift, and Elephas Cliftii, Fal. ( Mastodon elephantoid.es, Clift, in part). Now, both these mammals are Nahan species, and during the last season a superb palate specimen of E. Cliftii, Fal., was procured by myself from Nahan strata, near Talowra, on the Sutlej ; whilst Mastodon latidens, Clift, was recently procured near Lehri, not far from Jhelum, by Mr. Wynne, accom panied by Sits hysudricus, Fal., both fossils differing considerably from Sivalik remains in aspect and mineralization. I have not visited Lehri, but I have good grounds for believing the fossils from it to be all of Nahan age, though this I need not enter on here. I have also myself procured during the last season specimens of Colossoehelys from Nahan beds near Deyra or the Bias, so that the evidence of the geological age of this remarkable form is tolerably complete. This being so, any arguments short of direct proof of the co-existence of man and the Colossoehelys are vain ; since, with the enormous gap intervening between the groups, it is far more unlikely that remains of man will be ever found in the older, than it is probable that they may be discovered in the younger.

The second argument I would refer to is contained in a paper by Falconer, published posthumously in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for November 1865, and reproduced in the Falconer Memoirs, Vol. II., p. 632. I cannot do better than give the passage as it stands : " The third fossil species (Hippopotamus Paheindi.eus) is perhaps the most important in its indications. A quadruped, so remarkable for its size, form, and habits, must everywhere have forcibly impressed itself on the attention of mankind, and struck with the close resemblance of the Nurbuda fossil buffalo to the existing species, the question arose with me : ' May not this extinct hippopotamus have been a contemporary

of man? and may not some reflection of its former existence be detected in the extinct languages or ancient traditions of India, as in the case of the gigantic tortoise?' Following up the enquiry, I ascertained from the profound Sanskrit scholar, Rajah Radhakanta Deva, that the hippopotamus of India is referred to under different Sanskrit names of great antiquity, significant of 'jala hast,' or 'water elephant,' in the ' Amarakosha' and ' Subda-ratnavali.' This view is confirmed by the opinion of two great Sanskrit scholars, Henry Colebrooke and H. H. Wilson. The former in his annotations on the ' Amarakosha' interprets the words 'Graha' and 'Avahara' as meaning hippopotamus; and the latter not only follows this version, but gives two other words, ' Kariyadus' and ' Vidoo,' which he supposes to signify the same animal. It is therefore in the highest degree probable that the

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

ancient inhabitants of India were familiar with the hippopotamus as a living animal, and it is contrary to every probability that this knowledge of it was drawn from the African species imported from Egypt or Abyssinia." Considering the important issue here raised, I felt it would be extremely desirable to obtain some confirmatory opinion, if possible, of the philological question involved, and accordingly addressed a note to my old friend, Baboo B&jendralala Mitra, stating the case and requesting his opinion as to whether or no any Sanskrit words were known which could certainly be referred to the hippopotamus. His reply was strongly negative of the idea, and I give it in full.

" The jalahasti does not occur in the Amardkosha, but in some of its commentaries it is given as a synonym of avakdra. In the Nagananda, a Sanskrit Buddhist drama, jalahunjaras are described as sporting in the waters of a river. Kunjara is hut another word for hast. The counterpart of this occurs in the Sajatarangini, where jalagandhebha is used for jalahasti. Neither of these books, however, afford any clue to the nature of the animal they describe. The Sanskrit. Dictionary of Bohtlingk and Both gives ' wasserelephant' on the authority of Hemasuri, who says it is an elephant.like animal, which dwells in water (jaleshu liasty&karat d). The Amarakosha takes the grdha and the avahara to be the same animal, which, according to one commentator, is the same with the shark, hdngara (hdngardhhye jala-jantau) ; and according to another, a slender, long animal that frequents the confluence of large rivers with the sea ( samiidra-mahanadyoh sangame latdkdra bantu viseshah). At least half a dozen others add to the above definition ' com monly known by the name 'hangar' (shark), hut not applicable to crocodiles;' and I see no reason to differ from them. There is nothing in any Sanskrit work which can be accepted as a positive proof of the jalahasti being other than the graha, and was used to indicate the hippopotamus. I must add, however, that Wilsou, in his Sanskrit Dictionary, gives the word hippopotamus against avahara with a mark of interrogation. He has not given the word jalahasti."

After perusing the above remarks of so eminent a scholar, I think few will be inclined to attach much weight to any argument resting on so insecure a philological base as the above is seen to be ; indeed there is a more formidable difficulty even than the above un certainty, as to what animal was really meant, in the fact of the words presumed to signify hippopotamus being of Aryan origin, which would at first seem to carry forward the presence of the hippopotamus in India to so late a period as the Aryan occupation of the country. To this length Falconer, however, does not go, as he remarks with respect to this difficulty — " After reflecting on the question during many years in its palaeontological and ethnological bearings, my leaning is to the view that Hippopotamus namadicus was extinct in India long before the Aryan invasion, but that it was familiar to the earlier indigenous races" (Memoirs, Vol. II., p. 644). Without, then, questioning the probability that this was the case, I think that it must frankly he admitted that the philological argument is totally insufficient per se to establish such probability.

It remains, however, to determine what animal the jalahasti really was. It was clearly an unwieldy animal frequenting rivers, and not the crocodile. The supposition of most commentators that it was the ' shark' was probably due to the fact that they were acquainted with no more likely animal to which to refer it, though there is no possible similarity or points in common between a shark and an elephant, to render it probable that the old Aryans bestowed the name water elephant on the former animal. The observation of one of the commentators quoted by Rajendraldla Mitra, to the effect that it frequented the junction of large rivers with the sea, (though coupled with the remark of its being long and slender, which no elephant-like animal can properly he called,) seems to throw a light on what may possibly he the animal intended ; for having witnessed the awkward evolutions of dugongs sporting of an evening on the oily expanse of still sea at the mouths of rivers on the eastern

Ball: Coal in the Luni Pat/tun Hills.

side of the Bay of Bengal, I can well understand how the term ' water elephant' might be applied to that animal whose heavy massive head and bulky form, imperfectly perceived beneath the water, is suggestive of somewhat elephantine proportions. I offer the suggestion, however, merely for what it is worth, and as one certainly more probable than that the ' water elephant' can be either a shark or any slender animal or fish, whilst the probability of its being the hippopotamus is one involving too serious issues to be adopted on the slender grounds alone of verbal applicability.

Kasaolt, 1 W. THEOBALD.

July 9 th, 1874. j

Geological Notes made on a visit to the coal recently discovered in the county

or the Luni Pathans, south-east coknee of Afghanistan, by V. Ball, m. a.,

Geological Survey of India.

In the following pages I purpose giving an account of the geological structure of a portion of country which, being situated for the most part beyond the British frontier, where internal strife and raiding is the normal state of things, is one which, except under such special arrangements as were made on the present occasion, could not be visited by a geologist.

For this reason it is important to put on record even the somewhat imperfect observa tions which were made during a few days hurried ride through these little known regions.

Fortunately, the route taken by the expedition from the plains at Saki-Sarwa to the most distant point reached in the Chamarlang valley (about fifty miles as the crow flies) was more or less at right angles to the strike of the rocks and of the principal hill ranges, and thus in each day's march a section of the rocks was traversed which served to indicate the geological structure. The facility with which such rapid observation could be made being in a considerable measure due to the poverty of the vegetation* which was nowhere sufficient to hide the rocks, and thus the eye was enabled to trace individual beds through all their bendings for many miles. This freedom from jungle renders geologising on the north-west frontier a very different thing from what it is in the central parts of India and in the Himalayas, where, for the most part, the geological structure can only be ascertained by systematic plodding up the beds of streams and hill sides, and where a bird's eye view of the relations of the different formations is seldom to be obtained.

My observations being restricted to a limited portion of the great Suliman range, I do not attempt at present any generalisations or even comparisons with the geologically known regions to the north and south, but shall confine myself as much as possible to an enumer ation of the observations made in this particular locality. So far, then, as reference to pre vious notices is concerned, it is limited to the correspondence relating to the discovery of the coal, the examination of which was the object of my mission.

History of the coal. — The first discovery of coal in the neighbourhood of the Suliman range, west of Dera Ghazi Khan, was, in the year 1863, reported to the Officiating Deputy

I am indebted to Mr. S. Kurss for the identification of a small collection of the most characteristic plants which occur in these hills.

Perhaps the most commoD tree on the hills is a species of olive (Olea ferruginea, Ihjyle— G. Europea Var.). A flabeliiform palm Chumccrops Hilchieanum , the fruits of which are much sought after by the Biluchis, occurs on the hill slopes and in the valleys. Daphne oleoidee, L., Grcu'ia populijolia awl Dratauea viecoea arc also found on the hills. In the valleys, species of Acacia and Tumarix arc llul uncommon, and Ecritim ailorum and Ztzgpfuui jajuha occasionally occur. Besides the above, several herbaceous plants, which it is useless to enumerate here, were also

collected.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Commissioner, Captain W. M. Lane, by Sirdar Jamal Khan, chief of the Lagari tribe. Speci mens were forwarded by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab to the Geological Survey for report. The examination shewed that most of the specimens occurred free in situ ; the fracture conclioidal ; structure obscurely woody — one specimen splintery with a black streak, the other tough with a brown streak. Specific gravity 1'46. Water 13 p. c.

Composition —

Carbon

Volatile

Ash

Traces of sulphur were observed.

The locality whence this coal had been brought was visited subsequently by the Deputy Commissioner of Dera Ghazi Khan,* who wrote — " The best specimens were found in the Mithanwan pass, near Chota Bala, but even here the seams are so small that they would never repay tho labour of working them. The seams of coal lie embedded in the rock chiefly of the sandstone formation."

After much labour for a whole day about 10 seers of coal was obtained " The largest veins are not more than 6 inches long and about 2 inches in depth." It was justly concluded that the deposit was not worth working. The above-mentioned coal from the outer (eastern) flanking hills of the main axis of the Suliman range was, up to the year 1870, the only known example of the occurrence of the mineral in that latitude, although both to the north and south at Kalabag and at Lynah, in Sind, coal has been known to exist in limited quan tities for a long time.

In 1870, the present Deputy Commissioner Captain E. Sandeman reported the receipt from some Biluchis of specimens of coal from a quite new locality situated in a range of hills ninety miles from the British frontier. The account given by the Biluchis represented the coal to be in considerable abundance, and as the assay of specimens which were forwarded at that time indicated a good coal,f it seemed probable that an important and valuable disco very had been made.

Accordingly, in the present year, a favorable opportunity occurring, Captain Sandeman paid the principal locality in the Chamarlang valley a visit, when, in a short time, 50 camel loads of coal were collected by the Biluchis, and the impression formed from the appearances presented by the seam was that the coal existed in sufficient quantity to be of economic value. The coal collected on this occasion was forwarded to Lahore, where it was tried in a locomotive, and gave fairly promising results. At this stage it was determined that the locality should be visited and reported upon by an officer of the Geological Survey, and the following account embodies the results of the examination : —

Route. — Before proceeding to the detailed account of the rocks, I shall give a short sketch of the route traversed on the road to the coal.

Letter to Secretary to Government, Punjab, Public Works Department, dated 26th November 1863. t The composition of these specimens was as follows : —

Carbon ...

Volatile ...

Ash ...

lOO'O

Ball : Coal in the Luni Pathan Hills.

Leaving Dera Gbazi Khan, which, though within the normal area subject to inundation from the Indus, is protected from injury by considerable dams, the road westward to Vuddore passes over for the most part cultivable land, broken here and there by tracts covered with drifting sand-dunes. Between Vuddore and Saki-Sarwa the soil becomes more arid and sandy, and cultivation is more restricted to what may always be called oases. The wild vegetation, consisting of species of Tamarix, Zizyphve, Calatropis and Euphorbia, indicat ing the character of the soil. At Saki-Sarwa,* § which is said to be 926 feet above the sea, the surface is covered with a wide-spreading talus of boulders.

At the foot of the hills, close by, is a narrow margin of horizontal beds of sandstones and conglomerates, inside which again rise an older series of ranges formed of beds with a steep incline outwards, the dip being in places from 60° to 70°. Nothing can be conceived of as being more desolate than the aspect presented by these ridges, scarcely a sign of vegeta tion breaks the uniform brownness of the arid rocks. Entering the hills by the Siri pass.f four miles to the south of Saki-Sarwa, we find that the marginal zone above spoken of, has spread to a breadth of about four miles ; the nearly horizontal beds of which it is composed completely covering up the highly inclined beds which appear near Saki-Sarwa. In the section exposed in the cliffs bounding this pass, a thickness of about 600 feet of beds of sandstone and conglomerate is seen. In places these dip to the south-east or east-south-east at an angle of 10° ; and the disappearance of a bed of conglomerate at this angle accounts for the sudden and total extinction of a steady current of water which comes from the interior. Judging from the map, this seems to be the fate of most of the rivers along this frontier, few of them finding their way to the plains, although the continuation of the nalahs or dried-up water courses indicates that they have done so formerly, or even may do so now under the excep tional circumstance of a heavy and long continued rainfall.*

The gorge of the Siri pass is about four miles long. At its western entrance the horizontal beds are well seen resting on the highly inclined older rocks. Here a valley opens to view, in which, as far as the eye can reach to the north and south, numerous ridges, formed of green and red shales or clays and brownish sandstones, and further in, white limestones, crowd the space. All the beds dip outwards from the main axis of the Suliman at consider able angles, none under 30°, and in places exceeding 70°. In the neighbourhood of Kadji,§ highly fossiliferous white nummulitic limestones of inconsiderable thickness, alternating with argillaceous beds, first make their appearance.

The open parts of this valley, though stony, support a certain amount of vegetation which is dwarfed and stunted in growth, but produces an agreeable appearance after the dreary waste outside.

Underneath the limestones occur some alum shales, and a succession of shales and sandstones. The ascent to the main axis of the Suliman range traverses the up-turned edges of these beds.

The tomb of Saki-Sarwa is a place of much resort both by Mahomedans and Hindus. A mela, which is held in the cold weather, attracts many thousands of pilgrims every year.

t An old kalila route to Kandahar.

t An instance of the latter case, indeed, has come to notice during the past few weeks since my visit; the floods which have caused the Indus to break into the old bed of the Sutlej and inundate the station of Omerkote having been principally due to the access of immense bodies of water from the lateral tributaries which drain the Suliman range. The rainfall in Biluchistan has been quite exceptional in tills monsoon, and the loss of cattle and the injury to houses has in consequence been considerable.

§ In this vicinity I found it quite impossible to fix my position, the courses of the rivers and low ranges repre sented on the Atlas-sheet maps pursuing purely imaginary directions.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

From tliis the route lay south-south-west, through Chuti Mari, for fifteen or sixteen miles, the rocks, if we except some merely local rapid contortions, gently rolling as ripples do on the top of a great wave. The principal rocks in these higher regions (4,000 to 5,000 feet) consist of dark purple sandstones with highly ferruginous bands and occasionally badly preserved fossils. But there is one marked hand of well preserved specimens of a species of Ostrea. These rest upon greenish and grey shales and occasional bands of a dark blue and very dense calcareous sandstones in which no fossils were apparent.

A bungalow erected by Captain Sandeman is situated on a partially isolated Hat-topped hill about. 5,880 feet above the sea and twenty miles south-south-west of Ek-Bai — the highest peak in this part of the range.

Froln the bungalow our route lay in a north-western direction, or nearly at right angles across the strike of the minor ranges to the west of the Suliman. Passing down over the western slope of the main anticlinal, the dip of which is much more gentle than the eastern, We reached the Bakni valley, which is situated in a synclinal trough, the rocks on its western side rolling over again in an anticlinal and forming the Deka and Mazara hills.

The Rakni valley is a fine open flat plain, from five to six miles wide and 3,280 feet above the sea. It appears to be tolerably fertile, and is inhabited by a tribe called Hadiauis.

In the pass to the north of the Deka hill a good section of the anticlinal is met with, the beds of shale and sandstone, a mile further on, disappearing beneath the nummulitie limestones, which latter — between this and Taghar, another fertile valley — form a synclinal trough. Between Taghar and the Karvada range, which bounds the Chamarlang valley on the east, there are a succession of valleys for the most part formed along the denuded axes of anticlinal rolls of the limestone. On the scarped side of the Harluk portion of the Karvada range the older rocks, sandstones and shales, re-appear underneath the limestones. And in these rocks, close to the western foot of the range, at about 800 feet below the base of the limestone, occurs the principal coal locality, whore, associated with layers containing fossils of oysters and turritellas, occur two seams of coal ; one of them averaging 2 inches, and the other about 9 inches in thickness. Other localities where this horizon was met with will be found mentioned further on. Time did not admit of my examining the Dadar and subsi diary ranges which bound the Chamarlang valley on the west. But so far as a distant view can justify an opinion, all these hills appeared to be formed of the lower rocks, with the reversed dip of the anticlinal ; Dadar hill itself, which is 6,280 feet high, not appearing to have even a cap of the nummulitie limestone.

Our return route by the Hinki and Han passes afforded an opportunity of extending, Very considerably, our observations on the geography* and geology of the country, as it traversed the ranges at a distance of from twenty to twenty-five miles south-west of our route out.

On the way to the Hinki valley, at the southern end of the Karvada range, a section of the coal-horizon rocks is disclosed. In a pass here, there are some thin layers of coaly matter in blue concretionary shales, the dip of which is 70° to south-south-east. A fault has brought the edges of these rocks into contact with the edges of the limestones. The Hinki valley runs along the denuded crest of an anticlinal roll of the latter rocks.

Between this and a line open valley called Pasta Mara the lower rocks are in several places exposed. Beyond the latter place they extend for some distance to the north-west into the, for the most part, limestone area which lies between the Karvada and Ujh Hills.

Captain Lockwood, 3rd Punjab Cavalry, made a sketch survey of the country from which that portion of the accompanying map which lies west of the Sulimdn range has been compiled. Most of the elevations given in this paper are from aneroid measurements by the same gentleman

Part 4.J

Ball : Coal in the Luni Pathan Hills

These lower rocks continue with several rolls until they slope up to the J handrail range when a sharp anticlinal bend causes them to dip suddenly and disappear under the limestones of a marked range which hounds the Barkan valley, and of which an admirable Section is exposed in the Han pass.

The eastern peak of Jhandran is about 1,200 feet above, the valley. Vegetation is some what more abundant upon it than on the surrounding hills, and medicinal plants, which are reported to have special virtues, are found upon it. It was said that this hill had been the abode of a Fakir, some of whose domestic utensils had been turned into stone. Anticipating that some fossils of remarkable character might have given rise to the tradition, we ascended the hill, but our guides could not, or would not, shew us the cave in which these articles were said to occur.

Close under this peak there is a spring which yields a perennial supply of water. The banks of the river passing through the Han gorge are for the most part formed of a calcareous tufa, in which twigs, leaves, and recent land-shells abundantly occur. This deposit is similar to the well-known Asarhar of India. It does not appear to be in any way connected with the above-mentioned spring, which, if any, deposits but a very slight amount of calcareous matter.

The Barkan and a succession of valleys to the north-east present a fertile appearance, and there are several large and populous villages of the Khetrans situated in them. As their name implies, these people are cultivators but owing to the constant liability to attacks, cultivation is for the most part confined to the immediate vicinity of the walls of the villages. These valleys run with the strike of the limestones. To the east the ranges, of which Mazara is the principal peak, can at once be recognised as being formed of the older rocks both from their dark appearance and the different form of weathering which they present when compared with that of the ranges formed of limestones.

From this point our return to the Bungalow through the Rakni plain lay along the same route as on our outward march.

The rocks seen in the above sections are referable to several distinct formations as follows : —

1. Recent (a) Alluvium, hill detrital beds, sand, and calcareous tufa.

Recent (a). — Regarding the recent beds, in process of formation at present, but little of interest can he said. The alluvial area from year to year receives an increment from the inundation of the Indus and its tributaries. The drifting sand dunes constantly changing their positions creep along before the prevailing winds often, in their course, covering up and rendering useless cultivable land. The increase of the hill detrital and talus beds in this country of small rain-fall takes place hut slowly. The travertin and calcareous deposits are forming in several places. In the Han pass there is, as already mentioned, a considerable exposure of this rock, but the sources from which it was derived are no longer in action.

Pliocene '! ( b ). — In the absence of any fossil remains, it would be premature to attempt to refer the fringing beds of sandstones and conglomerates, which, as I have above pointed out,

Derived from , a field.

t Possibly some of these when more fossil evidence is collected will have to be referred to the secondary period (cretaceous).

150 Records of the Geological Surrey of India. [yol. VII.

are particularly well seen in the Siri pass, to any of the known groups which have been separated by their fossil fauna in other parts of the country. That these rocks will, when they come to be thoroughly examined, prove referable to the age of the Siwaliks is not only possible, but, from their position and associations, highly probable.

The facts observed regarding these rocks are, that in the Siri pass, where there is a good section exposed for a distance of about four miles, they consist of coarse sandstones, conglomerates, and boulder beds aggregating a total thickness of from 500 to 600 feet. In places they appear to ho quite horizontal, but are for the most part inclined outwards, having a maximum dip of 10° to south-east and east-south-east. At the western end of the Siri pass they rest upon and against the inclined edges of the rocks next to be mentioned. Judging from the appearance of the map and of the country so far as it could be examined by a distant view, there is a greater breadth of these fringing rocks at the Siri pass than any where else in the neighbourhood. At Saki-Sarwa, for instance, the highly inclined lower rocks almost adjoin the plain witiiout the intervention of more than a very narrow fringe. In the plains to the south-west of Saki-Sai'wa, however, quite detached from the main mass of elevated ground, occurs a long range of low bills which from their amorphous structure will, I anticipate, prove to be formed of these beds.

On the west of the Suliman range, in two localities, I met with conglomerate beds resembling in their lithological structure these rocks ; the first, situated at the western base of the Deka hill, may very possibly be of this age ; but the second, in Karer in the Luni Pathau's country, partakes so completely of the disturbance of the limestones upon which it rests, being included in a vertical synclinal fold, that I am forced to believe that it must {belong to the age of the group of rocks next to be mentioned.

Miocene ? (c). — As to the characters of the whole of this group I am not in a position to speak, since its higher members are covered up by the rocks above described in the Siri section. Much as I should like to have examined these rocks in detail, tire season was not one in which it was possible to do so without considerable risk. The general appearance presented by them as viewed from a distance shews that they consist of dark brownish sandstones in beds of no great thickness, alternating with bright red, greenish anil grey clays. They dip outward (east) to the plains at angles of from 30° to 70°, and strike with the main Suliman axis, more or less north and south. I had no time to examine them for fossils, but it is probable that they will be found to correspond with one of the known groups of miocene or older pliocene age (NahansP) of the Sub-Himalayas and Salt Eange.

On this side of the Sulimans they no doubt extend for a considerable distance, to judge from the distant view and the physical features indicated on the map. I fully anti cipate that the beds which are exposed near Saki-Sarwa will be found continuous with those known to occur much further north in the vicinity of Banu.* With the impei'fect data I possess it is of course impossible for me to say whether this group is susceptible of sub-division or not. Fossil evidence, in the absence of internal unconformity, can alone decide this. The total thickness cannot, I believe, be under 3,000 feet and may be much more.

Eocene ( d ). — With the appearance of the nummulitic limestones we reach a geological horizon, as to the affinities of which there can be no doubt. Abounding in well preserved fossils and with well marked lithological characters, these rocks can be readily recognised wherever they occur.

See map to accompany Dr. Verehere's report on the geology of Kashmir, the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. J, A. S. B., Vol. XXXVI, 1867,

Part 4V]

Ball : Coal in the Lwni Pat/ian Hills.

In the east to west section across the country described in the preceding pages the limestones are first met with in the vicinity of Kadji, where they underlie, conformably, the sandstones and shales just described. Here there is but a small development of the calca reous element which is confined to a few small hands associated with shales and sandstones- This local alternation in the character of the beds when compared with the considerable unbroken thicknesses of limestones which occur in the sections further west, and which will Ire described below, suggest that this locality must have been situated near the margin of the sea in which the deposit took place, and was therefore more subject to the inroad of foreigu materials than the areas in which the limestones are now found of great thickness and uni - form character.

The fossils found at Kadji consist of Felecypoda, Gastropoda, Echinodermata, and Nummulites, the species being identical with those found in the limestones of the western localities. Ecliinodermata appeared from my collections to be relatively somewhat more abundant in individuals at Kadji than they are in the west.

As to the thickness of these rocks here I cannot venture an opinion, but it appears to be very much less than it is in the west.

Crossing the anticlinal ridge of older rocks which forms the main axis of the hills, we first meet limestones again resting on the flanks of the reverse slope, where to the west of the Bungalow at Sandemanabad they occur as a narrow strip of buff-colored rocks containing nummulites and probably other fossils.

Further west, beyond the line of the Dekaand MazAra hills, limestones are again met with, but here we seem to have reached the area of maximum deposit, for we find thicknesses of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet with no breaks in the uniformity of their character save those caused by a few bands of nummulites which are densely compacted in a green silt. These bands are more strongly developed on the east side of the Taghar valley than elsewhere. There the tough limestones may be seen standing out from between the friable nummulitic beds. Nummu lites are not, however, by any means confined exclusively to the latter beds, as they occur pretty generally throughout.

At Taghar, for some cause, the molluscous fossils were very badly preserved, being for the most part only in the form of internal casts, but of such there was a great abundance.

The section from the foot of Deka to the Karvada range, which bounds the Chamarlang valley, discloses only these rocks rolling in a succession of synclinal and anticlinal folds ; except that towards the end of the Kerar valley there is a very sharp synclinal, which has caught up in its embrace a fold of conglomerate. This bed containing, as it does, fragments of the limestone, must he referred to a more recent period.

Underneath the limestones of the Karvada range, the older rocks, sandstones and shales with coal reappear.

The limestones here, as in all other places where the junction of the two groups of rocks is exposed on the side of a hill, form a marked cliff, the sandstones and shales forming the under-cliff. This cliff extends all along the Karvada range, and is from its top edge to the junction with the older rocks from 400 to 500 feet thick. The accompanying section represents the relations existing between the two groups in this part of the country.

In the Hinki valley, which is at the south-west end of the Karvada, the limestones are crossed by the return route. Between this and Pasta Mara they exhibit an unusual amount of local disturbance, in some cases the underlying shales and some oehreous beds appearing at the broken crests of the anticlinals. Between Pasta Mara and the Han pass the older rocks only are seen, but in the section at the latter place the limestones reappear in consider able thickness, dipping at low angles towards the Barkan valley. Not less than 1,200' of these

Records of Ike Geological Surrey of India.

rocks is here exposed. Denudation has produced some very pretty effects in them. Isolated conical hills, several hundred feet high, standing out on the sloping flanks of the main range. From this eastwards the beds roll over, sloping up on the flanks of the Deka and Mazara range.

These limestones consist, for the most part of soft friable beds of dirty white or very light fawn color. Sometimes, however, they arc very dense or even sub-crystalline. From among the latter highly ornamental marbles might be selected. In these the sections of nummulites and other fossils present a very pretty appearance.

On the Karvadft range boulders of a peculiar semi-crystalline limestone with green silt interspersed were met with, but the position of the bed from whence they came was not ascertained. The rock is dense and heavy, and at first looked like an igneous product.

In places veins of pure white lime, the result of the percolation of water, are of not uncommon occurrence.

Layers and nests of gypsum, too, are sometimes met with. Some long sticks of fibrous gypsum (selenite) were obtained in the Hinki valley.

Fossils in these limestones were abundant wherever searched for. The collection brought to Calcutta includes perhaps a hundred different species. The places where I obtained these were in the Tnghar valley, Chukerani, Pasta Mara, Kadji, Karvada, and the Barkan valley. Besides these I received a number from Captain Sandeman from the Shum plaits which is situated some miles south of Saki-Sarwa.

The following is a preliminary list of the species which were obtained ; —

Nummulites.

Probably several species, not yet determined.

Coeals.

Pachyseris Murehisoni, J. Haime.

Monivaultia ?

A branching coral, not yet determined,

Cidaris Verneuili, d'Arch.

Pliymosoma uurMnv liilcum, d'Arch.

Conoclypeus Flemingi, d'Arch,

Sckizaster Ncwholdi, d'Areh.

„ Relouchistanensis, d'Arch.

Prissopsis Sowerbyi. d'Arch.

„ Sp. ?

Besides several other species which remain to be determined.

Pelecypoda.

Teredo Sp. ?

Crassatella Sindensis , d'Arch.

„ Sp. ?

Corbula suhexarata, d'Arch.

Lucina gigantea, Desk.

„ subviearyi, d'Arch.

„ several other species,

Astarte Sp, p

3Past 4,3

Ball: Coal in the Luni Balkan Hills.

Venus subvirgata, cl'Orb.

„ astarteoides, d'Arch.

„ siibovalis, d'Arch.

„ subeveresti, d'Arch.

„ Hyderabadensis , d'Arch

Cardita Beaumonti ? d'Arch.

„ several other species. Cardium Homeri, d'Arch.

„ several other species. Cypricardia Vicaryi, d'Arch. Area Kurrctohensis, d'Arch.

„ several other species. Chama Sp. ?

Mytilvs subcarinatus, Desh. P ? „ several other species.

Gasteopoda,

JVerita Sp. ?

Natica sigaretina, Desh.P „ several other species.

Trochus ,

Turbo,

Phasianella t

Turritella,

Cerithium,

Fusus,

Cassis,

One or more species of each of these genera, not yet been determined.

Cyprcea, J Ovula Depressa, d'Arch.

These have

Eocene (e). — Underneath the nummulitic limestones occur a series of rocks which differ from them very much in their lithological characters, and to no inconsiderable extent, too, apparently, in their fossil contents.

But these rocks, so far as is known, contain no fossils whose occurrence would be incon sistent with their being referred to the tertiary period, and it would appear that lithologically similar rocks have been met with elsewhere underlying the limestones, and which have been considered to belong to the nummulitic series. Adopting this view (with the under standing that some of the lower portion of this succession in which my very cursory examination did not result in the discovery of any fossils may hereafter yield evidence of their belonging to the cretaceous or some older formation) I shall proceed to describe the sections as I saw them.

Underneath the limestones which, as I have above said, occur at Kadji, there appear some earthy alum shales followed by sandstones and shales. These beds dip at angles as high as 70° away from the main axis of the Suliman. After crossing some hundreds of feet in thickness of the upturned edges of these rocks, badly preserved fossils commence to shew themselves in the sandstones, and fragments of a thin layer of densely compacted oysters are met with scattered over the surface of the ascent. Associated with this layer ai'e some shales, and it is probably on this horizoD some few miles to the north of Kadji that the coal mentioned on p. 146 occurs, I started one evening to visit this coal, but my guide so managed matters that we never reached our destination. The following day I was dissuaded

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

from my intention of proceeding to it in tlie sun, as a long ride lay before us, and it was represented to me that exposure in these hot valleys could not be undertaken without risk at this season. The opinions on this coal given on page 146, and the universal testimony of the natives, unite in saying that it is in extremely small quantities. And the handful of fragments of lignite brought by a special messenger fully testified to the worthlessness of the deposit. In a geological point of view, these traces of carbonaceous matter, together with the accompanying fossils, are not without interest, as they confirm the views of the geological structure arrived at by examination of the physical relations of the beds.

Crossing over a considerable thickness of these sandstones and shales the road leads over the Han-ki-der, a peak which is situated due south of the lofty Ek-Bai. This peak, as also in all probability Ek-Bai, are formed of dense white sandstones, under which there is seen in a deeply cut valley close by, a considerable thickness of green shales, so that if we except these shales, it is the lowest rocks of the geological succession which form the highest points of the range. From this point the edges of the rock turn over, and it becomes apparent that the main axis of the range is formed by a huge anticlinal roll, along the crest of which there appears to have been a fault by means of which, the upthrow being to the east, the turned over edges of the white sandstones are opposed to those of the upper beds.

I have already on page 148 described the characters of the rocks seen between Han-rider and the Bungalow, and as the other intervening sections are few and unimportant, I shall pass at once to those in the Chamarlang valley where the coal occurs.

The first coal seen is exposed on the scarped side of a hill called Kuch-budi. The section is as follows ; the thicknesses of the shales were estimated, not actually measured. Ascending —

Coal, dip 10o W. ...

2"

Shale ...

?

Gypseous shales much jointed

2o-ir

Coal ...

Coal

2"

Parting

2"

Same as 2

Hpo&quot;

Coal ...

2"

Coal

4"

Shale ...

Shales

Coal ...

2"

Coal

3"

Shale ...

Parting ...

4"

Coal ...

2"

Coal

2"

Shale with oyster layer.

The hill is capped with sandstones which contain fossils of Turritellas.

In this section then there is about a total of 2 feet of coal, which is distributed in nine thin layers throughout a thickness of certainly not less than 100 feet of shale.

In another section of the same hill, three seams, possibly identical with some of the foregoing, locally swell out in places, but do not average more than 2 inches in thickness.

Passing from this hill up a small valley in a westerly direction we meet another section at the end of the Harluk portion of the Karvada range, the geological horizon being pre cisely identical with that of the foregoing.

Here there are in all about seven seams, the thickest of which does not exceed 6 inches. The dip is much disturbed.

The next locality is in the continuation of the same bods on the western or scarped side of the Karvada range, where it overhangs the open valley of Chamarlang.

Ball : Coal in the Bum Balkan Hills.

It was at tliis locality that the appearances seemed to justify the hope that coal in work able quantity would he found. The following is the section of rocks exposed in this range in ascending order : —

Blue and green clay shales.

Sandstones with fossils of Turritella.

Shales.

Coal, good, averaging 9 inches in thickness, strike N.-E. S.-W. ; dip 3C° S.-E.

Shales with strings of coal.

Oyster bed.

Sandstone with badly preserved fossils.

Green shales.

Sandstones.

Bed clay shales.

Limestones about 400 feet thick to the crest : below the crest, on the eastern slope, about 300 feet more seen.

The same section appeared to be pretty constant along the hill side for a considerable distance, the coal continuing for upwards of a mile at least. As to the character of the coal I shall again speak further on.

The next and last section in which traces of coal were found to occur is in a pass at the south-west end of the Ivarvada range and which leads into the Hinki valley ; here some thin layers of papery coal were observed in the bluish green shales, which at this spot are much disturbed, dipping from 70° (to south-south-east and south) up to the vertical ; further on, their edges are brought in contact with the limestones by a sloping fault.

Between Hinki and Pasta Mara the lower rocks occasionally crop out under the broken crests of the anticlinal rolls of the limestones. Beyond Pasta Mara again these rocks appear, as has also already been mentioned, and finally rise to form the Jhandran range. The route between these places crosses through one short gorge not 300 yards long, which is cut at right angles through an anticlinal roll of dense calcareous sandstones, probably the same as some seen on the main axis near Chuti Mari. A sudden bend to the east carries these beds under the limestones of the Barkan valley.

Fossils. — The evidence afforded by the fossils which I was able to collect as to the age of these rocks is unfortunately somewhat meagre.

I found no trace of any cephalopods whatever, and some could hardly fail to exist if the rocks are either cretaceous or jurassic.

Both Dr. Verehere and Captain Vieary described somewhat similar rocks; the former in the north of the Sulimans, and the latter in the south. It hardly comes within the range of this account however, as I have already said, to attempt to closely correlate these rocks with others observed elsewhere.

The following is a list of the fossils which for the most part have only as yet been generically determined : —

Pelecypoda. Ostrea multicosta, Desh. O. Flemingi, d'Arch. 0. callifera, Lam. ?

Records of the Geological Survey of India .

G-astbofoda.

Nerita.

Natica.

Solarium.

Turritelld angulatct, J. do C. Sow. ?

Cerithium.

Bostellaria Noorpoorensis, d'Arch. P

Some nummulites also occur in the upper beds of sandstones ; and a m'onocotyledonous aquatic plant Was obtained in the shales of the coal horizon in the Deka valley.

On the coal and its economic value.

From the foregoing it will appear that the best seam of coal which has been discovered in these hills is only 9 inches thick. This seam is continuous for upwards of a mile just inside a low run of hills flanking the Karvada range, which borders the Chamarlang valley on the south-east.

The subjoined assay by Mr. Hughes, of the Geological Survey, of a specimen of coal from the seam shows that, if found in quantity, if would afford an extremely valuable fuel. It may be described as a light non-coking coal. In the absence of all trace of vegetable structure, it would perhaps be incorrect to speak of it as a lignite.

" The mean of two assays give loss by drying, 6'7 per cent. (=water).

Carbon ... ... ... ... 57'8 1 Does not coke'

Volatile ... ... ... ... 38'8> even when ra-

Total ... 1000

Ash fiocculent, reddish in colour.'

Another sample, taken as it came, that is to say, without the removal of the yellow clay which has infiltrated between the cracks and joints in the coal, gave the following result from which it will bo seen the proportion of water is somewhat greater, and that the percentages of carbon and ash exceed those in the preceding, but the result is still good : —

Carbon ... ... ... ... 59'2

Volatile ... ... ... ... 35'8

Total ... 1002

In my preliminary report I pointed out that, notwithstanding the excellent quality of the coal, a seam of only 9 inches is practically valueless.

Were the seam situated near to any line of traffic, some hundreds of tons could without doubt be extracted from near the surface at a small cost. But, however situated as regards traffic, it is a perfectly obvious fact that such a seam could not be worked to the deep with profit.

It remains then to discuss the prospect of better seams being hereafter discovered. In favor of this prospect the only thing that can be urged is, that since a period did exist during the deposition of these rocks when vegetable matter was accumulated in sufficient quantities to form layers of coal, it may have happened that in some places the vegetable growth was exceptionally active, or the period exceptionally prolonged, and, as a consequence, the fossilized vegetable matter or coal was formed in exceptional quantities.

Ball : Coal in the Luni Patiian Rills.

On the other hand, as rendering it improbable that such a thick deposit will ever be found, three arguments may be enumerated : —

1 stly. — The experience of all those who have explored, or attempted to work, the coal of the same geological age in Siml and the Punjab is against the probability of coal existing in large quantity.

2ndly.—' The country in question has, under Captain Sandeman's orders, been thoroughly searched, and all parts are well known to the different tribes, yet no coal forming a thick seam has been discovered. The slight coaly indications, which have in some places been observed and pointed out by the Biluchis, testify to the intelligence and care with which they have hunted over the ground.

3rdly.— My own examination of the ground has shown that the geological structure warrants the belief that since we have rocks of precisely the same age on the outer or eastern slope of the Suliman range as those with which the coal is associated in the Chamarlaug valley, the prospect of finding coal at the former locality should be as good as it is at the latter; and not only as good primarily, but from the high inclination of the beds, their edges being all exposed, very much better. At the same time these outer ranges being readily accessible to the people of the plains, many of whom, besides the chiefs, have some idea of the value of coal, it seems reasonable to conclude that did a large seam occur, it would long ere this have been brought to light. I have above described the character of such coaly indications as have been discovered east of the main range, and have pointed out how unim portant they are.

Had the Chamarlang valley been the only locality examined, it might possibly have been concluded that boring would he advisable to prove the lower rocks ; hut as these lower rocks are elsewhere exposed and have yielded no trace of a seam, it may be stated that boring could only Involve an almost certain waste of money.*

For the benefit of non-geological readers, I shall allude here to a theory which was mooted in reference to the Lagari coal in the early correspondence, and which theory I have known also to be applied to inferior or small deposits of coal of very much greater ago than it. This theory is that the coal is not abundant, or is of inferior quality, because it is only "in process of formation." Geological chronology is not yet so far settled as to enable us to say how many thousands or millions of years have elapsed since the coal became coal ; but this wo can positively assert, that since that time the only possible change that can have taken place is in the wrong direction, in other words, the abstraction or removal of the combustible portions. Nothing short of a miracle, and miracles find no place in the operations of nature, could convert the substances in contact with the coal, he they silioious, calcareous, or alumiuous, into carbon or bitumen.

Sulphur. — While in the hills I heard of a deposit of sulphur which occurs in the Soree pass ; subsequently Captain Sandeman obtained some specimens of the crude ore and the ma nufactured sulphur. The former proves to be gypsum, which is much penetrated by strings of sulphur. This deposit, if not the result of more direct volcanic action, has probably been derived from a hot spring, recent or extinct. A hot spring at Pir Zinda in the Soree pass not far from where the sulphur was brought is well known and is a place of much resort.

Close by is a hill called Bindar, which, according to the map, is 2,858 feet high, and stands out prominently above the low ranges. The season was unfavorable to my examining that part of the country as I should otherwise have done. If this hill should prove to be an

I put this somewhat more strongly than in my original report, as since it was written, I had, on the return march, an opportunity of examining the lower rocks more closely.

15S

Records of Hie Geological Survey of India.

ancient volcano, the occurrence of the sulphur will find an easy explanation. A visit to the hill in the cold weather would be well worth the trouble of any one who might have the oppor tunity of going there. Sulphur is manufactured from this ore by the Bozdars and Ivusranis, and is stated to be abundant. The process is most simple. An earthen gurrali (a thin spheri cal pitcher) filled with tho ore is placed on the fire; as soon as sublimation begins to take place the fumes are caught in a second gurrali, which is placed mouth downwards on the first ; cakes of pure sulphur of more or less crystalline structure are thus produced.

To the south of the country visited by me petroleum is reported to occur in the Mari hills. It is collected and used by the Biluchis principally for external application to tho sores of diseased cattle. I have no information as to its abundance.

Some rather indefinite rumours of brine springs, and one of tho occurrence of actual rock salt, reached my ears ; but I cannot vouch for tho truth of tho statements.

These, as well as many other subjects, will receive no doubt full attention when the sys tematic examination of the country is taken up by the Geological Survey.

Note oe the progress of Geological investigation in the Godavaei District,

Madras Presidency, by William King, b. a.. Deputy Superintendent (for Madras),

Geological Survey of India..

So far, the Godavari District is one of the most interesting in Southern India, from the number and variety of its rock-series : these being found to represent periods in the palaeozoic, secondary, tertiary and recent formations.

Since 1837, tho district has been rendered classic through the researches of Dr. Benza, (guided by General, then Colonel Cullen), and the Reverend S. Hislop (assisted by Lieutenant, now Colonel Stoddard, Madras Engineers) : tho first of whom showed that a band of lime stones with marine and estuarine exuvi® occurred interbedded with trap in the low hills of Pangadi ; while in 1855 and 1859 the latter announced that a narrow hut broken band of the Deccan traps with intertrappoan limestone containing lower eoceno remains cropped out not far from either hank of tho Godavari above the town of Rajahmandri.

Tho later investigations of the Geological Survey have added considerably to the above knowledge ; announcements of these additions by Mr. W. T. Blanford and myself having been given from time to time in these Records.

Taking tho several groups of rocks in descending order, there are : —

1. Recent Deposits, including tho long-known alluvial accumulations of the Godavari and Kistnah which merge into one another and form the wide and extended belt of low-lying plains edging this part of the Bay of Bengal.

2. Cuddalobe sandstones : — These rise up with an easy slope to the westward from under the alluvium as tho low plateaus of Samnlcottah, Dowlaishwarum, Pangadi, Chinna Tripetty, and Golapilly, and are here and there capped with laterite. The series appears to bo identical with a like set of rocks occurring at Guddalore, the Red Hills near Madras, and again at Nellore, and more or less continuous between these places. They were named Cuddalore sandstones by Mr. H. F. Blanford in 1857.

3. Deccan Teap with inteetrappeans crop out from under tho Rajahmandri sand stones at Kartdru and Pangadi ; and as Hislop has shown, the intertrappean limestone is of lower eocene age. A few additional genera and species to those already described have been obtained by Mr. A. J. Stuart, Sub-Collector of the Godavari, from the Karteru locality, my own being more particularly from near Pangadi.

part 4.] King : Progress of Geological investigation , Godavari District. 159

4. Lametas or Infbatbappeans. — While working out the preceding series in the Pangadi plateau, I discovered a new set of rocks immediately underlying the lower flow of trap a short distance south of the village of Doodkooroo, which is likewise traceable to Gowreepatnam, a mile or so further east. The chabootra, or resting place, of Doodkooroo and the old pagoda of the second village are built of blocks from a fossiliferous bed of this group, which is so crowded with a species of Turritella that it may be called in the series the Turritella Zone. This shell is very closely allied to, if not actually identical with, T. ( Torcula ) dispassa of Stoliczka (Cretaceous Fauna of Southern India, Palmon. Indies). The other associated fossils are Nautilus, Bostellaria, Murex, Fasciolaria, latirus ? Pyrula, Fusus, Pseudoliva, Pleurotoma, Volutilithes (very near Valuta tornlosa, Desh.), Nalica, Turritella (near T. Pondichemensis, Forbes, and T. Multislriata, Beuss.), Cerithium, and Dental ium. Ostrea, Cueidlea, Pectunculus, Corbie, Cardita (C. variabilis, Hisl. aud others), and Cytherea. There arc also a Ciliopod (Lunxdites) and numerous choice of a small crab. Only one of these forms, Cardita variabilis, is common to this zone and the intertrappeans. There is evidence, I think, to show that the bottom trap of Pangadi is lying uuconformably on the Turritella band. Lithologically, this group is very similar to the Lametas in other parts of India.

5. Kajmahals. — These dark-red and brown ferruginous sandstones and conglomerates with a zone of fine white and buff shales containing Ammonites, Pecten, Nucula, fyc., with Palceozamia, Cycadites, Sfc., crop out from under the Lametas near Daywarrapilli. In addition to the above and another set of fossils from Innaparazpolliam, which Dr. Stoliczka, just before leaving on the Yarkand expedition, pronounced as having their equivalents in the Oumia beds of Kachh (uppermost jurassic strata), I have, during the last season, obtained a good series of plant remains from tbc Golapilly plateau some twelve miles west of Eitaro. They are Pterophyllum Jlislopianum, Palceozamia acutifolium, Pal. rigida, Pecjpieris Indica, P. ? lobata, Taxodites ?, Lycopodium ?, Auracarites ?, seeds, leaf-stalks, and stems.

6. Damudas. — a. Kamthis. A further examination of the fossil-locality near Kunlacheroo (pointed out by W. T. Blanford in a previous number of the Records) enabled me to secure the following: — Vertebraria, Glossoptcris Browneana, var. Indica, and var? Australacia, G. muscefolia ?, Nceggcrathia, Filicites, Phyllotheca Indica, Yuccites ?, and stems.

b. BaraTcars. — The opinion already given by me in Yols. V and VI of the Records that the sandstones of Beddadanole are of this group, arid that they probably contained coal, has been confirmed by the borings selected for Mr. Yaustaveren, the Executive Engineer. Four seams of coal and carbonaceous shale were struck, only one of which is, however, of any thickness. The bore hole of this is near the eastern edge of the field; aud at 188 feet 4 inches, a 4J foot seam of poor coal was found. My colleague Mr. Tween gives the follow

ing assay : —

Carbon

Volatile

Ash

Coal.

Coke.

Carbon

Ash

This was evidently from a fair average of the material brought up from the hole, which was more black shale than anything else ; for a subsequent analysis, of fragments of fair coal picked from the stuff, gives —

Coal. Coke.

Carbon

Carbon

Volatile

Ash

Ash

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Percentage of moisture, 12'8

As the borings are continued in these and in upper strata, better results as to quantity and quality may be obtained.

There is no other exposure of coal measures in this district ; neither, from my latest examination, which was carried on to Bezwadah and thence westward to within range of the old work of Messrs. Charles, IE. Oldham, and It. B, Foote, is there any indication of further outliers in the Kistnah District.

7. Crystallines, — The gneiss of the Godavari district and down to Bezwadah is to a great extent a highly garnetif'erons quartzofelspathic variety, well bedded and foliated. It often weathers into a rock scarcely distinguishable from a sandstone. Bands of very quartzose rock with graphite sparingly distributed through it occurs close to Bezwadah, as also some beds of crystalline limestone highly charged with pyroxene. Traces of graphite arc found in the streams of the Beddudauole field, which have evidently been brought down from the gneiss country to the north. Large masses of tourmaline of very black color occur at times in the gneiss ; and from one region in the Yernagoodum talus near Koyegoodum pieces of the same mineral have over and over again been sent to me by the district officials as coal.

The area of crystallines has, however, only been cursorily examined as to its details, and it is therefore premature as yet to refer to it except in this short manner.

Notes upon the subsidiary materials fob artificial fuel, by Theodore W. H.

Hughes, a. r. s. m., c. e., f. g. s., Geological Survey of India.

The manufacture of artificial or brick fuel from small coal and dust, which is becoming an important industry in Europe and America, has a very practical bearing upon the develop ment of the coal resources of this country, owing, not to any pressing necessity to utilise the waste which is gradually accumulating in our chief centres of mining, but to the fact that much of our coal is exceedingly soft and liable to disintegrate, whilst some of it is so crushed in its original bed that it can only be brought to the surface in the form of dust.

It is already apparent that the final remedy for the waste of dust-coal will be the direct one of burning it in a state of powder. The advantages of perfect combustion lately obtain ed in this way by Mr. Crampton are so important that it may yet prove economical even to crush round coal for the furnace. At present, however, in India, whore the chief demand is for locomotive engines, only two plans are open to us to render dust-coal of marketable value ; the one to coke it ; the other to convert it into artificial fuel. The system which promises least success is that of coking, for the excess of ash and water in some, and the small amount of volatile matter in others, affect the coking property of a large percentage of Indian coals, and the most generally applicable method for their utilisation is that of consolidating them as artificial fuel. It may therefore be useful to bring to notice a very interesting and valuable essay, De V Agglomeration des Combustibles, by M. A. H abets, of the Ecole des Mines de Liege, in which the substances are indicated that have found most favor in France and Belgium, where the manufacture of brick-coal has attained its greatest development.

Some years ago, when arr angina-the collection in tho Madras M uaoum, I found a piece of tourmaline labelled as coal, and as forwarded by the late Mr. Boswell, m. c. s., who was one of the advocates for the occurrence of coal in the Kistnah District. — W, K,

part 4.J Hughes : Subsidiary materials for artificial fuel. 1G1

The principal qualities to be aimed at or avoided in the substances used are ; —

1st.—- To supply any defect in the combustibility of the raw material.

2nd. — To prevent the fuel from crumbling in the fire.

3 rd. — Not to augment the quantity of inorganic matter in the mass.

Tar and, above all, pitch are the matters best adapted to fulfil all these conditions.

The principal substances proposed, or that have been the subject of experiments, are as follows : —

1st. — Vegetable and mineral tars, fluid and dry pitch, asphalt, bitumen, resin, and gutta-percha.

2nd. — Amylaceous substances, damaged starch and farinaceous matter, residues from the manufacture of starch, &c.

3rd. — Fatty matter, animal or vegetable, oil-cake (colza, poppy, &c.).

1th. — Gelatinous matter, gelatine, glue, debris of horns, dung, &c.

5th. — Mucilaginous matter, certain decomposed mosses, &c.

6th. — Potash or soda soaps.

7th. — Oxygenous substances, such as nitrate of soda, chlorate of potash, and peroxide of manganese.

8th. — Earthy plastic substances, clay, plaster, lime, tarry cement, and silicate of soda.

Inorganic substances. — The inorganic matters comprised under the two last headings are evidently only applicable for the manufacture of fuel for domestic purposes, where the object is to sustain combustion for a long time without letting the heat be too strong. M. Habets leaves it to be inferred that the oxygenous substances are added to modify in this' case the purely deadening iniluenco of the incombustible earths, which form as much as 25 per cent, of the compound.

Amylaceous substances. — After tar and pitch, starchy matters are those which have been most frequently used. In fuel for domestic consumption they have replaced tar, on account of the inconvenience arising from the odour of the latter material. With a proper draught, however, no annoyance at all is felt.

Tar. — Tar, which is still employed to a certain extent in England, has almost entirely fallen into disuse in Belgium, and is only retained in a few French factories, it having been found that bricks made with tar will not bear long carriage, that they stick together when placed in heaps, and that they give off in burning a great deal of smoke and a disagreeable smell.

Fluid pitch. — The manufacture with fluid pitch, which in 1858 had made rapid progress, is now (1871) only carried on in two factories in Belgium, namely, at Sauwartan — where Knab's system of coking furnishes the necessary pitch — and at Gosselics, where the em ployment of Evrard's machinery necessitates its use. The plant required for the application of fluid pitch is much larger and more difficult to keep in repair than that required for dry pitch. Heaters, pumps, tubes, mixing screws, and special distributers, &c.,must be provided ; skilled workmen must be employed, and the drawback arising from imperfect distillation in the drying process must be guarded against, otherwise the bricks will be too smoky and melt in the sun.

Dry pitch. — Dry pitch has almost universally superseded fluid pitch, for experience has shown that less machinery is required to work it with, a more regular product is obtained, and the bricks are less liable to soften. Its employment permits a certain degree of auto matism, which has had the most happy result in the lowering of the cost, owing to the

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

doing away with the necessity of having specially educated workmen ; and another great advantage lies in the fact that the bricks can be handled almost immediately after leaving the press.

Dry pitch is not a constant product. According as the distillation has been pushed too far. or the contrary, its density varies between 1'286 and 1'275. If the evaporation is carried on to dryness, a product is obtained deficient in agglutinating properties, and it is found necessary to add fluid pitch, tar or some heavy oils. The following is an analysis of dry pitch of I'28 density ; —

Carbon

Hydrogen

Oxygen

Ash

Tlie above extracts will suffice to show that M. ITabets is an advocate for dry pitch as an agglutinating material ; and the experience gained in Belgium and the north of France certainly points to it as best adapted for the purpose. But he points out that this process has not been adopted in the south of France, owing to the heat of summer making it difficult to reduce the dry pitch to the state of powder ; and until this difficulty is sur mounted, the same objection would hold with even greater force for India. In the southern provinces of France the soft-pitch process prevails, smoke-consumers being adapted to the furnaces to obviate the evil effects of the mass of volatile products ; the same system could probably bo applied to the case of India. It was no doubt considerations of this nature that led Mr. Danvers in his book on coal to elect in favor of the starchy cements for India ; and at present the choice seems to lie between these and the soft-pitch process.

M. Habets makes little or no specific mention of the other substances enumerated in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th sections of his list. We may presume that no practical result was obtained from them. His essay is most valuable for the detailed descriptions and figures of the different processes of manufacture.

Some attempts have been made to adapt farinaceous agglutinants to the semi-bituminous waste of our collieries in the Raniganj field ; and considered as mere experiments they were successful, but commercially they were failures, Rico and Indian.com were both tried, and they formed good cements, but they constituted a very heavy item in the cost of production.

I think the time has scarcely arrived for the manufacture of artificial fuel to be a suc cessful industry in the Raniganj field while whole coal can be procured at its present or even at a considerably enhanced price ; but with regard to the Darjiling coals (which can only be extracted as dust), and to a certain extent those of the Wardha valley, the only course left for utilising them in the absence of the possibility of converting them into coke is to make them into brick-coal.*

Some trials have recently been made in the Central Provinces to consolidate the coal of the Warora colliery— which is of a very friable nature— by moans of rice and gum, &e.

The proportions of the substances used were —

1 lb.

Jib.

£ gallon.

My colleague, Mr. Mallet, was the first to sufrgest that the Darjilingcoal, in order to be rendered available ought to be made into patent-fuel.

Kice

Guru

Water

Nitrate of soda Potash ...

part 4.] Hughes: Subsidiary materials for artificial fuel. 163

The fuel so prepared was tried at the mint, but it burnt in a dull, smouldering manner, gave a bad welding-beat, and loft a groat deal of clinker. An assay proved it to contain 102 per cent, of water and 22'6 per cent, of ash — an amount of useless matter that could not fail to retard oombustion.

As a highly oxygenous substance, it might have been supposed that the addition of nitrate of soda would assist combustion, but any advantage that the presence of this salt ought theoretically to confer would be neutralised by the heat lost in evaporating the water that it absorbs readily from the atmosphere. Four grains arc scarcely an appreciable quantity, and would yield only enough oxygen to enter into combination with less than one grain of carbon. To be of any theoretical value, it must bo used in larger proportion than that given above. But tho use of nitrate of soda is, I think, questionable, on the ground of its deliquescent nature, unless a plan of rendering each lump of fuel thoroughly water proof can be adopted. It must also affect the formation of clinker.

Gum, which is one of the ingredients, has never been brought into practical use in Europe owing to its price, and the same circumstance will probably militate against its employment in this country.

When a farinaceous cement is employed, it is usual to add some alum in order to strengthen it. The Diamond Fuel Company, which is now working Barker's process, use sulphate of alumina or chloride of alumina in hydro-chloric acid, in the proportion of one ounce to a gallon of solution of starch. Tar, or bettor still pitch in small proportion, is also added in a small proportion to render tho fuel less friable and more water-proof. In the case of the Warora fuel, neither alum nor pitch was used.

The Darjiling dust coals approach in composition those of anthracitic regions, and will require a cement that does not consume in the fire more rapidily than tho coal, for it has been found that "if tho agglutinating material burns too briskly, the particles of coal having lost their adhesive coating crumble in the fire and fall through the grate unconsumed.''* Some slow-burning farinaceous cement will probably be the best substance. On the subject of Darjiling coal, however, I refer the reader to the detailed report of Mr. Mallet, iu the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Yol. XI, which is now in the press.

Attempts have been made to coke mixtures of anthracite and bituminous coal-dust, but tho coke produced could not bear handling ; it had no density, and it was very porous, owing to the fact that the particles of anthracite would not unite with the bituminous particles.

Putting clay aside as an agglutinating material for tho reason which has already been given, the most easily procurable cement in this country is that coming under the head of starch ; but tar or its derivatives possess properties which render them almost a necessary ingredient in most artificial fuels.

There is not a large native supply of pitch, but tho Bengal Coal Company are carrying out experiments in a most spirited way to prove the yields of tar, pitch, oils, &c., from their different coals ; and the results will give useful data by which to estimate the capability of Indian coals as a source of supply.

Calcutta, 1st October 1874.

The " Journal of the Frankliu Institute," 1871, Vol, LXVII, p. 118,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Donations To Museum.

A wooden tray and a water scoop, used by the ' Jalgars' or gold-washers atSoortoor, Dharwar District. Presented by R. B. Foote, Esq.

Two models of gold nuggets, weight of originals 337 oz. 6 . and 1,717 oz. respectively. Presented by G. Elliott, Esq., Melbourne.

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Series of Fossils (Mollusea) from the Miocene of Santo Domingo, West Indies. Presented by Prop. Wm. Gajsis.

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Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer to the Secretary of AVar for 1872, (1873), 8vo., Washington.

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II abets, A. — De L' Agglomeration des combustibles, Text and Atlas, (1871), 8vo., Paris. Hamlin, A. C. — The Tourmaline (1873), 8vo., Boston.

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Cambridge, Mass. — Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vol. Ill, Nos. 5 and 6, (1872), 8vo., Cambridge.

Museum of Comparative Zoology.

„ Illustrated catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at

Harvard College, Nos. VII and VIII, (1873), 4to., Cambridge.

Ditto.

Dresden. — Sitzungsberichte der naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Isis in Dresden, Jahrg., 1873, April — December, (1874), 8vo., Dresden.

The Isis Society.

Edinburgh. — Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. XXVII, pt. 1, (1872-73), 4to., Edinburgh.

The Society.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. VIII, No. 85, (1872-73), 8vo., Edinburgh.

Ditto.

Florence. — Memoire per service alia descrizione della Carta Geologica d'ltalia, Vol. II, pt. 2, (1874), 4to., Florence.

Geological Commission of Italy,

Lausanne. — Bulletin de la Societe Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 2nd Series, Vol. XIII, No. 72, (1874), 8vo., Lausanne.

The Vaitdois Society.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Boolcs. Donors.

London. — Journal of the East India Association, Vol. VIII, No. 1, (1874), 8vo., London.

The Association.

„ Journal of the Loyal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series, Vol. VII, pt. 1, (1874), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vols. I — III, pt. 1, (1871-73), 8vo., London.

The Institute.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 163, pts. I — 2. With list of Fellows for 1873, (1874), 4to., London.

The Society.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. XXII, No. 151, (1874), 8vo.. London.

Ditto.

Report of the British Association for the advancement of Science held at Brad ford, Sept. 1873, (1874), 8vo., London.

Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 3rd Series, Vol. IV, (1871), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Vols. VIII to XII, (1869-73), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol. XIII, pts. 1 — 5, (1873-74), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

Melbourne. — Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, Vol. X, (1874), 8 vo., Melbourne.

The Society.

Moscou. — Bulletin de la Soeiete Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Vol. XLVII, No. 3, (1874), 8vo., Moscou.

The Society.

. New Haven. — Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. II,

The Academy.

Philadelphia. — Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3rd Series, Vol. LXVII, Nos. 3 & 4, (1874), 8vo., Philadelphia.

The Institute.

„ Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. XV,

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. XIII, Nos. 90 &

Ditto.

Rome. — Bollettino R. Comitato Geologico d' Italia, Nos. 5 & 6, (1874), 8vo., Rome.

Geological Commission op Italy.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Boohs. Donors.

Salem, Mass. — Fifth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Academy of Science for 1872, (1873), 8vo., Salem.

The Academy.

The American Naturalist, Vol. VI, No. 12, VII, Nos. 1 — 12, and VIII, No. 1, (1872-1874), 8vo., Salem.

Ditto.

Tokei. — Lyman, Benjamin Smith. Preliminary Report on the first season's work of the Geological Survey of Yesso, (1874), 8vo., Tokei.

The Suevey.

Toeonto. — Canadian Journal, New Series, Vol. XIV, No. 2, (1873), 8vo., Toronto.

The Canadian Institute.

Vienna. — Jahrbuch der kais. konig. Geologischen Reich sanstalt, Band XXIV, No. 1, (1874), 8vo., Wien.

The Institute.

Verhandlungen der kais, konig. Geologischen Reiehsanstalt, Nos. 1-6, (1874), 8vo., Wien.

Ditto.

Sitzungsberichte der k. Akad. der Wissenschaften, Band XLVII, Abth. II, heft 4 & 5, Abth. Ill, heft 1-5, and Band LXVIII, Abth. I, heft 1 & 2, Abth. II, heft 1 & 2, (1873), 8vo„ Wien.

The Vienna Academy.

Washington. — Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institute for 1871, (1873), 8vo., Washington.

The Institute.

„ Hayden, F. V. — Sixth Annual Report of the United States Geological

Survey of the Territories for 1872, (1873), 8vo,, Washington.

The Subvey.

„ United States Geological Survey of the Territories. Acridid* of North

Ditto.

„ First, Second, and Third Annual Reports of the United States Geological

Survey of the Territories for 1867-69, (1873), 8vo., Washington.

F. V. Hayden.

„ Leidy, Joseph. — United States Geological Survey contributions to the

extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories, (1873), 4to., Washington.

Ditto.

Wellington. — Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. VI, (1874), 8vo., Wellington.

The Institute.

Yokohama. — Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellsehaft fur Natur und Volkerkunde Ostasiens, Jahrg. 1874, heft 4, (1874), fisc., Yokohama.

The Society.

Dated October 2nd, 1874.

Records

Op The

Geological Survey

Op

India.

Vol. Viii.

PUBLISHED BY ORDER OP HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OP INDIA IN COUNCIL,

Under The Direction Of

Thomas Oldham, Ll.D., F.R.S,,

Superintendent Of The Geological Survey Of India.

Calcutta :

Printed For The Government Of India. London : Trubnee And Co.

Contents.

Fagr.

Annual Report of the Geological Survey of India, and of the Geolo gical Museum, Calcutta, for the year 1874 ... ... ... 1

The Altum-Aetush considered from a geological point of view, iiy

F. Stoliczka, ph.d.. Geological Survey of India ... ... 13

On the evidences of 'Ground-Ice' in Tropical India, during the Talchir

PERIOD, BY F. FeDDEN ... ... ... ... 16

Trials of Raniganj Fire-bricks, by T. W. II. Hughes and H. B. Medlicott,

Geological Survey of India ... ... ... ... 18

Preliminary Note on the Gold Fields of South-east Wynad, Madras Presidency, by Wm. King, b. a., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India, Madras ... ... ... ... ... 29

Geological Notes on the Khareean Hills in the Upper Punjab, by

A. B. Wynne, f. g. s., Geological Survey of India ... ... 46

Report on water-bearing strata of the Surat District, by W. T. Blanfobd,

f. r. s., f. G. s., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India ... 49

Sketch of the Geology of Scindia's territories, by H. B. Medlicott, m. a.,

f.g. s., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India ... 55

The Shapur Coal-field, with notice of Coal-explorations in the Nar bada region, by H. B. Medlicott, m. a., f. g. s., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India ... ... ... ... 65

Note on coals recently found near Moflong, Khasia Hills, by F. Pl.

Mallet, Geological Survey of India ... ... ... ... 86

Note on the Geology of Nepal, by H. B. Medlicott, m. a., f. g.s., Deputy

Superintendent, Geological Survey of India ... ... ... 93

The Raigauh and Hingir Coal-field, by V. Ball, m. a., Geological Survey

of India

Donations to Museum Accessions to Library

a

'

'

Records

Of The

Geological Survey Oe India.

Annual Report of the Geological Sukvey of India, and of the Geological Museum, Calcutta, for the tear 1874.

The labours of the Geological Survey of India have been, during the past season, almost entirely under the control and direction of Mr. H. B. Medlicott, who was officiating as Super intendent during my absence on leave. As stated in the report for last year, I remained for some time at Vienna arranging for the proper exhibition of the collections forwarded by the Geological Survey of India ; this delay, however, did not tend to the improvement of my health, and I was in consequence not able to return to duty in India at as early a date as I had hoped. My first duty, on resuming charge of the survejq is now to express my high sense of the great zeal and energy with which Mr. Medlicott devoted himself to. the duties imposed on him, and the wide knowledge of Indian Geological work and the high intelli gence which he brought to bear on the researches of the survey, for which I am greatly indebted to him.

During almost the entire year, in addition to my own absence, the Geological Survey was also deprived of the aid of Mr. W. T. Blanf ord. He was, during this period, busily en gaged in working out and passing to press the results of his examination of parts of Persia, while accompanying the Seistan Boundary Commission as Naturalist and Geologist. These researches, regarding a country but little known, and at tbe same time so intimately con nected with Western India and Sind, will, I have no doubt, prove of very high value and interest to Indian Geologists. Their publication may now be looked for soon. Mr. Blanford resumed his duties on the Geological Survey about the middle of December, and then visited Surat district with a view to advise the authoi'ities on the probabilities of obtaining fresh and good water in many places where now the supply is bad, salt, and braekisb. Mr. Blanford has since then proceeded to take up the general examination of the Province of Sind.

Another of our staff who was absent at the commencement of last year, and whose return we looked for with great interest, has fallen a sacrifice to his over-exertion in the cause of science. Dr. P. Stoliczka, who had been, as reported last, year, attached to the Yarkand mission under Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, had, though with much suffering, safely accomplished the journey to Kashgar, and had also on his return had a rapid and hurried ride across the Pamir Steppe, which he had often longed to see, and was returning to his work in India laden with rich and valuable zoological collections and with abundant notes to work out his results, when he again felt the extreme temperature of the Karakorum pass. For a couple of days from 16th June he worked on quietly, and though with suffering, con tinued the usual marches of the party with whom he was travelling. On the afternoon of the 18th, when more than half the day's inarch had been completed safely, he noticed some-

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

tiling high up on the hill side, which arrested his attention, and dismounting from his horse, which, of course, could not climb up the rugged cliffs of these bare and snow-clad hill sides, he himself with great exertion struggled up, examined what he wished to see, and made his notes, and struggled down again to his companions. They noticed the great difficulty he found in again mounting, and came on to the camp slowly and carefully ; the march next day was countermanded, in the hope that a little rest might enable our friend to recover himself, but falling into a semi-unconscious state, he only lingered on until the noon of the follow ing day (19th June). His body was conveyed to Leh, where, with all possible honours, his remains were interred in the presence of his fellow travellers, the officers of the mission.

Thus passed away at the early age of 36 one of the most devoted and able votaries of Natural Science whom India has ever seen.

Gifted by nature with peculiar powers of observation and comparison, trained in an accu rate and careful school of Geology and Palaeontology, he brought to his labours unbounded zeal, acute intelligence, and large and carefully acquired knowledge, all of which tended to render him one of the most useful and most trusted of our colleagues. But in addition to this, his genial temperament, his sound judgment, and his hearty appreciation of work of any kind in others, together with his clear views of justice, and the unflinching expression of those views, made him also one of our most esteemed and beloved friends and advisers. His loss to the Geological Survey will be long and keenly felt. He has left behind him a noble monument of his research and powers in the Paloeontologia Indica, published by the Geological Survey of India, in which, just before his departure for Yarkand, he had com pleted the description of the Cretaceous Fauna of Southern India in four large volumes 4to., with 203 plates. And fortunately for the Survey, he has also left behind him a very fitting and competent successor in Dr. Waagen, long his trusted fellow labourer and assistant. Dr. Waagen's publications have already secured for him the high approval of all competent to judge of such careful and accurate research.

Dr. Waagen himself was also absent on medical certificate during the year, and has only recently returned to take up the Paleontological labours on which he was so actively and earnestly engaged, when his health gave way. He has, I am happy to say, returned in good health.

Mr. Medlicott's time was so fully occupied by the current work of the survey, and by the pressing necessity for constant revision of the reports and researches of others, and un ceasing communication and advice on all points referred to this office, that he found time for only two brief visits to the field. At the urgent request of the Government of Bengal, he undertook to visit the localities where coal was reported to occur within the Garo Hills. Until very recently, it was not possible to proceed into these hills with safety. And when formerly Mr. Medlicott visited the southern fringe of the hills (Memoirs, Geological Survey, India, YII, 151), and described the local exhibition of some poor coal-seams along their outskirts, no repetition of these rocks was known to occur within the range. But on now getting access to them, several detached basins of newer secondary rocks have been found in the heart of the hills, north of the main ridge. In one of these a strong seam of fair coal is pretty generally distributed. An account of this discovery was given in the May part of the Records of the Survey, 1874, p. 58, and it is therefore unnecessary to refer to it more in detail here. A short run into the northern portion of the Rajmehal Hills resulted chiefly in the discovery that no alluvial deposits occurred on the top of Putturghatta Hill north of Colgong, where they had been reported to occur, at a level which made it difficult to account for their existence, excepting on the supposition that the ' old alluvium' of Bengal had a marine origin.

A/uiml Report fur 1874.

Mr. Theobald continuing his researches in the upper tertiaries, flanking the north western Himalaya, has made a rapid examination of the area lying between the Ganges and the Ravi. Some of his results, if confirmed by more careful investigation, are of high interest. He considers, apparently on good grounds, that the great mass of the Sivalik range on this side (east) of the Jumna river is really composed of rocks belonging not to the Sivalik group, but to the older and distinct Nahan group, a view in which Mr. Medlicott, who formerly examined this area, is disposed to concur. Trans-Sutlej, Mr. Theobald thinks he has established a northern limit for the Sivalik rocks along the Una dun. These are most interesting results, but as some of the most important palaeontological deductions depend on these separations of the rocks in which the fossils occur, they must only be taken for the present as provisional

Further research has led him to modify the conclusions arrived at in the previous season regarding the pre-Sivalik age of glacial deposits, for he finds typical glacial debris scattered irregularly over the rocks in the typical Sivalik area.

The collection of the very valuable fossils of these areas increases rapidly under Mr. Theobald's hands, and a large number have been received, the majority of which cannot be opened out for want of space in the Museum here.

Mr. A. B. Wynne commenced the examination of the Trans-Indus salt region early in the season. At the special request of Mr. Wynne, Dr. Warth, in charge of the Pind Dadun Khan Salt Mines, was deputed to accompany him, so as to form a sound practical estimate of the commercial value of these extensive salt deposits. Dr. Warth was unable to proceed with Mr. Wynne in the early part of the season, but subsequently joined him on the ground. This work was very well accomplished, and a brief summary of the geological results was at once submitted with the practical report of Dr. Warth. And this was published under the Eevenue Department. Before the close of the year Mr. Wynne had completed a detailed descriptive report with full illustrations. And this is now in the press, and I trust will be ready for publication without any serious delay. Besides determining the enormous extent of the rock-salt, the most interesting result is the confirmation, in all probability conclusively, of the supposed old tertiary age of the rock-salt. This idea which had been arrived at during a cursory and preliminary examination in previous years was borne out by the careful and detailed investigation of the past season. No rock older than the salt lias yet been noticed, and this salt seems to be intercalated with the lower beds or almost the base of the nummulitic rocks.

During the recess Mr. Wynne was also engaged in revising, and to a considerable extent rewriting, the report on the Salt-range. At the opening of the present season he took the field with the object of working up the country lying between the Salt-range and the Kashmir boundary to the north, and is now engaged in this area. He has sent in a good collection of fossils from the newer tertiary beds of that region, and also some from the small ridge of the Kharian or Pabbi hills on the east of the Jhelum river.

Mr. King, though unavoidably late in taking the field, in consequence of being detained at Vienna, lias made, during the season, good progress in following up the interesting ques tions to which reference was made in the report of last year. He establishes three zones in the Rajmehal series : the uppermost characterized by a marine fauna recognized by Dr. F. Stoliczka as corresponding to his ' Oomia' beds in Kachh ; a middle zone also con taining marine fossils of somewhat different form from the preceding, and a lower zone with well marked Rajmehal plants. This last is found to be closely superimposed, but with general unconformity, upon beds containing plant remains belonging to the Kampti-Damuda flora, thus leaving little or no room for the zones which elsewhere are thought to intervene

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

between these two formations. Mr. King's work includes a large portion of sheet 94 of the Indian Atlas, but unfortunately the northern portion of this sheet is still unsurveyed topographically, or rather the topography is not yet published.

The exploration of the Beddadanole coal-field was continued under Mr. King's direction with the assistance of Mr. Vanstavern. Some bands of poor coal and coaly shale were proved in the lower parts of the measures. The upper portion has not yet been proved ; yet it is there, according to the analogy of the Wardha fields, that the main coal is likely to occur, if at all. This portion will be tested on Mr. King's return from his present duty, and on Mr. Yanstavern returning from the Juggiapettah borings. These have been put down alongside those formerly made by Colonel Applegath, and where he believed he had found coal, but Mr. Yanstavern has not been able to trace any proof whatever of the existence of coal or of any similar substance, although his borings have been carried below the depth to which the previous one had proceeded. All these borings have since been carried down to the metamorphic or sub-crystalline rocks without a trace of coal.

Mr. King has been diverted from the systematic continuation of his work for the present season to examine the gold-bearing reefs of the Wynad, and is at present actively engaged on this work.

Mr. Foote accomplished a heavy season's work in the Southern Mahratta country, com pleting the examination of the quartzite series of that region. Considerable progress has been made in preparing for publication a detailed description of this area. Mr. Foote also examined so much of the adjoining country as enabled him to complete the northern half of sheet 41 of the Indian Atlas, and the north-west quarter of sheet 58. In the preparation of these maps also considerable progress has been made.

At the close of the season, Mr. Foote made an examination of the small gold-bearing tract in the Dambal hills of Dharwar. Of this a report with small map has already appeared. (Records, Geological Survey, November 1874). The smallness of the area and the sparing distribution of the metal seem to offer but little inducement for any large outlay of capital in gold mining or washing.

At the close of the recess Mr. Foote took up the country north of Madras town in order to complete the area lying between the hill ranges and the sea (in sheets 76, 77, and 95), also to close in a large portion of that country. This had been left while urging on the examination of the Kadapah and Karnul districts, as being of less pressing importance at this moment.

Mr. Hughes has again been largely called upon for investigations which are not purely geological, and which very seriously interfered with the systematic progress of the survey. These have been chiefly in connection with the prospects of establishing the manufacture of iron in various places. At the close of last year he had just completed a re-examination of the available ores and associated rocks of Kumaon ; this examination only confirmed the views expressed years since by the G eological Survey as to the abundance of ore and flux, and as to the probability of their being also a good supply of fuel for operations upon a limited scale. He is disposed to take a rather less favourable view of the richness of the ores, but this was always the view of the Geological Survey ; the great tractability of the ores to a good extent compensating for a certain poorness in quality.

Mr- Hughes was then detained to revise the examination of parts of the Raniganj field, with a special view to the advantages offered by it as a locality for the smelting of iron, and establishment of iron works on a large scale. On these points full reports have been published during the past year in the Records of the Geological Survey.

Annual Report far 1874.

These investigations detained Mr. Hughes, so that he did not get to his regular work until late in January. With Mr. Fedden 's aid he then remapped the northern portion of the Wurrora coal-field, taking advantage of any recent exposure of the rocks in order to revise his geological lines. In a country so largely and thickly covered with alluvial deposits, it becomes necessary to pick out every single point so as to obtain any clue even of a trivial kind which may lead to the identification of the various rocks so badly seen. And this Mr. Hughes appears to have done with much care. It is gratifying to find that the practical conclusion based solely on such geological investigations, as to the existence of coal in the neighbourhood of Bander, has been fully confirmed by actual borings com menced entirely on Mr. Hughes' recommendation. These borings have proved the existence of coal many feet in thickness, the occurrence of which would never have been suspected from any surface exposure of the beds. This fact becomes of higher importance, because the locality of this coal is greatly nearer the very valuable iron ores of the country than any previously known beds of coal in the Wardha valley fields.

Passing into the Berars and the Nizam's territories, Mr. Hughes continued these investigations, and was able to give important advice and aid to the Nizam's officers.

It is a source of much regret that in consequence of the frequently recurring and con tinued interruptions to Mr. Hughes' progress in that district, the mapping of this Wardha coal-field is not yet completed. There is still a considerable area calling for careful examina tion, and in which it is not improbable that valuable results may yet reward our search. It would only cause greater delay to put any one else to complete this work now. And we can therefore only hope that it may yet be practicable without any much prolonged delay to complete the examination. The very existence of true coal in these districts and the sound knowledge already obtained of its extent and amount is altogether the result of the labours of the sur-vey, and we should be glad to complete the investigation of the rocks as soon as practicable.

Towards the end of the year Mr. Hughes' aid was again sought for by two separate companies, who have undertaken to remove the all-important trial of actually smelting iron in this country from the field of speculation and writing to that of actual experiment on a commercial scale, in order to point out to them the most favourable localities for the procuring of ores, coal, &c., &c. He had scarcely concluded this work when the year closed. He will thus again have only a brief season to devote to his systematic work. He will, I am sure, do all that can be done in the time, but it will be entirely impracticable to complete the field in one short season.

Mr. Fedden, who, as stated in last year's report, had been absent on sick leave, did not return to work until late in January, 1874. He then joined Mr. Hughes in the Wardha valley field, and worked with him for the remainder of the season, putting in the detailed geological Hues in parts of the Chanda district and in the adjoining territories of the Nizam. At one place north of Wurrora, Mr. Fedden was fortunate enough to discover a few specimens of fossil fishes in the uppermost beds of the sedimentary rocks, at about the same horizon as that on which the Reverend Mr. Hislop years since found similar remains. These will doubtless prove a valuable addition to the limited evidence we already possessed on which to base a conclusion as to the age of these beds. Mr. Hislop classed these rooks as belonging to the infratrappean beds of that neighbourhood in which he states that he found shells of the same kind as from the intertrappean layers, mixed with bones of large animals. On this evidence he referred the rocks to the same age relatively as the Lameta beds of the Narbada valley.

During the current season Mr. Fedden is attached to Mr. W. T. Blanford in Sind.

Records of Ihe Geological Survey of India.

Mr. V. Ball only returned from the great exhibition at Vienna, where he had been, jointly with Mr. W. King, in charge of the valuable collections of the Geological Survey, late in the year. After some few unavoidable delays which prevented his getting to the field till towards the end of December, he was again frequently interrupted in his work in connection with the borings in the Dudhi valley. His survey labours were confined to the country included in sheets 17 and 18 of the Satpura Survey. He had made some progress in this area, when at the beginning of March, he was suddenly summoned to Calcutta, with a view to his accompanying some others on a visit to the Mergui Archipelago. This trip was subsequently abandoned, nor indeed under any circumstances could geological results of interest be looked for from such a visit to a country already examined. It was useless his returning to the field again after this trip was given up. Mr. Ball had thus only a very brief season of work, scarcely more than two months out of the whole season. It would scarcely be fair to look for any large outturn of work in this short time. The ground on which ho was engaged was difficult, and the intricate relations of the various groups of rocks must all be more thoroughly elucidated and worked out before any descriptive account of them can be published.

Mr. Ball subsequently visited the wild district of the Luni Puthans, west of Upper Sind, where some traces of lignite had been seen. A full account of this visit has already appeared (Records, Geol. Surv., Ind., 1874, p. 145), so that it will be unnecessary to refer to it here in detail.

The experimental borings for coal in the region of the Narbada have not yet led to any discovery. Early in the year two borings were commenced, at Ivhapa and at Manegaon, iu tho valley of the Dudhi. These were in the Mahadeva rocks, and were put down in the hope of striking the coal-measures beneath. At the beginning of the monsoon these borings had reached 260 and 241 feet respectively from the surface, and were still in the covering rock formation, when the work was necessarily closed for the season. The labour was then transferred to the boring at Sukakheri in the main valley, where a depth of 844 feet had already been reached. There, it may be noticed, the endeavour is lo reach the rock under lying the valley deposits, there being some grounds for supposing that the coal-measures of the Sitariva extend to the north. This boring has been carried down to the depth of 491 feet still in the stiff kunkur clay. The 3-inch piping having stuck fast at 425 feet, the additional depth was attained with great difficulty, until finally it was found impossible to do more than draw the sludge filling in from the sides ; and the work had to be stopped. This boring had been commenced with such material as was available at the time, and with the full expectation that rock would be reached at a less depth. It had also the further dis advantage of frequent interruptions from want of piping ; much credit is, therefore, due to the skill and energy of Mr. Stewart, that he was able under the circumstances to push the work so far.

No direct knowledge has, however, been gained upon the question to be solved excepting collaterally, that it would certainly he very costly to sink for coal through such a depth of superficial deposits. It may possibly be that these deposits are exceptionally thick at Sukakheri, and that rocks may be nearer the surface elsewhere, and the question would seem of sufficient importance practically, and of sufficient general interest to warrant a renewal of the trial in another spot. The lowest few feet of clay in the boring at Suka kheri were much charged with black ferruginous granules, single and agglomerated, suggest ing perhaps the proximity of a lateritie bod which is by no means uncommon at the base of the old alluvial deposits, and this again most frequently occurs where the trap rocks occur underneath. Both these conditions are seen to obtain at several points along the maigin of the valley.

Annual Report for 1874.

Since the stoppage at Sukakheri near the close of the year, work has been resumed at Khapa and Manegaon, and progress has been already made beyond the depth attained before stopping for the monsoon. In December also two new borings were commenced in the Tawa valley, at Kesla and the Suk Tawa: the latter is certainly in the Damuda rocks; the former is in lower Mahadeva beds. The hope is to strike the Barakur coal-measures, and thus, if coal be found, to save twenty miles of rough carting from the Shapur or Betul coal-field to the south. As has already been fully explained, it is impossible to speak of success as any thing more than a chance, inasmuch as no outcrop) of these measures is seen north of the Shapur field.

Mr. Willson steadily continued his mapping of the northern portion of the Bundelkund Survey and finished several sheets of the 1-inch plans. One of the principal points of interest connected with this area is the great prevalence of quartz reefs or veins, having a very constant and definite direction and occurring in large number and of great size. There are also two systems of trap dykes in considerable number, and Mr. Willson finds evidence, which seems almost conclusive, that both these systems of trap-dykes are younger than the great quartz reefs, a conclusion of the highest interest as bearing on the geolo gical history of the district. Mr. Willson has again resumed this work for the coming season. Mr. Willson's mapping is always distinguished by care, neatness, and accuracy.

Mr. Hacket resumed bis labour in Bajputana, mapping in a large area of the country lying between Bhurtpur and Jaipur, and to the south, included in the sheets 27, 35, 37, 38, 39, and 41 of the Bajputana Survey, and in parts of 10a, 106, and 12 of the Gwalior Survey, (scale 1 mile 1 inch). All the rocks met with belong generally to the same lass as those previously described by Mr. Hacket in the Biana hills, being chiefly quartzites, with very irregularly intercalated zones of schists, limestone, and trappean rocks resting upon or against gneissic masses. Mr. Hacket is disposed to adopt the name attached to the general range of these hills as a general inclusive name for the whole series of rocks, and to call them the Aravali series.

This work will be continued on Mr. Hacket's return from furlough, on which he is now absent. It has been for some time anxiously looked for, as tending to fill in one of the oreat lacuncB on the map of India, with a view to a general geological sketch of the country, and one of such importance that nothing very satisfactory can be done towards such a map until this portion of the country has been examined.

Mr. Mallet accomplished the examination of Sikkim (British) and of the Western Dhuars. The interest attaching to this field, from the probability of the coal forming an useful source of fuel, led to the publication of Mr. Mallet's report as quickly as possible. It has been issued with two geological coloured maps. Excepting iu the Darjiling district his examination had to be limited to a mere fringe of the mountains ; in places, indeed, even this much is beyond reach of the British boundary. There would appear to be some prospect of the Damuda coal of that region being made serviceable by the adoption of suitable con trivances for the utilization of such dust or powdery coal.

Mr. Mallet's observations have led him to the conclusion that the Damuda formation is, in this country, the lowest member of the rock series of the outer Himalaya ranges, the Darjiling gneiss being the topmost and youngest member of the same series. This, if confirmed, is a result of very great interest and importance, and would tend to establish a well marked common horizon between the rocks of the Himalaya and those of the Peninsula of India. Mr. Mallet's researches, excepting in the point to which his attention was specially directed, were necessarily rapid and cursory, and the maps can only be viewed as preliminary sketches. Until the country on either side is worked up to this portion, no really trustworthy or reliable section can be obtained from such isolated areas.

Records of Ihe Geological Survey of India.

During tire past year there have been four apprentices attached to the Geological Survey and paid out of the funds granted for that survey. Of these four, one has now been attached to the survey for nearly two years. During the present season he has been sent to the field with one of the assistants (Mr. Ball), who reports that up to date he has been attentive and willing to learn, but that his progress is very small and very unpromising. Further experience will be necessary before anything definite can he said as to the future prospect of this student. The other three, although nominated at the beginning of the year and receiving pay as apprentices, have been doing nothing in connection with the Geological Museum or Survey, having been, under the sanction of Government, attending courses of lectures and instructions at the Presidency College. Undoubtedly these lessons will enable them to appreciate better than they could otherwise have done the more technical knowledge which they are expected to acquire here. But the necessity for their devoting considerable time to this acquisition of what must he considered purely preliminary and collateral knowledge pre paratory to any study of geology or its hearings, will also undoubtedly prolong the time during which they must be merely learning. It may, I think, well he doubted how far the system of paying young men for learning what they ought to be able to prove their acquaint ance with, before their appointment, can be very successful. Certainly the system of giving appointments in order to induce the holders of those appointments to make themselves ac quainted with their duties has, in every other scientific pursuit, proved a failure. These student apprentices will be subjected to examination at the end of the season, when their general progress can be tested.

As customary, a small map of India is annexed, showing the present rate and general progress of the survey.

Since the commencement of this survey it has ever been my anxious desire and aim to complete a general sketch map of the Geology of India. The conviction has grown stronger each successive year, that until this can be done, nothing really useful can be attempted in the direction of very detailed geology, and that our progress must, necessarily be slow and irregular, until we shall have been able to fix even roughly the boundaries between the known and the unknown. I still hope that I shall be able to complete such a map. But I deeply regret to say that during the last few years, very little advance has been made towards the accomplishment of this end. There have been for some years so many and such urgent claims on the time of the officers of the survey for work of various kinds, often not geological, and the staff of the survey has been so reduced by illness and absence, as well as by actual diminution of numbers, that very little progress has been possible in that which has always been recommended to be, and which has indeed been more than once ordered to be considered the first and main object of the survey, namely, the systematic and continuous survey of the count , /. I am fully aware of the value of the results often obtained from enquiries in isolated areas, and at detached and separate points. Striking instances of this might be given from last year's work. Yet I am also compelled to think that these isolated enquiries are rarely of such immediate and urgent importance as to counterbalance the great and heavy disadvantage resulting from this very fact of their isolation. Each becomes a separate individual case, which it is impossible to colligate into a whole simply because we have no knowledge of the connecting links in the chain. Indeed many cases might be given where it seems more than doubtful whether anything is really gained even in time from such necessarily imperfect and unfinished results. A lew years of devotion of the greater portion of the staff of the survey to this one object would enable such a general preliminary map to be published, subject of course to additions or corrections as the more detailed work progressed in future years.

A glance at the little map which accompanies this report will at once show what large areas there are regarding which the Geological Survey of India as yet knows nothing of

Annual Report for 1874.

its own research. But the difficulty in compiling a general map does not depend so much on the size or frequency of these gaps or lacuna, for, of course, they could be left out>' to he filled in afterwards, but on the fact, that without some knowledge of these inter vening spaces, it is impracticable to correlate the rocks in one part of the country with those elsewhere. Each district or area examined in itself is necessarily described by itself, the rocks which occur in it are reduced to a system, their succession traced out, and their relations one to the other determined so far as possible. Local distinctive names are given to such separate groups, and all is rendered as complete as may be possible for that area. The survey operations are meanwhile directed to some other locality, and the same process of examination is gone through, but the results are not exactly the same ; new sub-divisions of the rocks become necessary, new names are given to distinct groups, for local convenience of description. This result is equally correct and equally satisfactory for its own area. But for any general map, it becomes essential that all these differences should he eliminated, how ever roughly, and all reduced to one general system or scale, and this is precisely what it is impracticable to do without some knowledge, however imperfect, of the country generally* which knowledge there is no means of obtaining while the officers of the survey are engaged in isolated localities and on special reseai'ches.

Seeing then the very distant prospect which was before the survey of being able to work out any general map from their own researches, I have for some years devoted much atten tion to preparing separate descriptions and in some cases separate maps of certain divisions of the country, so far as these were possible. Passing over papers descriptive of tho general geology of districts, or collectorates, (such as Surat, Gwalior, neighbourhood of Madras, Godavari, &c.,) a general sketch of the Geology of the Central Provinces was given so long since as 1871, of Orissa in 1872, of the Bombay Presidency in 1872, of the North- Western Provinces in 1873, of part of Punjab in 1873, and a general sketch of the Punjab is now just ready for press, while a general sketch of Bengal will betaken up also. These are all iu addition to the regular and more detailed descriptions of separate areas, coal-fields, &c.* <fcc. The most cursory' reference to these sketches will show the impossibility of combining all into one system, without more knowledge of the intervening areas, as yet unexamined, or, as the other alternative, reducing the map to such large generalities as would get rid of the e minor difficulties, hut would at the same time make such a map of extremely little value.

It is our earnest hope, however, that the survey will he permitted to complete such a general sketch map as mayT prove useful and within a limited time.

Publications. — Of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. X, part 2, announced as nearly ready at the close of last season, was issued early in the year. This contained a descriptive account of the Geology of Pegu by Mr. Theobald, with map, &c. Aud at the close of the year, part 1 of Vol. XI, containing a report by Mr. Mallet on the Geology of Darjiling and the Western Dhuars, with two geological maps, &c., appeared.

Of the Records of the Survey, the usual quarterly publication was steadily maintained, and the volume for 1874 contains no less than twenty-three separate papers on varied points in the Geology of India. Four of these are valuable summaries of the geological results obtained during the visit to Yarkand with the mission recently returned from that country by our lamented colleague, Dr. F. Stoliczka. These with the note on the Altum-Artush, which will be found below, complete all that ho had brought into shape for publication. Of practical papers, there are notes on the iron ores of Kunaaon : on the raw materials for iron smelting: on Petroleum in Assam: on the subsidiary materials used in production of artifi cial fuel: on the building and ornamental stones of India: on Potash salts : on Manganese ore, &c., &c., while descriptive notices are given of parts of Northern Hazaribagh ; neighbour hood of Murree ; of Kangra; of the Garo hills; of the Luni Puthan country west of Sind,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

and of the Southern Godavari country. These with annual report, and an interesting paper by Mr. Theobald, on some speculations as to the antiquity of the Human race in India based on Hindu legends, form the volume for the year.

Of the Pal.eontologia Indica, only one part was actually issued during the year 1874. As already stated in previous reports, the concluding parts of the Cretaceous T auna of Southern India had been pressed forward in anticipation of their regular time of issue in order to com plete this valuable series before the writer, Dr. Stoliczka, went away. This series was issued in full for the year 1873. And in addition, the commencing part of the Cephalopoda of Kach by Dr. W. Waagen was published in anticipation of the regular time of issue, namely, for the first quarter of 1874. The absence with the mission to Yarkand of Dr. Stoliczka, and from ill health of Dr. W. Waagen, has prevented further publication during the year. Pro gress was, however, made in the preparation of plates and drawings, and since the return of Dr. Waagen, the continuation of his detailed descriptions of the Kach Cephalopoda has gone to press. The part issued contained full description and figures of a very interesting form of Rhinoceros ( It. Deccanensis) found by Mr. R. B. Foote in fluviatile deposits in Belgaum.

Libeaev. — One thousand and eighty-four volumes or parts of volumes have been added to our Library during the past twelve months. Of this total more than one-half, or five hundred and fifty-seven, have been presented by different Societies and other institutions in exchange for the publications of the Geological Survey cf India, or as donations, while five hundred and twenty-seven have been purchased. The usual quarterly lists of these have been regularly continued in tire Recobds of the Survey, and as customary, a summary of the various institutions from which donations or exchanges have been received during the twelve months is appended. Wo continue to vender access to this very valuable library as general and as easy, as is consistent with the preservation of the books. And in very many cases, we find that from the special character of our collections, books have been available here, which could not be referred to elsewhere, either in Calcutta or indeed in India. In geological matters, quick and ready reference to the published results of other enquirers is perhaps more essentially necessary than in most other scientific enquiries, and we continue to look most anxiously for the transfer of our collections to premises where they can be rendered more easily accessible, and more generally useful, than it is possible to effect in our present greatly overcrowded apartments.

Museum. — During the year all the collection forwarded to the International Exhibition at Vienna, which was intended to be returned to this country, was safely received back, and was again embodied with the general series. General notices of donations have been given in the Records for the year, while we continue to receive from the officers of the Survey itself valuable additions constantly. Of the so-called Sivalik fossils, a large and valuable series has been procured by Mr. Theobald in his recent examination of the country. The examina tion in detail of these is, I regret to say, almost completely impracticable from want of any space or room in which to open them out, though individual specimens have been taken up. But very important results bearing on the sub-division and age of the different horizons of these rocks and of the imbedded fossils will undoubtedly arise, as soon as they can be care fully compared and described. From Mr. A. B. Wynne also a good series of similar fossils have been obtained, procured from parts of the Rawal Pindi and Jhilam districts in which he has been working, and Horn the small range of hills on this side the Jhilam, called the Pabbi hills. Some fish remains and other things were procured by Mr. Fedden, and a good series of specimens from the upper, secondary, and tertiary rocks of the Lower Godavari basin by Mr. King. To Mr. Hughes also the Museum is indebted for a very interesting series of fossils from the country adjoining the Milam pass, to the north of Kumaon, which prove the continuity of the formations first described as occurring near the Niti pass by Colonel R. Straehey : thus extending our knowledge of these formations considerably north-east. The fossils represent at least five different formations, Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic,

Permian, and Carboniferous and Silurian. A detailed list will be given in a future number of the Records.

Meteorites. — Our series has been enriched by pieces of the fall which took place on the 23rd September 1873. These are of much interest from the fact of their having been procured at different places, though the structure and composition of the stones show that they are identical in their nature. One piece was found near the village of Mylsi, fifty miles to south-east of Multan, and two others at Khairpur, thirty-five miles east of Bhawulpur. The distance between the two places being probably more than ten miles.

The collections have been kept iu good order and safety during the year.

T. Oldham,

Supdt. of Geol. Survey, India,

Calcutta, 1 and Director of Geol. Museum, Calcutta.

January, 1875. J

List of Societies and other Institutions from which publications have been received in donation or exchange for the Library of the Geological Survey of India during the year 1874.

Batavia. — Royal Society of Batavia.

Berlin. — German Geological Society.

Ditto. — Royal Academy of Sciences.

Bonn. — N atu rhistorischen V reins.

Boston. — Society of Natural History.

Breslau. — Silesian Society.

Bristol. — The Naturalists' Society.

Bbussells. — Royal Academy of Science.

Calcutta. — Agricultural and Horticultural Society.

Ditto. — Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Cambridge, Mass. — American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Ditto. — Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Cambridge. — Woodwardian Museum.

Copenhagen.— Royal Academy.

Dijon. — Imperial Academy of Dijon.

Dresden. — The Isis Society.

Edinburgh. — Geological Society of Edinburgh.

Ditto. — Royal Scottish Society of Arts.

Ditto. — Royal Society.

Glasgow. — Geological Society of Glasgow.

Ditto. — Philosophical Society.

Gottingen. — The Gottingen Society.

Lausanne. — The Society of Natural Sciences.

Liverpool. — Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool.

London. — British Museum.

Ditto. — East India Association.

Ditto. — Geological Society of London.

Ditto. — India Office.

Ditto. — Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

London. — Royal Society.

Ditto. — Royal Geographical Society.

Manchester. — The Manchester Geological Society.

Melbourne. — Royal Society of Victoria.

Moscow. — Imperial Society of Naturalists.

Munich. — Royal Bavarian Academy of Science.

Neuchatel. — Society of Natural Sciences.

New Haven. — Connecticut Academy.

New Zealand. — Geological Survey of New Zealand.

Paris. — Geological Society.

Ditto. — L' Administration des Mines.

Ditto. — National Institute of Prance.

Ditto.*— The Academy of Sciences.

Pest. — Royal Geological Institute of Hungary.

Philadelphia. — Academy of Natural Sciences.

Ditto.— American Philosophical Society.

Ditto. — Pranklin Institute.

Rome.- — Geological Commission of Italy.

Salem, Mass. — Essex Institute.

Ditto. — Peabody Academy.

Stockholm. — Bureau de la Reclier. Geol. Suede.

St. Petersburg. — Imperial Academy of Sciences.

Tasmania. — Royal Society.

Tokei. — Geological Survey of Yesso.

Toronto. — Canadian Institute.

Turin. — Royal Academy of Sciences.

Victoria. — Government Geological Survey of Victoria.

Ditto. — Ditto ditto ditto, Mining Department.

Vienna. — The Vienna Academy.

Ditto. — K. IC Geologisehen Reichsanstalt.

Washington. — Department of Agriculture, U. S. A.

Ditto. — Smithsonian Institute.

Ditto. — United States Geological Survey.

Wellington. — New Zealand Institute.

Yokohama. — German Natural History Society.

Zurich. — Natural History Society.

Governments of Bengal, Bombay, India, Madras, North-Western Provinces, and Punjab ; Chief Commissioners of British Burma, Central Provinces, Mysore, and Coorg ; the Resident, Haiderabad, the Surveyor General of India, the Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, and the Superintendent of the Thomason College , of Civil Engineering, Roorkee.

January, 1875.

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Stoliczka: Visit to Altum- Artush.

The Altum-Artush considered from a geological point of vraw, hy F. Stoliczka, Ph.D.

As soon as the most important political business had been concluded hy the signing of the commercial treaty by the Amir, His Excellency Mr. Forsyth expressed a wish to visit the renowned tomb of Sultan Satuk at Altum-Artush. The king accorded his permission, and instructed the Hakim Mahomed Khoja to assist us in travelling over the province under his care to whatever extent Mr. Forsyth might desire.

Under the personal guidance of the Envoy, we— Dr. Bellew, Captain Chapman, Captain Trotter, and myself— left Yangishar on the 14th of February, reaching Altum-Artush at a late hour the same day. As an introduction to the difficulties in travelling, our baggage did not arrive till next day, and we had to accommodate ourselves for the night on the carpets of the floor in a spacious but tolerably warm room. A halt of two days was desirable to enable us to make all necessary arrangements for our further movements. However, before I proceed, I shall endeavour to give the reader an idea of the geographical position and limits of the country of which I shall speak in the subsequent lines.

The data are derived from a general survey by Captain Trotter and from information given by the Hakim Mahomed Khoja.

Altum-Artush, which is the chief place of the province, lies approximately in east long. 76° 8' and north lat. 39° 41 therefore about twenty-three miles north by east of Yangishar. It is situated in the western part of the Yilak on the Bogos, here called Artush river, and north of a low ridge which separates the Artush valley from the plains. The southern boundary runs along this ridge for about ten miles west of Altum-Artush, and from there almost due north to the crest of the Koktan range ; then along this range eastwards of the Belanti pass (east long. 77° 47' and north lat. 40° 41'), and from thence in a south-eastern direction to the village of Kushtiguak, some fifteen miles north of Fyzabad in long. 76° 42' 30" and lat. 39° 28' 30". From here the southern boundary close to the right bank of the Kashgar river, until almost opposite to where the Artush river runs into the plains.

During the first four days we all marched in company up the valley of the Bogos river to the fort Tangitar, about twenty-three miles to the north by west ; then to a Kirghiz camp, Bashsugum, in a north-easterly direction ; Tugurmatti almost eastern ; and Ajaksugun in a south-eastern direction ; the directions being from the last camps respectively.

At Azjak-sugun Captain Trotter and I separated from the rest of the party, marching northwards along the road to Ashtifan, to Jaitava, and from thence across the Jigda Jilga in a north-east by east ? direction to the camp at Nibulak, crossing the Nibulak pass, pass ing a second jilga, and turning then for almost nine miles more northwards to the Belanti pass, beyond which lies the valley of the Kakshal or Aksai river. On our return we passed Ayak-sugun, Karaul, about a mile from our former camp of the same name, and visited Kultislak and Fyzabad, returning to Yangishar on the 3rd of March.

It was not a very favorable time for travelling in these regions, not so much on account of the cold, as in consequence of the heavy falls of snow which appear to occur over the whole of Thianshan during the second half of February and first half of March. During the last few days of February we were almost constantly wading in fresh fallen snow, though on the saline plains it melted very rapidly.

The snow naturally interfered seriously with our observations. However, obtaining even but a little addition to our knowledge of these hills, was a better way of occupying our time than remaining in our somewhat gloomy quarters.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

From a geological point of view the trip proved in many respects to be of considerable interest, particularly as supplementing some former observations made more to the west. Although there is not much variety in the rock formations we may distinguish three suc cessive series. The most southern part of the province, along the foot of the hills, is formed of alluvial gravels and sand in whose unfathomable depths are swallowed both the Artush and Sujun rivers, before they can reach the Kashgar daria. Wherever irrigation from the latter is possible the fields appear to he fertile ; but in the contrary case, the land is not much more than a mere desert covered with low and scanty scrubs of Ephedra Sp.? The marshy grounds along the river are the breeding places of innumerable waterfowl. Brahmini ducks and pintails were already selecting sites for their nests on the 1st of March. The latter must have only just arrived.

Where high grass occurs wild pigs are not uncommon.

The second series includes the low hills which extend diametrically from north to south over about thirty miles, while the prevalent strike is from north-east by east to south-west by west. All these lower hills are occupied by Artush beds, of which I spoke in a former com munication. They are separated into two groups. The lower beds consist of greenish or reddish clays or sandstones, and the upper ones of coarse conglomerates, which on a hill south of Tangitar have a thickness of about a thousand feet. At their contact both groups generally alternate in several layers. An anticlinal runs almost through the middle of their superficial extent. At the fort Ayak-sugun it is caused by a low ridge of old doloinitic lime stones on which the Artush clays and sandstones found a firm support. To the south of it the beds dip at angles of about 40° and 50° towards the Kashgar plain, in remarkably regular and successive layers. North of the ridge, which has no doubt a considerable sub terranean extent in an east to west direction, all the beds dip towards north by west at a similar angle. Approaching the higher range more recent diluvial gravels cover most of the slopes. The geological puzzle of finding strata of young beds as a rule dipping towards a higher range composed of comparatively much older rocks seems to me to be due, at least in this special case, to the phenomenon that the atmospheric waters which, descending on the crest, flow down the slopes of the high ridge, gradually soften them, and if a subterranean outlet facilitate it the softened hods arc worn away. While this process is going on the more distant beds simply subside in order to fill the vacant spaces. In some cases a sinking or rising of the main range, or even an overturn of high and precipitous cliffs, seem to go hand in hand with the action of erosion, hut it is not always the case. I hope to illustrate this idea by a few diagrams, partly derived from actual observations on some future occasion.

A third series of entirely different rocks forms the main range of hills which are a continuation of the Koktan range, and in which, more to the westward, are situated the Terek and Chakmak forts. The average height of the range is here between 1,200 and 1,300 feet, single peaks rising to about 1,500 feet. The whole of the southern portion consists, as far as I could see, of carboniferous rocks, in which, however, there is a great variety of structure. The lowest beds are very often a peculiar breccia-limestone passing into regular limestone conglomerate. Above this are beds of solid grey dolomitic limestone, partly massive, partly stratified ; the former possessing the character of reef limestone, and portions of it are indeed full of reef-building corals, crinoid stems, and a large Spirifer, the sections of which, when seen on the surface, have a striking resemblance to those of Megalodon.

North of Tangitar. and about Bash-sujun I met in several places great numbers of fossils, but they were so firmly cemented in a calcareous matrix that only a few could be extracted. Among these I could recognise a small BeUeropkon, Produetus semireticulatus, and an Athyris. A new Terebratula was also very common. Here about Bash-sujun and Tugur-

Sloliczha : Visit to Altunn- Artush.

matti greenish shales occurred often interstratified with the limestones, beds of which were highly carbonaceous ; the shales appeared to be unfossiliferous.

The limestone hills, which, as already stated, are a continuation of the Kohtan range extend in a north-easterly direction the whole way to south of the Belanti pass, where they are overlaid by a particularly well-bedded dark limestone very similar to that containing Megalodon north of Chuugterek. On this limestone rest greenish and purplish sandstones and shales which occupy the pass and the adjoining hills to the north-west of it ; mineralogically these last rocks are quite identical with what we understand under the name of " Bunter sandstein," and it is by no means improbable that the Belanti beds are also of triassic age, as they succeed in regular layers those of the carboniferous formation.

A peculiar feature in this part of the hills consists in the occurrence of extensive plains to which the name jilga is generally applied. It means originally, I think, merely a water course, and, on a large scale, these plains may be looked upon as water-courses of former water-sheets. They occur at the base of the high range, and in some respects resemble the duns of the southern slopes of the Himalayas. North of Tangitar one of these large plains occurs within the limestone rocks, being surrounded by them on all sides. It must be about thirty miles long from east to west, and about sixteen from north to south. Several isolated limestone hills and ridges occur in it, and it is drained off by the Bogos and Sujun rivers, the former rising in the south-west, the latter in the south-east corner. The average elevation is about 5,000 feet. The greater portion is covered with a low scrubby vegetation, and, near the rivers, with high grass. The principal catnping grounds are Bash-sujnn and Tugurmatti. The whole plain, which affords a good pasturage ground, is occupied by about 120 tents of Kirghiz during the summer.

The next jilga is the Jigda Jilga. It differs considerably both in its physical situation and in its general character from the former. It stretches from west by south to east by north for about thirty-five miles, while the diameter of the eastern half is about twenty and that of the western about twelve miles. Save for a few low hillocks i t is almost a level plain throughout. On the north-western, northern, and north-eastern side it is bounded by the Koktan range, from which several water-courses lead into it, one about the middle from the north and one from north-east of considerable size, this containing a large quantity of crystalline pebbles ; the rock from which they are derived must be in situ near the axis of the ridge. A third big stream comes from the east, leading from the Nibulak pass. None of these streams had any water in them. On the south, east, and south-east the plain is bounded by the much lower hills composed of Artush beds, their slopes covered with gravel.

An elevated gap or saddle situated in the south-west corner appears to connect this jilga with that of Tugurmatti. There is no drainage from this jilga ; all the water is absorbed by the enormous thickness of sand and mud which fills the entire basin. This accounts for the comparatively rich vegetation which exists in it. There are several stretches of regular poplar forest (P. nigra or P. balsamifera) up to ten miles long and four to five miles in breadth. Besides which there are several places occupied by regular jungle of Tamarix, Myricaria, 'Ephedra, and the peculiar wormwood, from the seed of which the Kirghiz prepare satu. The Tamarix and poplars must absorb during their growth a very large quantity of the mineral salts with which the entire ground is saturated ; the wood on being burnt gives out a strong smell of sulphur and chlorine.

The poplar trees are not healthy; they resemble oak trees covered with mistletoe. The branches are short, stumpy, and bushy. It is evident that the trees only exist in consequence of the subterranean moisture. There are a great number of springs through the forest and on its edges, but on account of the level character of the plain no flowing streams exist except where there has been a very heavy snowfall and very rapid melting.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

It is satisfactory to observe that within three inarches of Kashgar there is such a large supply of wood, though it is by no means good wood. I have already stated that the entire soil is very saline, and it is remarkable to see how snow melts on this saline ground. Thus about four inches of snow fell while we were there. In one day all was melted away on the saline ground, while near springs, where the saline matter has been gradually dissolved out of the ground, hardly any snow had melted. AVhere the soil is most moist or even swampy, and in river-courses, high reed-grass is abundant. The southern part of the jilga, particularly south-east of Taitma, is lowest, and here a large quantity of pure salt in small cubical crystals is collected. The fact that there is such a large quantity of saline matter, together with salt swamps in the southern part, seems to prove that this jilga at least and probably most of the others had been washed out by the sea, and that while others had gradually, though only partially, drained off the saline matter, this one retained it because it has at present no outlet. It is in fact a dried up saline lake, which at some remote time was cut off from the sea of which it was a fjord.

Jigda Jilga is occupied by about 150 to 170 Kirghiz tents ; each tent may be taken as containing five souls. There are a few fields near Jigda camp, and if there has been a large quantity of snow the crops are said to prosper very Well. During the winter the Kirghiz are encamped in small groups near the different springs. They do not keep many horses, hut large numbers of sheep and goats and a few camels. One whole alcoi is alight load for a camel; when packed the blankets are made into saddles over the hump of the animal.

A third jilga is south of the Belanti pass and north-east of the Nibulak pass. It is about eight miles in breadth and the same in length. There are two large water-courses leading to it from the range. On the Southern side it is enclosed by Artush and gravel beds, hut whether an outlet exists is not known. It has no forest, nor any kind of trees or large bushes, and the grass vegetation is scanty, evidently on account of the dryness. A southerly outlet very likely exists. We met a few Kirghiz encamped here from Ush-Turfan. The only supply of water they had was melted snow, and as soon as the snow-beds about are exhausted, they have to retreat with their flocks to the Kakshal valley.

On the evidences of ' ground-tce ' in tropical India, during the Talchir period, by P. Fedden, E.G.S., Geological Survey of India.

Since the announcement by Mr. Blanford in 1856 (Memoirs, Geological Survey, India, Yol. I, page 49) of the occurrence of deposits supposed to he glacial in formations occupying the low lands of India south of the Tropic— those formations, moreover, being presumably of palseozoic age — the fact has hardly engaged the attention due to one so opposed to every day experience at present. This neglect must, of course, be in a great measure attri buted to doubt. Even among ourselves, observers of the Talchir boulder-clay have subse quently attempted to oiler explanations of its mode of formation without the agency of ice. But this view never obtained favour from those having the largest acquaintance with the deposits in question, who have confidently looked forward to the confirmation of the judg ment given by Mr. Blanford.

Although it had been pointed out from the first, that the mode of ice-action involved was of a kind in which striation would be the exception rather than the rule, still, striation was almost the only independent testimony to be looked for in confirmation of the general evidence. The boulder-bed had no resemblance to the till, or the deep-moraine, of a conti nental ice-sheet, except perhaps that the fine greenish silt so frequently forming the matrix of the boulder-bed has a great similarity to the well-known glacial mud. It was equally

part 1.] Fedden : On the evidences of ground-ice in tropical India.

unlike the ordinary moraine deposits of glaciers ; the boulders exhibit, most commonly, considerable weathering or water-wear. The boulder-bed, too, is not usually a bottom bed, but is generally intercalated with very regular and sharply bedded deposits. Lamination is moreover not unfrequently displayed in the boulder-bed itself. These features all point to the familiar circumstances accompanying ground-ice, where loose materials are picked np by the freezing of the water in rivers or on the shallow margins of water-basins, and floated away to be deposited elsewhere. Even so it must happen that such ice-rafts get stranded with more or less violence, producing striation and polishing of the imbedded boulders and of the rocks with which they may come in contact, as also when urged onward by the accu mulating force of an ice-blocked river. It was therefore confidently expected that sooner or later evidence of this kind would be forthcoming in the Talclnr boulder-bed.

In J anuary 1872 I had the good fortune to find an excellent example of this missing link of evidence. The place was visited shortly after by Dr. Oldham, who dug out and removed a fine specimen of hard dense close-grained syenitic granite, of which one side is beautifully polished, scored and striated. This specimen is now in the Museum of the Geological Survey in Calcutta. Notice was given of the discovery at the time by Dr. Oldham in a foot note to a paper by Mr. Blanford on the Geology of Nagpur (Mem. Geol. Sur., India, Vol. IX, p. 321).* The section was not then very well seen. But on revisiting the ground during the past season, I found the rocks much better exposed. A special i-ecord of the case is made, as it is not unlikely that the elements may before long obliterate what they have now laid bare. The locality is near the little village of Irai on the right bank of the Pern river, not quite a mile above its confluence with the Wardha, and ten miles to west south-west of Chdnda.

The surface features of the neighbourhood for a considerable distance always form an important consideration in the discussion of any particular case of ice-scratching ; and even for these most ancient deposits we are not without some plausible conjectures on this point. Prom the very general fact of the Talchir group, and the other lower members of the series to which they belong, occupying low ground in the actual drainage basins, and being com monly overlapped by the succeeding members of the series, it is apparent that the actual basins are in a manner the reproduction of the pre-Talchir ground-configuration. No doubt the ancient highlands had been greatly denuded to furnish materials for the thick deposits overlying the Talchirs ; and they must have suffered further reduction from the denudation which has for the most part removed again those overlying groups. Yet it is probable that the existing contours give an indication of the pre-Talchir surface. If it he so, there is nothing here to support the notion of a glacier having reached the spot under notice. For many score miles round there is no commanding elevation of rock older than the Talchirs from which an ice-stream could have descended. The supposition of an expansive ice-sheet would be still more difficult to reconcile with the observed features.

The general circumstances of the case under consideration thus lead us again to the supposition of ground-ice ; and this view is remarkably strengthened by the coincidence that this single instance of scratched boulders is found in immediate connection with the only known example of a scored and polished rock-surface. The boulder-bed is here a bottom rock, resting upon compact Pem-limestones (Lower Vindhyan). For a length of 330 yards along the river's bank this underlying rock is exposed, displaying a large surface, polished, scratched, and grooved after the fashion so familiar to glacialists. The surface has a slope of 12° — 15° to the west, obliquely overcutting the strata, which have a dip of 8° to west, south-west.

Mr. W. Blanford also gave a brief notice of the fact, and of the general evidence for the existence of glacial forces at this early geological epoch in India, at the meeting of the British Association at Bradford, 1873, Sections, p. 76.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Tlie strise and grooves run in long parallel lines, having directions between north-east and north-north-east, oblique to the slope of the surface ; and from the manner in which the rock is affected at the edges of the few planes of jointing, it can be inferred that the move ment was up the slope. It is, of course, not certain that the present inclination of this surface is the same as when the scoring was produced. The Takhirs have undergone con siderable crushing and displacement, though this might well have occurred in soft strata without much affecting the hard rocks against which they rest ; but the actual conditions are so far confirmatory of the view we have been led to — of an ice-raft being drifted against and impelled up an opposing rock surface.

The boulder-bed itself is strongly developed in the district, especially to the north, where the contained masses of foreign rock — limestone, quartzite, granite {pegmatite and protogine ) &o. — are of huge size and very numerous. In the immediate vicinity of Irai, the boulders are for the most part small, a few attaining a major diameter of 2 feet and even 2 feet 6 inches. Some of these boulders are worn smooth on certain sides only, and in the direction of the longest diameter ; others more rounded have a beautifully polished surface : they are moreover striated and scored in fine parallel straight lines, precisely similar to the rock-surface above described, and resulting evidently from glacial motion or 'ground-ice.'

These boulders are enclosed in a fine gravelly bed of heterogeneous material, conglomera tic near the base, and intermingled with angular rough blocks and rock fragments.

It would appear that the freighted ice-mass had travelled a long distance from the south west, through the Utnur and Edlabad (Idulabad) districts, where rocks occur of the same composition as that of the several boulders.

The evidences for the glacial origin of these deposits is as conclusive as that for the iceage formations of Europe.

The latitude of Irai is 19° S3', elevation under 900 feet ; the most southerly known position of the Talchir boulder-bed is latitude 17° 20', and only a little above the level of the sea.

Bombay,

September, 1871 . 1

Trials of Banigan.i Fire-bricks, by T. W. Hughes and H. B. Medeicott, Geological Survey of India.

Amongst other investigations connected with the projects to utilize the Indian iron-ores, some fire-bricks that were furnished by the firm of Messrs. Burn and Company were ex amined and tested in September last.

They were made from various clays obtained in the neighbourhood of Kaniganj and elsewhere, and were highly recommended as having stood the wear and tear of ordinary cupolas, and it was hoped that they would be found capable of standing the more heavy work of a blast furnace. It will be seen, however, from the subjoined details of my experiments, that there were some defects in their composition, and that although they were quite as good, or rather somewhat superior to the Stourbridge fire-bricks which could be procured at the time, they fell short of the excellence of Glenboig.

Subsequent trials, however, of the same kind and degree as those conducted in the first instance were made by Mr. Medlicott on bricks improved as suggested in the first report, and his verdict was " that several of them stood the test perfectly, showing no sign of cracking or of vitrification." These latter trials were made in the presence of Mr. Whitelaw, Manager of

part 1 .] Hughes — Medlieott : Trials of Eaniganj Fire-bricks.

the Bengal Iron Company's proposed work, and others, who agreed in the favorable estimate formed of the quality of these bricks.

The experiments ware, with the kind permission of Colonel H. Hyde, E. e,, Master of the Mint, conducted at the Mint furnaces.

Mr. Hughes, who conducted the first trials, reported —

1. " The fire-bricks tested by me were furnished by the firm of Messrs. Burn and

Company, and are stated to have been made from fire-clay obtainable in the neighbourhood of Mallapur.'

" The results of my experiments are —

" lrf. — That the material from which they are made is very refractory, and capable of resisting high temperatures without sensibly fusing.

"2nd. — That the bricks, however, have failed to sustain the high character for excellence which Mr. Cowhan (the Manager of the Kaniganj Pottery Works) has attributed to them, inasmuch as they shrink on being subjected to strong firing, and show a tendency to fissure.

" 3rd. — That compared with Glenboig fire-bricks they are inferior ; but compared with Stourbridge fire-bricks they are somewhat superior.

" I attribute the shrinkage and Assuring to the texture being too fine ; and this can only be remedied by the addition of a proper amount of burnt clay in coarse powder, or some infusible substance like silica. The particles of silica (quartz) must not be too fine, otherwise they may enter into combination with the clay.

" The usual proportion of raw to burnt clay is of the former to -§ of the latter, and I believe this proportion was adopted in the manufacture of the fire-bricks from Raniganj. It does not appear to have answered however; but this was probably due to the burnt clay having been ground up too fine. On a purely practical point of this kind, I do not like to give a decided opinion, as experience alone can determine what the proper proportions ought to be, and I would suggest that separate sample bricks be prepared, containing varying proportions of ground brick and silica, and the particles to be of varying sizes. A series of experiments carefully conducted will, I feel sure, enable fire-bricks to be made that will possess all the qualities requisite for the special purposes to which they may be applied."

Details of experiments.

(A) . — The brick marked A was subjected to a temperature of over 3,000 Fakrt. in a

wind furnace, the fuel being English coke. It was purposely broken in half.

Remarks. — The edges have stood well.

(B) . — Was heated in the same furnace as a Glenboig brick, at a temperature considerably

higher than the smelting point of cast-iron.

Remarks. — It cracked, and was fissured throughout.

(C) . — Was submitted to conditions similar to (B).

Remarks. — It is superior to (B), but it is internally fissured. It contains an excess of alkaline earth, which has vitrified.

(D) . — Was inserted in a plumbago crucible to avoid contact with the coke. This was

carefully weighed and measured previous to insertion and after extraction Its tenderness was also noted.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Remark's. — The edges have resisted fusion, which is a good quality, and its tenderness was not of an appreciable amount. It contracted, however, more than I expected. The following were the measurements and weights : —

Measurement before insertion

„ after extraction

Weight before insertion „ after extraction

This brick when externally examined appears to approach in texture much nearer the required standard than any other.

(B). — Was heated like the last in a plumbago crucible. It is made of pure fire-clay.

Remarks. — I think it was too strongly burnt in the first instance, i. e., before it passed into my hands. It cracked on being taken out of the furnace and de posited on a cold floor.

(F). — Was tested in the same manner as (B) and (C).

Remarks. — Like the other bricks, it exhibits fissures internally.

(G. & II). — Glenboig bricks, purposely broken, submitted to conditions similar to (B) and (C) and (F).

Remarks. — It will be observed that there are no fissures. No contraction and no softening.

In the second series of trials conducted by Mr. Medlicott, ten bricks, made at the Raniganj works, were tested with one of Stourbridge brick and one of Glenboig brick, and also one common machine-made brick. They were kept for four hours in the gas furnace in plumbago crucibles — for the last two hours at the full blast. None showed any sign of fusion. The machine-made brick and the Stourbridge brick were badly cracked, and one of the Raniganj bricks slightly so. The loss of weight was very marked in the Glenboig brick ; next so in the Stourbridge, probably due to the coarser texture of the former, and in both to their having been less well dried than the others.

Five of the bricks were put into a coke furnace with a Glenboig brick, and five in a second furnace with a Stourbridge brick. The former furnace seems to have been most heated: even the Glenboig brick bent and broke, and showed as much vitrification as the others. In the other furnace, all were more or less damaged — the Stourbridge least so.

Geological Museum,

January 1875. J

List Of Donations To The Museum.

During October, November, and December 1874.

Specimen of Asbestos from Kuran, Kobat Frontier. Presented by Captain N. Cavagnaei. An Elephant's tusk, deeply eaten into by Porcupines, found in the Meekir Hill Jungles. Presented by Captain J. Johnstone, s. c.

Specimens of Opal in matrix from New South Wales. Presented by W. Drummond, Esq., Sydney.

Ores of Copper, Lead, and Antimony, and other minerals from the mines, Kulu, Punjab. Presented by Mb. J. Calvert, Kulu.

Iron Pyrites from the Bozdar Hills, Trans-Indus. Presented by Captain R. G. Sandeman, Deputy Commissioner, Dera Gazi Khan.

Quasi-Fossils (cellular quartz) in schistose slates from Palnad, Madras. Presented by J. Vanstavern, Esq.

January 1875.

Accessions to Library.

o 1

fV 1

Accessions To Library.

From 1st October to 31st December 1874.

Titles of Boohs. Donors.

Abstract of the Reports of the Surveys and of other Geographical operations in India for 1872-73, (1874), 8vo., London.

India Oepice.

Anstie, John. — The coal-fields of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire and their resources, (1873), 8vo., London.

Barrande, Joachim.— Systeme Silurien du centre de la Bohdme, Part I, with plates, Sup plement to Yol. I, and Yol. II, pt. 3, (1872-74) 4to., Paris.

The Author.

Brauns, D. — Der Obere Jura im nordwestlichen Deutschland, (1874), 8vo., Braunschweig. Cuvier, M. F. — Des Dents des mammiferes considerees comme caracteres Zoologiques, (1825), 8vo., Strasbourg.

Darwin, C. — The structure and distribution of Coral Reefs, 2nd Edit. (1874), 8vo., London. Dawkins, W. Boyd. — Cave Hunting, (1874), 8vo., London.

Denton, J. B.— The storage of water, (1874), 8vo., London.

Edwards, Alphonse Milne.— Histoire des Crustacea Podophthalmaires Fossiles, (1861), 4to., Paris.

The Author.

if

If

— Note sur existence d'un pelican de grande taille dans les tourbieres d'Angleterre, 4to., Paris.

The Author.

The Author.

Falconer and Cautley. — Palaeontological Tracts, 8vo.

Gaudry, Albert. — Animaux Fossiles du Mont Leberon, (1873), 4to., Paris.

Geinitz, De. H. B. — Das Elbthalgebirge in Sachsen, Theil I, lief. 4 — 5, Theil II, lief. 1 and 2, (1872), 4to., Cassel.

The Author.

ff

ff

Das Konigliche mineralogische Museum zu Dresden, (1873), 8vo., Dresden.

The Author.

Greenwood, Henry. — A manual of metallurgy, Vol. I, G874), 8vo., London.

Haast, J . — Researches and Excavations carried on in and near the Moa Bone Point Cave, Sumner Road, in 1872, (1874), 8vo., Christ Church.

The Author.

How, Henry. — The mineralogy of Nova Scotia, (1869), 8vo., Halifax.

Hunt, T. Sterry. — History of the names Cambrian and Silurian in Geology, (1872), 8vo., Montreal.

„ „ — The coal and iron of Southern Ohio considered with relation to the

Hocking Valley coal-field and its iron ores, (1874), 8vo., Salem. Keene, H. G. — Note on the stone industries of Agra, (1873), 8vo., Mirzapur.

V. Ball.

Koninck, L. G. de. — Recherches sur les Animaux Fossiles, Part II, (1873), 4to., Bonn. Mackintosh, D. — The Scenery of England and Wales, (1869), 8vo., London.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Moissenet, M. L.— Etudes sur les Filons du Cornwall. Parties Eiches des Filons, with Atlas, (1874), 8vo. and 4to., Paris.

Ooster, W. A. — Petrifications remarquables des Alpes Suisses. Le Corallien de Wimmis, (1809), 4to., Geneve.

The Author.

Pfeiffer, Case.— Systematische Anordnnng nnd Besohreibung dentscher Land-und Wasser- Schneeken, (1821), 4to., Cassel.

Pfeiffer, L. — Kritisches Kegistev ssu Martini und Chemnitz systematischen Conchylien- Cabinet, (1840), 8vo., Kassel-

Protozoe Helvetica, Bd. II, Abth. 3, (1871), 4to., Basel.

Quenstedt, F. A. — Pelrefactenlcunde lleutschlands, Bd. Ill, Abth. I, heft. 1 — 5 and Atlas, (1873-74), 8vo., Leipzig.

Keport of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the several matters relating to coal in the United Kingdom, Vols. I — III, with Atlas of 15 fol. plates, (1871), Use., London.

A. Bams ay.

Reybaud, Louis. — Le fer et Ilouille, (1874), 8vo., Paris.

Riviere, Iamile. — Decouverte d'nn squelette Humain de l'Epoqne Paleolithique, 1873), 4to., Paris.

Robert, J. P. — Dizionario Italiano — Inglese e Englese — Italiano, (1874), 8vo., Firenze. Roth, J.- — -Beitrage zur Petrographic der plutonischen Gesteine, (1873), 4to., Berlin. Seebach, Karl von. — Das Mitteldeutsche Erdbeben vom 6 Marz, 1872, (1873), 8vo., Leipzig.

The Author.

Selwyn, A. R. C. — Notes and observations on the Gold-fields of Quebec and Nova Scotia, (1872), 8vo., Halifax.

Wilkinson, C. — Report on the Tin-bearing country, New England, (1872), fisc., Sydney. Young, John. — Physical Geography, (1874), 8vo., London.

Zirkel, Dr. Ferd. — Die Mikroskopische Beschaffenheit der mineralien und Gesteine, (1873), 8vo., Leipzig.

Zittel, De. K. A. — Die Rauberhohle am Sclielmengraben, 4to., Miincken.

Tire Author.

Zittel, Prof.— Aus der Urzeit, 1st half, (1871), 8vo., Miinchen.

The Author.

Periodicals.

American Journal of Science and Arts, 3rd Ser., Yol. VIII, Nos. 44 — 46, (1874), 8vo., New Haven.

The Editors.

Annales des Mines, 7th Series, Yol. V, livr. 2, 1874, 8vo., Paris.

L'Adhinstr. des Mines.

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Ser., Vol. XIV, Nos. 81 — 83, (1874), 8vo., London.

Archiv fiir Naturgeschiche, Jahrg. XL, heft 1, (1874), 8vo., Berlin.

Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse. Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, Vol. XLIX, Nos. 193 — 196, and L, Nos. 197 — 200, 1874, 8vo., Geneva.

PART l.J

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Boohs. Donors.

Bibliotheque Universelle et Eevue Suisse, Yol. XLIX, Nos. 193 — 196, and L, Nos. 197— 200, and LI, Nos. 201 and 202, (1874), 8vo., Lausanne.

Cora, Guido— Cosmos, Yol. II, Nos. 2 and 3, (1874), 8vo., Torino.

Guido Coea.

Geographical Magazine, Nos. 6—8, (1874), Roy. 8vo., London.

Geological Magazine, New Series, Decade II, Vol. I, Nos. 9—11, (1874), 8vo., London.

Indian Economist, with Agricultural Gazette and Statistical Reporter, Yol. YI, Nos. 2—4, (1874), 4to., Calcutta.

Govt, of India.

Journal de Conchy liologie, 3rd Series, Vol. XIV, No. 3, (1874), 8vo., Paris.

The Editors.

London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 4th Series, Yol. XLVIII, Nos. 317—319, (1874), 8vo., Loudon.

Lu ynes le Due de. — Voyage d'Exploration a la Mer Morte a Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain, lief, 17 & 18, (1874), 4to., Paris.

Maetini und Chemnitz. — Systematisches Conchylien-Cabinet, lief, 228 — 231, (1874), 4to., Niirnburg.

Mineral Statistics of Victoria for 1872-73, (1873-74), ., Melbourne.

Mining Deft., Victoria.

Neues Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie, Geologie, und Palaeontologie, Jahrg. 1874, heft 6 & 7, (1874)., 8vo., Stuttgart.

Palseontographica, Band XX, lief. 7, XXII, lief. 5, and XXIII, lief. 1 & 2, (1874), 4to., Cassel.

Petebmann, De. A. — Geographische Mittheilungen, Band XX, Nos. 8 — 10, (1874), 4to., Gotha.

„ „ Geographische Mittheilungen, Supplement Nos. 34—38, (1872-74),

4to., Gotha.

Pfeiffer, De. L. — Malakozoologische Blatter, Band XXII, Bg. 1 — 4, (1874), 8vo., Cassel.

Poggendoeff, J. C. — Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Band 152, Nos. 7 & 8, and 153, No. 9, (1874), 8vo., Leipzig.

Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, 2nd Ser., Vol. Ill, No. 14, (1874), 8vo., Roorkee.

Thomason College of Civil Engineering.

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, New Series, Nos. 55 & 56, (1874), 8vo., London.

Quarterly Journal of Science, No. 44, 1874, 8vo., London.

Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars, Victoria, for quarters ending 30th June, 30th September, and 31st December 1872. and 31st March 1873, and 31st March 1874, (1872-74), ., Melbourne.

Mining Dept., Victoria.

The Year-book of Photography and Photographic News Almanach for 1871-74, 8vo., London.

GOVERNMENT SELECTIONS, &c.

British Burma. — Administration Report on the Hill Tracts, Northern Arakan, for 1873-74, (1874), 8vo., Rangoon.

Chief Commissioner, British Burma.

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Central Provinces. — Report on the administration of the Central Provinces for the year 1873-74 by J. H. Morris, Esq., (1874), 8vo., Nagpur.

Chief Commissioner, Central Provinces.

India. — Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 114. Report on the political administration of the terri tories within the Central India Agency for 1873-74, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Government of India.

Punjab. — Selections from the Records of the Punjab Government, New Series, No. X.

The Himalayan Districts of Ivooloo, Lahoul, and Spiti by Captain A. F. P. Harcourt, (1874), 8vo., Lahore.

Punjab Government.

TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES, &c.

Amsterdam. — Jaarboek van het Mijnwezen in Nederlandsch Oost Indie, Jahrg. Ill, Deel I, (1874), 8vo., Amsterdam.

Royal Society of Batavia.

Berlin. — Monatsbericht der konig. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Juli, and Aug., (1874), 8vo., Berlin.

The Academy.

„ Inhaltsverzeicliniss der Abhandlungen der konig. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1822-72, (1873), 8vo., Berlin.

The Academy.

„ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft, Bd. XXY, heft 4, & XXVI, heft 1-2, (1873-74) 8vo., Berlin.

The Society.

Bonn. — Verhandlungen des Naturhistorischen Vereins, Jahrg. XXXI, Band I, pt. 4, (1874), 8vo., Bonn.

The Society

Breslau. — Abhandlungen der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fur Vaterlandische Cultur Philosophhistorische, Abth. 1873-74, (1874), 8vo., Breslau.

The Society.

„ Einundfiinfzigster Jalires-Bericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fur Vaterlandische Cultur, (1874), 8vo., Breslau.

The Society.

Bruxelles — Annuaire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, (1874), 8vo., Bruxelles.

The Academy.

„ Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, Vols. XXXV and XXXVI,

The Academy.

„ Memoires Couronnes et autres Memoires, Vol. XXIII, (1873), 8vo., Bruxelles.

The Academy.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Bootes. Donors.

Bruxelles. — Memoires Couronnes et Memoires des Savants Etrangers, Yol. XXXVII, (1873), 4to., Bruxelles.

The Academy.

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The Academy.

Calcutta. — Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, Vol. XLIII, pt. 2, Nos. 2, 3, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

The Society.

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Copenhagen. — Oversight over det kong. danske Videnskabernes Selskabs, Nos. 2 and 3, 1873, and No. 1, 1874, (1873-74), 8vo., Copenhagen.

The Eoyal Academy.

Dresden. — Sitzungsberichte der naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft, Isis, in Dresden, Jahrg. 1871, May and July, 1872 July to September, 1874 January to March, (1871-74), 8vo., Dresden.

The Society.

Edinburgh. — Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society, Vol. II, pt. 3, (1874), 8vo.( Edinburgh.

The Society.

Glasgow.— Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, Vol. IX, No. 1, (1874), 8vo., Glasgow.

The Society.

Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, Pakeontological Series, pt. I, 4to., Glasgow.

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„ Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, Vol. IV, pt. 3, (1874), 8vo., Glasgow.

The Society.

London. — Journal of the East India Association, Vol. VIII, No. 2, (1874), 8vo., London.

The Association.

„ Journal of the Eoyal Geographical Society, Vol. XLIII, (1873), 8vo., London.

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Eoyal Geographical Society of London, Vol. XVIII, Nos. 3-5, (1874), 8vo., London.

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Eoyal Society of London, Vol. XXII, Nos. 152 to 154, (1874), 8vo., London.

Eoyal Society.

„ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. XXX, pt. 2, Nos. 118 and 119, (1874), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Bootes. Donors.

Manchester. — Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vols. I to XII, (1851-73), 8vo., Manchester.

The Society.

Moscotj. — Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Tome XLVI, No. 4, (1874), 8vo., Moscou.

The Society.

Munchen. Sitzungsberichte der math-phys. class der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1873, heft 3, and 1874, heft 1, (1874), 8vo., Miinchen.

Tee Academy.

Munchen. Bischoff, De. T. L. W. Von. — Ueber den Einfluss des Freiherrn Justus yon Liebig auf die entwicklung der Physiologie, (1874), 8vo., Miinchen.

The Academy.

Pettenkofer, De. Mas. von. — Dr. Justus Freiherrn von Liebig zum Gedachtniss, (1874), 4to., Miinchen.

The Academy.

Vogel, August. — Justus Freiherr von Liebig als begriinder der Agrikultur- Chemie, (1874), 4to., Miinchen.

The Academy.

Verzeichniss von 5,563 telecopischen sternen supplement band XIII, (1874), 8vo., Miinchen.

The Academy.

New Zealand. Hectoe, James. — Eighth Annual Report on the Colonial Museum and Laboratory, (1873), 8vo., New Zealand.

J. Hectoe.

Paris.— Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France, 2nd Ser., Vol. XXIX, Nos. 4 — 9, 3rd Ser., Vol. I, Nos. 1 — 5, and Vol. II, Nos. 1 — 2, (1872-74), 8vo., Paris.

The Society.

,, Comptes Rendus, Vols. 66-76, and Table Generate des Comptes Rendus pour 1851-65, (1868-1873), 4to., Paris.

L' Acad, de Science de l' Institut de Feance.

„ Memoires de l'lnstitut Imperiale de France, Vols. XXXVI, XXXVII, pt. 2, XXXVIII, and XLI, pt. 1, (1870-74), 4to., Paris.

L' Acad, de Science de l' Institut de France.

,, Memoires presentes par divers savants a l' Academie des sciences de 1' Institut de France, Vol. XX, (1872), 4to., Paris.

L' Acad, de Science de l' Institut de France.

Pest. — Mittheilungen aus dem jahrbucher der kon. ungar. Geologischen Anstalt, Bd. I, lief 3, and II, lief 2 & 3, (1873), 8vo., Pest.

The Institute.

A Magyar kir Foldtani intezil Evkonyve, Bd. II, pt. 3, (1873), 8vo., Pest.

The Institute.

,, Catalogue des Nummulites exposes a 1' exposition Universelle a Vienna de T annee, 1873, (1873), 8vo., Pest.

The Institute.

Accessions to Library .

Titles of JBoolcs. Donors.

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The Institute.

„ Die Kollektiv-Ausstellung ungarisclien Kohlen auf der Wiener Weltausstellung. (1873), 8vo., Pest.

The Institute.

Philadelphia. — Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, New Series, Vol. VIII, pt. 1, (1874), 4to., Philadelphia.

The Academy.

,, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, parts

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Plymouth. — Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association, Vols. 1 — VI, pt. 1. (1863 — 73), 8vo., Plymouth.

Rome. — Bollettino R. Comitato Geologico d' Italia, Nos. 7 — 10, (1874), 8vo., Rome.

Geol. Comm, oe Italy.

Stockholm. — Sveriges Geologiska Undersokning, Nos. 36—41, and 6 large maps, (1870), 8vo., Stockholm.

Bureau Geol. Suede.

St. Petersboubg. — Bulletin de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, Vol. XVIII, Nos. 3—5, and XIX, Nos. 1—3, (1873-74), 4to., St. Petersbourg.

The Academy-

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The Acadedy.

Tasmania. — Monthly notices of Papers and Proceedings of the Royal for 1873, (1874), 8vo., Tasmania.

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Toronto. — Canadian Journal of Science, New Series, Vol. XIV, No. 3, (1874), 8vo., Toronto.

Canadian Institute.

Turin.— Atti della R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, Vol. IX, Nos. 1 — 5, (1873-74), 8vo., Torino.

The Academy.

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The Academy.

Vienna. — Abkandlungen der k. k. Geologischen Reich sanstalt, Band V, heft 6, VI and VII, Nos. 1 & 2, (1873-74), 4to., Vienna.

The Institute

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

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Kmfe VIWV C.U UFOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA Rpooi-d Ma

Records

Of The

Geological Survey Of India.

Pkeliminaey note on the Gold-fields of South-east Wynad, Madras Presidency, by William King, b. a., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India, Madras.

The attention of the Madras Government having been again called, after a lapse of Reason for present brief nearly forty-two years, to the occurrence of gold in the Malabar Disreport' triet, it was considered advisable that an examination of the country

should be made by the Geological Survey of India. It now, however, turns out that the area over which the auriferous deposits and quartz reefs extend is so large, that a considerable period of time must elapse before a full report of the whole district can be made. In the meanwhile, as a gold mining company had been started with the intention of opening up the quartz reefs known to exist in Wynad, and more particularly those near Dayvallah, my attention was first directed to this region. The country examined up to this time constitutes a local division of this part of the district and is sufficiently large and important in itself to be described separately in these Records.

The intermediate elevated terrace of mountain-land lying between the low country of Topography of Wyu4d Malabar, the loftier plateau of the Nilgiri mountains, and the plateau- Mysore territory, called the Wynad, has been conveniently separ

ated (principally by the Coffee Planters) into three divisions : North Wynad, South Wyndd, and South-east Wynad ; and these larger areas are again parcelled out after a native classi fication into Amshams. South-east Wynad includes among others the Nambalicode,Moonad, and Moopia-nad Amshams, the latter being the most north-westerly of the three, and touching on South Wynad or that in which the central village of Vythery is situated. Manantoddy, the principal town of the plateau, is in North Wynad.

The present paper has to do with so much of South-east Wynad as lies to the southsouth-west of and alongside the road from Giidalur to Sultan's Battery (Gunuapuddyvuttom of Atlas-sheet). The other boundaries are the Nilgiri plateau and Ouchterlony valley on the east-south -east ; the great line of precipices of the Western Ghats from Nadgani (Carcoor ghat) to the mountain of Yellaramulla on the south-south -west, and a high water shed running from Yellaramulla to Sultan's Battery on the north-north-west.

This mountain terrace has an elevation on an average of above 3,000 feet ; but out of it rise peaked ridges and hills of considerably greater heights, varying from 3,500 to nearly 7,000 feet above the sea.

Elevation,

Records of ike. Geological Survey of India.

Forest covering, cultivation.

Along the edge of the ghats, occasionally for short distances inside of these, and down the great ribs and intermediate trenches to the low country, all the ground is covered by dense and lofty black forest. Inland, there are rounded grassy hills enclosing valleys, interspersed with good belts of forest, most of which is, however, of poorer tree jungle than that of the ghats. Nearly all the valleys contain swampy flats, which are largely cultivated as paddy or rice-fields. The coffee gardens, which are the European speciality of Wynad, have, as a general rule, been made in clearings near the edge of the ghats in the black forest, or in the denser parts of the inland jungle.

A good deal of misconception appears to exist as to the healthiness of Wynad. As far Climate as own Pel'sona experience goes, the climate from the end of

September to the middle of January is tolerably well adapted for Europeans. I am informed by the planters that it is even healthier from May to September; so that there are only three months in the year when the country is not healthy. Many planters leave during these months for the coast, or the Nilgiris ; but others are known to have remained with their wives and children for two and three years continuously.

On the other hand, the climate is not suitable to the natives, except such as belong to the country, as the Chetties, Mopahs, Korumbars, Pannirs, &c. ; but much of this unsuitabi lity, mav, however, bo due to carelessness of the men brought into the country, and the fact of their being away from their homes.

Next to the tremendous rains of this region and the two or three unhealthy months, the land-wind is perhaps one of the worst evils to be encountered. Bungalows are built so as to present a sheltering side to it ; it is dangerous to sleep in ; and it is about as disagreeable to bo felt or heard as the bleakest east wind in England. Fortunately, it seldom lasts all day except for a short time in the year ; and in its place comes the oppositely mild and soothing wind from the western sea.

History of the gold ques tion.

The Malabar District has been famous for gold from time immemorial. Gold is still washed for in the low country and in Wynad ; and it used to be got in old days from quartz 'leaders' in the hill country around Dayvallah, Nellialum, &c. Two tribes of people obtain the gold. The Pannirs wash for it in the alluvium, surface soils, and river sands. The Konmibars dug down to and excavated f he quartz leaders. Tradition says that large finds of gold have been made at odd times by the lvorumbars. The Panuirs rarely find more than four annas' worth of gold in a day each man. The latter only wash for gold now (in the Wynad) in the off season, -when they cannot get work in the coffee gardens at five annas a day.

In 1793 the gold mines of Malabar appear to have been noticed by the then Governor of Bombay, who tried to got information on the subject ; and they were farmed by the Madras Government in 1803.

In 1831 Mr. IV. Sheffield, Principal Collector of Malabar, wrote an interesting report on these gold mines, upon which Lieutenant Woodly Nicholson, 49th Regiment, Madras Native Infantry, was deputed to explore the country with a view to the development of this industry. The latter officer visited the Namlmlicode Amsbam, examined all the old workings of the Korumbars on the Chulaynrullay near Dayvallah, and obtained gold from the surface wash ings in the same neighbourhood. He also visited all the known gold localities in the low country of Malabar. He does not seem to have thought much of Dayvallah, and the gold obtained was not so pure as that from the plains. His acquaintance with the practical business of the matter and his knowledge of the geological structure of the country were

King : Gold-fields of S.-E. Hf ndd.

very poor, but his perseverance at the work was marvellous under the difficulties, real and imaginary, with which he had to contend. A committee was then appointed, consisting of Mr. I'. Clementson, Principal Collector, Major A. Ross, Superintending Engineer, Malabar and Canara, and Dr. F. W. Ward ; and an able report, dated 25th May, 1833, was the result. These three gentlemen practically condemned the working for gold, as an European industry, in the low country of Malabar. My own examination of the plains has as yet only been a cursory one ; but without going so far as this decision, I am inclined to agree to a great extent with it, more especially as it -would appear from what we now know that there is sufficient evidence to show that European energy is more likely to meet with success in the Wynad.

In 1865 or 1866 Mr. Stern (of Australian experience) paid a prospecting visit to Wynad and made trial of the alluvial deposits, of which there are several in the form of flat swampy land along the courses of the streams. He tried near Dayvallah by sinking pits to 'bottom rock ' and always got gold, but not in sufficient quantity to make it worth while continuing his work.

Within the last year or so attention was again called to the occurrence of gold in the Wynad. Some of the planters had lived in Australia previous to their coffee experiences, and being more or less acquainted with quartz and its occasional associated minerals, they were naturally struck with the quartz in Wynad, while they also knew that gold was, and is, obtained by tbe natives. There was, however, a want of capital, and no one had seen gold in the quartz until Mr. Withers, the present Manager of the Alpha Company, came down to Wynad. Mr. Withers, who knows how to -wash for gold, and is acquainted with quartz reefing, prospected the country for a long time until he felt convinced that nothing was to be done at alluvial and surface washing. He then explored tbe old pits and workings of the Koruinbars and finally settled on a quartz reef in which he found gold visible. This reef and the ground alongside had been extensively worked in old times by the Korumbars. In one of the numerous caves he found tlie remains of one of these native miners, and thus the lode came to be called the " Skull Reef."

Tbe Alpha Gold Company was then started, the prospectus of which states on the authority of "the Company's Manager and two of the Directors, who have had much experi ence of quartz-reef mining in Australia," that the stone will yield about one ounce of gold to the ton of quartz.

The most common mode of occurrence of gold in South-east Wynad is naturally in Alluvial sources of gold, the Recent deposits, such as the surface soil on the hill-sides, the not neh' stream sands and gravels, or the true alluvial flats (Vayals or

Veils) which are so frequent a feature in this upland as to have given it the name of the "land of swamps"; but in none of these ways does it seem that any large quantity of gold is stored up, except perhaps in the swamps which have as yet only been tried by Mr. Stern when they were found to be as poor as tbe rest of the land.

The surface soils are generally very thin, and they are not extensive enough to justify From surface soils. large attempt at washing by hydraulic sluicing. Still they are

perhaps the favorite resort of the Eannirs who can always from known patches of ground produce a certain small amount of gold. On four occasions these men worked for me at places around Dayvallah, but they never got as much gold as would pay for their employment at five annas a day for each man. Occasionally, however, they chance on richer finds. The largest known fragment of gold found within the last few years in Wynad weighs over seven pennyweights, but it contains some quartz. It is of pale color, and is not much rolled ; in fact it has evidently not been washed far from the present reef.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

and has thus not been subjected to that exposure and attrition which seem necessary for the production of the finally purer metal usually obtained from alluvial washings. In addition to this, a further small rolled fragment of good yellow gold without quartz, weighing nearly 11 grains, was lately found by the Pannirs of Dayvallah; and a larger one, weighing 21 '9 grains, is in the possession of Mr. II. V. Ryan of Glenrock — Mr. Minchin and Mr. Ryan have each occasionally employed coolies on their estates to wash for gold, hut they do not find that the quantity obtained is sufficient to encourage any further exploration. The latter gentleman has collected 8'1 . of gold, amongst which is the small nugget just mentioned. Out of this, 150'9 grains had to he collected by amalgamation and there were 2T6 grains of dust. The gold generally found by the Pannirs is in very fine dust, or in small flat spangles onlycollectible from the black iron-sand, finally left with them, by amalgamation in the wooden washing dish or murriya ; but at times there are somewhat larger pepitas. This size of the grains agrees with what I have seen of the precious metal in the matrix.

The stream sands are next resorted to, but they are of no extent in this part of Wynad,

, . as there are no large reaches, or hollows in the river beds in which

From stream sands, &e. ... , ° ... , „

gold could be stored up, while, as 1 shall presently endeavour to

show, there is not much likelihood of its being retained in them, even if it were washed down

in any quantity. As it is, the usual small amount of gold is obtained here also by the

washers. In both conditions of deposit, as surface soil, or as river sand, the men nearly

always only scrape a few inches of stuff from the surface ; they do not dig down to bottom-rock

, or to anyr bottom-layer of compact stuff answering to pipe-clay.

It will thus be seen that a somewhat different mode of occurrence of the gold dust Poverty of these accounted (not in pockets, or at the bottom of lighter and permeable

for-materials), and system of washing adopted (surface scrapings

only being sifted) exist in Wynad from what is known in Australia and California. Much of this may be attributable to the heavy denuding force of the south-west monsoon; or, in other words, a vory large proportion of the ore weathered out of the quartz veins and adjacent country rock is carried down during the rains to the low country of Malabar. At such times every stream in Wynad is a rushing torrent in which no sediment is allowed to rest until it reaches the slower-flowing, wider and deeper', rivers of the plains. As the mon soon slackens, a little new auriferous soil is allowed to remain on the cleaned hill sides, and the old basins and reaches of the stream beds are again filled up with their usual accumula tion of mud, sand, and gravel, and thus a small supply of gold is collected. There is no doubt that in the decreasing flow of water, gold dust and heavy iron sand must necessarily at many places settle down first in the hollows, but these are few and far between, irrespect ive of their being difficult of access by the natives. At any rate such places are not known or searched to any extent in Wynad ; and it seems to me that the fact of the men preferring generally7 to wash stuff scraped from the surface of the coarsest gravel and sand banks (the very places where the drifting gold would be retarded by the rough bottom and then permit ted to settle down among the stones) points directly to the transporting power of the mon soon streams. This is also borne out by the habit which the men have of going at certain intervals to places known to them as having yielded gold on previous occasions, where they do not find the accumulations of centuries of denudation, but the gatherings up of only one or two seasons.

In certain parts of Wynad, and more particularly around Sultan's Battery, or in the

„ . , , neighbourhood of Manantoddy, the valleys are filled in with exten-

Proper alluvial deposits. , . , ,

sive and thick alluvial deposits through which the streams almost

immediately after they leave the steeper hill-sides, often pursue a long and devious course,

or become lost for a time in deep and dangerous swamps. In Nambalycode and Moonad

King: Gold-fields of S.-E. Wynad.

these alluvial Hats are not so frequent, and they are small in extent. There are no traces anywhere of their having been searched for gold, except in so far as the patches of surface soil alongside the streams, or on the edges of the flats, where auriferous soil could gather, may have been searched by the Pauuirs.

There can hardly be a doubt but that gold in some quantity must lie in these deposits, for when they were being laid down, even if the present rainfall existed, it is quite evident that the flow of water was sufficiently retarded, possibly by lakes which then occupied the places of the present flats, to allow of a great thickness of separate patches of the denuded material of Wynad being retained. It is, however, very questionable whether this amount , , would be sufficient to repay the washing of such places, for they

are throughout the year charged with water for the greater part of their depth, and they are largely made up of very unstable materials. The cost of exca vation, puddling, and pumping engines necessary to keep large works free of water would be enormous. In addition to this, it is probable that work could only be carried on in the dry season, three months of which are unhealthy for both Europeans and outside natives, parti cularly in these low-lying grounds.

The places where gold washing has been carried on in the area under description are No traces of -old washing frequent in the Nambalycode and Moonad Amshams ; but there is

in northern Amshams. now no tradition of such work ever having been carried on outside

of these, although in Mr. Sheffield's Report of 1831 mention is made of places, such as Choolyode, purporting to be in the neighbourhood of Sultau's Battery, where indeed there are Pannirs, though these men are not skilled in the use of the washing dish. This apparently unsearclied condition of the northern part of the field, and the ignorance of the Pannirs as to the use of the murriya would seem to indicate that there should he no expectation of finding any gold dust in that part of the country were there not the view that there was possibly always sufficient occupation for these men in the well cultivated lands of these northern Amshams, while in the Nambalycode country, &c., they were driven by the land-owners to search for gold, the land not being so well adapted for agricultural work.

The next source of Wynad gold is the matrix or the quartz veins, and to a slight extent The conditions of gold in tlle 1'ooks traversed by these; and here again the natives of the matrix. Malabar have been beforehand in mining operations though only

in a very small way when the enormous extent of veinstone is taken into account. These

Korumbars have worked the smaller and more easily broken up veins often to a depth of 60 or 70 feet. The western slopes of many of the hills in the three Amshams already enume rated are burrowed like rabbit warrens with pits, often only four or five feet apart, and communicating by short galleries. Chulaymullay, one of the conspicuous headlands of the Western Ghats near Dayvallah, was once extensively mined in this way. Lieutenant Nicholson thus describes what he saw in April 1831 : " After cutting our way for several hours in the

thickest part of the jungle on the mountains, we came upon the mine in question, consisting of three shafts about five feet each in diameter, and ten from each other, forming an equilateral triangle, the deepest of them extending to about seventy feet, since a stone dropped in took four and a half seconds to reach the bottom. We soon found that this mine was not the only one, for, having penetrated as far as we possibly could through tho jungle towards the summit of the mountain, we discovered no less than twenty-seven shafts all sunk in the same manner and forming a chain of triangles as before described, the disposition of which with regard to each other led me to suppose that they have all subterraneous counter shafts communicating with each other, and probably extending to a large main shaft which I trust may be discovered on the arrival of the pioneers." The same style of work is to be

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

seen near Nadgani Bungalow and westwards, towards Clnilaymilllay, near Nulliallum, and away on to Cheyrumbadi. In these places these men seem to have led water to the steeper hill slopes and got at the numerous small veins on the foot-walls of the larger reefs by regularly sluicing down the hill-side even to the extent of causing occasional landslips. In the Glenrook Estate the upper part of the great valley or churrum in which it is situated is all of fallen earth, and there are still evidences of large sluicings having been carried on, while the face of the ridge north of Hudiabettah is pierced all over with pits as in Chulaymullay.

According to every information that is to be obtained, the whole of Wynad appears to W yield General ly a country be tiaveised by cjuaitz teens, some of which appear m the low of quartz reels country of Malabar, while others aro traceable into the Ouchterlony

valley ; and even, it is said, on to the spurs of the Koondah mountains to the south. At present it is only known certainly that they are very strong and numerous in South east Wynad.

In the Nambalycode Amsham there are at least eighteen reefs, nine of which are auriferous ; and the immediate neighbourhood of all has been worked by the Korumbars, or washed by the Pannirs, for gold. Most of these eighteen reefs are traceable northwards into the Moonad Amsham.

Auriferous reefs.

Still further westward, by Pandalur, Cheyrumbadi, and Cholady to Vellaramulla, there are at least twenty-four more reefs, those in the neighbourhood of Pandalur having had their ' foot-walls' and ' leaders' very extensively worked in old times by the Korumbars. Those of Cheyrumbadi and Cliolfidy have not yet been sufficiently examined ; but it may bo here stated that one of the richest gold-washing regions (Ivathaparaye) of the low country could only have been supplied with its gold from the Cholady and Vellaramulla drainage basins.

The gold obtained from the reefs is of a pale color ; that from the leaders and wash- Appearance of gold from inSs is generally yellow ; and that from the surface washings

reefs and washings. nearly always of a good yellow color. The natives know this

difference, preferring the ' mud gold' to the ' stone gold,' which last they designate also as ' white gold.'

Fragments of stone gold are found at times by the Pannirs in their washings of surface soil ; but there is nothing known of pale gold dust having ever been got in the washings.

Quality of alluvial gold.

In an assay made of some of the gold obtained by Lieutenant Nicholson in 1831, the following result is given : —

Dayvallah.

Gold ... Silver Copper ...

lOO'OO

This was evidently gold obtained by the washers ; for Nicholson does not seem to have got any reef gold.

King : Gold-fields of S.-E. Wj/ndd.

Two samples from auriferous surface soil near Dayvallah have been assayed by mv colleague Mr. Tween, one of which, as will be seen, is very near Nicholson's specimen, while

the second is richer.

Carats.

C. grains.

No. 1, Gold

22

1 Fineness.

Silver

No. 2, Gold

21

Silver

Neither of these three assays comes up to the quality of the dust obtained by Nicholson in 1831 from the Malabar low country, which varied from 94'53 to 99'22 in the percentage of pure gold.

When the matrix gold is analysed a very different result is obtained showing a consider able falling off in the fineness of the ore. There is also a much greater disparity between it and the alluvial gold than is usually displayed between the two kinds in Australia, or even in California ; though the percentage of pure gold in the Wynad ore is nearly the same as in that of the latter country.

Mr. Tween has supplied mo with the following assays

Skull Reef- Monarch

Reef.

Gold ... 87-07 Gold ... 82-69

Silver ... 32-93 Silver ... 11'32

and these according to the scale of fineness make the ore of —

Carats. C. grains.

Skull Reef ... ... ... ... 15 3 Fine.

Monarch Reef ... ... ... ... 19 2f „

Mixed sample ... ... ... ... 20 ,,

An ounce troy of the mixed sample, taking the mint price of standard gold at £3-17-101, would be worth £3-13-6j-, or about Rs. 36-12-2.

The sample from the Skull Keef is remarkably poor, and if it be a fair average (which I do not think it is, as 1 have seen gold at times in the richest part of the lode having a much better color than that of the amalgamated sample tried), it would reduce anycalcula tion as to the return of this reef by nearly one-third. The specimen from the Monarch Reef is only from one crushing of four pounds of stone ; and cannot be considered as so fair a sample of gold right across the lode which was the case with that taken from the Skull. The mixed sample is from amalgamated ore taken from six reefs ; and it may be taken as an average for Wvnad gold as far as it has been yet tried. It is very probable that the fineness of the gold in the different reefs will vary just as frequently as it is known to do in other auriferous countries.

Mixed

sample.

Gold ... 86-86

Silver ... 10-96

As is usual in most gold regions, the precious metal occurs here in the reefs or large

„ , , lodes, in the leaders and spurs, and in the ' casing' or nondescript

Mode of occurrence of gold. L ° 1

rock lining or casing these.

In leaders and small veins.

The ore of the leaders and casing is mostly visible, and is what is technically called ' coarse gold that is, it occurs as small segregations in the in terstices of the quartz, or of the assembled cubical crystals of what is now limonite, or even in the interior of these cubes. It is also very often visible in the unaltered iron-pyrites which is not quite so frequently seen in the leaders as its pseudomorph limonite. A very common mineral in the casing of some of the leaders is pyrolusite, in which also the gold is often visible. The blue-black variety of pyrolusite occurs also with the gold visible at times.

36

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

It is this variety of gold which the Korumbars evidently always sought for, principally from its splendid color ; then, because it is so easily seen and often obtained without the trouble of amalgamation ; and lastly, because it occurs in the casing and leaders or small veins of quartz, all of which were easily broken up in the extemporized mortar holes which are still to be seen cut in adjacent blocks of gneiss or quartz, or calcined prior to pounding. The old miners seem never to have broken up the big reefs, though they ' cayoted' or dug in among the ' riders' or masses of country rock and casing enclosed or contained in the interior of the reefs.

The gold of the reefs or great lodes is generally line gold,' or such as is disseminated j through the gangue in extremely fine particles quite invisible even

with the magnifier. After the quartz is crushed and washed, this fine gold may be seen on the furrows of the rude wooden dish used by the Pannirs like little painted waves of color. At times, however, the gold is visible even in the white quartz in short streaks and little angular masses ; though it is more generally seen in the same form in the red and brown stained ferruginous and cellular quartz.

The quartz reefs are, without exception, white colored on the outcrop or when they come to ' grass' ; so that it is utterly impossible to say from a surface Appearance of loot . inspection whether they shall be richly auriferous, or not. The

Skull Beef of the Alpha Company which has as yet shown most gold is as white on the sur face as any other of the reefs.

All the reefs are badly defined at the outcrop : they just show a few feet over the ground and never stand up as marked walls cutting across country as some quartz reefs do in other parts of this Presidency. Occasionally, they show well on the eastern slopes of the grassy hills, as when their upper surfaces or ' backs ' just happen to form parts of these slopes.

In such an undulating, or deeply denuded, country as the Wynad, it is difficult for an ordinary observer at first sight to make out the true direction of the great quartz-lodes, their dip or underlie being rather low ; but when followed out for long distances they are seen to have a prevailing north-nortli-west, south-south-east strike or ' run ' across the country. At places there may be a slight deviation from this ; and for short distances there are slight curves ; but, on the whole, this is the direction for South-east Wynad, and it is always across, not with, the stratification of the rock of the country. The dip is always to the eastward, generally at an angle of 25° to 30°. There is, however, a tendency in the ' underlie ' to be lower on the tops of some of the hills, and to increase in the valleys. For example, the Skull Reef at the present place of quarrying dips at 20° to 25° east-south-east, while on the top of a hill a short distance to the north, some 200 feet higher, it is 10° and nearly flat. The same feature shows in the Hamsluck Beef ; and the Monarch Reef, at its lowest level, has a much higher dip than on the hills.

The leaders and spurs, or side veins, strike off' to the westward from the footwalls, or undersides, of the big lodes. They dip and wave about the leaders. jn ap directions, very often rather to the northward.

The great ledges or reefs of quartz appear to vary much in thickness both in their length and depth, sometimes dying out, or at least becoming very Extent of reefs. thin fol. distances in their length ; and, as I am inclined to

believe, even behaving thus in their depth. Some of the reefs are traceable with occasional breaks or thinnihgs-out for great distances. The Monarch Beef would seem to be traceable for about nine miles ; other reefs show their outcrops at intervals for two, four, or six miles.

kin .[) : Gold-fields of S. - E. Wynad.

It is much more difficult to say anything as to their depth in the underlie. Very many show by their outcrop on the hills and valleys that they are 300 or 400 feet in depth. The Hudiabetta Reef, on the edge of the ghats, gives indications of being 1,300 yards down its underlie ; while there is slight evidence that some of the reefs west of this show down in the low country. On the other hand, two large reefs, as they run south of the Nadgani-Giidalur road, are not seen in the deep trenches, and it is difficult to say whether they are covered up or have actually thinned out.

The thickest actual section is 15 feet in the quarries of the Skull Reef, though there must be greater thicknesses than this close by. A good average thickness in most of the reefs may be taken as from 4 to 9 feet. The thickness of the leaders naturally varies very much. They appear to run generally up to 2 feet or so ; but there is one under the Dunbar Reef which is 6 to 8 feet in thickness.

A very common feature in the outcrop of the big ' ledges 1 is, that they show strong on the higher parts of the ridges and hillocks traversed by them, and thinner or not at all in the saddles. This at first sight points to a probable thinning out in depth ; hut there is the view that the higher ground is more open to denudation while the saddles would to some extent be covered up by debris of the country rock, and their slopes are not so steep as those of the ridges ; the outcrops, too, are deceptive, for they are often encumbered with big lumps of fallen quartz. Indeed, the masses of fallen quartz are in some places so largo and so tumbled together down the western slopes of the grassy hills that they give the appearance of stone in situ.

The rock of the Wynad, or as it would he termed in mining regions the 1 country rock,' is gneiss, belonging to the Mdest known series in India, termed

Rock of the country. variously the Crystalline, Gneissic, or the Metamorphic, series ;

Gneiss-and is of very variable constitution in different parts of the coun

try. Ordinarily, there is a massive foliated quartzo-felspathic, or quartzo-hornblendic variety, with intercalations of micaceous and taleose schists ; but all these are, except in the hill-ridges, generally weathered or decomposed into a more or less tough clayey rock, granular and friable with the undecomposed quartz, dark red and brown from the hornblendic and chloritic constituents, or white, pale colored, and cheesy, or soap3' from the felspatliic, micaceous, and taleose ingredients of the original rock. There is a large quantity of ferruginous matter distributed through the gneiss in the form of minutes granules or crystals of magnetic iron; and in one particular baud in the Marpanmudi ridge, as laminse of gray hsomatite. Hence the red and brown colors of much of the decomposed rock ; and also its occasional lateritoid character : while at every working of the surface soils or the river sands by the Pannirs there is the unfiiiliug accompaniment of black iron sand.

The strike of the foliation, or indeed of the lamination and the bedding of the gneiss, is usually east-nortli-east, west-south-west, the dip being mostly at high angles to the south ward ; except in the Vellaramulla and Sultan's Battery country, when a west-northwest, east-south-east foliation is prevalent with some folding, and even reduplication of the beds.

In South-east Wynad four belts of gneiss are recognizable. Along and south of the Several bands of gneiss. Nadgani-Giidalur high road there is the northern edge of the highly syenitoid and quartzose gneiss of the Oucliterlony valley and the Nilgiris. North of this and striking about east-north-east, west-south-west, is a highly felspathic band with two minor belts of chloritic gneiss. In this, the Dayvallah zone, there is very little true massive rock until — still going north — the conspicuous and pic turesque serrated and lofty ridge of Marpanmudi and the Needle Rock is reached. Here

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

a very hard and thick band of highly quartzose and ferruginous gneiss is met with, in which the run of the strata is rather tortuous ; while there are indications of a synclinal roll in the great wall of rock crowning the ridge above old Dayvallah and in the Needle Rock. In the depression north of the Marpanmudi range there is a wide belt of much more varied gneisses, which, on the whole, are not so felspathic as the Dayvallah hand, nor so quartzose and kornblendic as that of the Ouchterlony valley. This zone is traversable to beyond the Cheyrumbadi hill station, when a further curved belt of gneiss with more schistose bands comes in as in the Yytheiy Cholady and Sultan's Battery country.

Two cores of granitic rock.

In the country just mentioned there are two large hill masses of granitic rock ; namely Yeddakulmullay near Sultan's Battery and Mumramulla or Culpetta hill nearer to Vytkery. These are, as it were, great rocky cores around and over which the foliated gneisses were laid down, the great arches or undu lations of which are now evidenced by the westerly dip and subsequent synclinal displayed in the Chambra, Yellambalari, and Panora peaks and the rest of the Yellaramnlla range, the easterly dip of strata on the Sultan's Battery and Manantoddy side of the country ; and the narrow Strip of folded beds in the wall like crests of the Marpanmudi ridge near Dayvalla, south of which there is the generally southern dip of the Ouchterlony valley strata. The rock of Culpetta hill is a very rough weathering, pale flesh-colored, rather coarsely crystallized compound of quartz, felspar, and silvery mica, showing no trace of foliation. It wears away into huge rounded masses of still harder rock, giving the hill rather a resemblance to those of the Mysore country in which the gneiss is often highly granitoid. Yeddakulmullay is made up of a much finer textured rock of quar-tz and felspar, and minute particles of black and greenish mica, which when weathered looks very like a coarse buff sandstone. On the western flanks of the mass, the roclt is rather laminated or foliated. With both these cores of granite there is a decrease in the number and thickness of the quartz veins ; but these appear again quite strongly to the northwards crossing the Sultan's Battery — Culpetta road.

Otherwise, the country is remarkable for the non-occurrence of any strictly intrusive rocks Hardly any intrusive rocks except in a very small way. There is a dyke of hard, compact darkin South-east Wyndd. green diorite seen for a very short distance in the Hamsluck

estate to the west of Dayvallah. The width of this dyke is about 35 feet ; and it is strik ing east by north, west by south, nearly vertical. It cuts off the northern end of Hamsluck Reef. A few small largely crystallized granite veins occur here and there over the Dayvallah hand of felspathic gneiss, as near the dyke just mentioned and around Gudalur. Large flakes of mica from these are common on the Nadgani-Gudalur road.

In connexion with this rare occurrence of granite veins it may be noticed that the quartz reefs of Cheyrumbadi are in some cases charged with Quartz reefs become granitic. asserap,pages 0f large plates of mica of 2 to 3 inches in diameter ;

and there thus seems to be a tendency in the western veins to become granitic rather than simple quartz lodes. Likewise from Cheyrumbadi the quartz of the reefs is becoming rather granular and saccharoid.

Sufficient data have not yet been gathered to he able to write with any confidence as to , how the quartz reefs may have been affected by the different belts

Variation in country rock , .. , , , . . ,

does not affect reefs or their of gneiss in which they were deposited. liie ledges certainly

contents much. Beem to show stronger in tbe Dayvallah belt. They nip out very

tliin, and even disappear in tbe hard Marpanmudi range ; but they come to grass again

to the north of this. There are perhaps not so many reefs to tbe north of tbe Marpanmudi

range as to the south of it. The occurrence of gold in the leaders does not seem to have

been affected one way or other on either side of this ridge, for the old Korumbar works are

as frequent about Nellialum and Pandalnr as on the Dayvallah side.

King : Gol.l-Jields of S.-E. Wynad.

The quartz reefs which have been traced out, or are sufficiently marked, are as follows

. commencing from the Gudalur side of the country, where and

Enumeration of quartz reefs. " ,

eastward of which there do not appear to be any ledges, aunferous

or otherwise, for some miles at least : —

Name of Reef.

Character.

Average propor tion of gold.

Lowest proportions.

Highest

proportion.

Worked on footwall ...

Ditto

Worked on foot-wall ...

Auriferous

£ dwt

2 dwt

Worked on foot-wall ...

Ditto

Auriferous

4 dwt. to ton

dwt

dwt

Worked on footwall ...

Auriferous

Ditto

2 dwt. . . .

Ditto ...

3 dwt. to ton

1 dwt

7 dwt

Ditto

8 dwt

Ditto

3 dwt

Ditto ...

3 dwt. to ton

dwt

Worked on footwall ...

Auriferous

Worked on foot-wall ...

i

By ' auriferous on the foot wall,' it is to be understood that the foot-wall of the reef and the side veins therefrom have been dug at by the Korumbars, and that they are reported by the natives to have given gold. In these cases, I think tradition may be believed to a large extent.

The Monarch Reef is, as stated above, traceable for about nine miles from the western side Details of auriferous reefs bridge below the Nadgani Bungalow, across the Dayvallah

road (about a quarter of a mile east of the toll bar), up the long grassy ridge to the summit of a lofty cross-ridge overlooking old Dayvallah ; and on to the wide gap in the Marpanmudi range, down through the Dingley Dell Estate, and on past Koontalaudy towards the Gudalur — Sultan's Battery road. At its southern end a drive was put through this reef, where it was found to he 4 feet thick ; but I am inclined to think that this is only part of the reef, a ' rider' or large enclosed piece of the country rock having been met with. The varied results given in the table from this reef are accounted for in this way : At first, color of gold was got in the samples taken from the drive sufficient to warrant the expectation of about 2 . of gold to the ton of quartz. Subsequently, a fragment of stone from the surface, weighing 3 lbs., was crushed and 2'3 grains of gold obtained, which is in the proportion of 69T9 pennyweights to the ton. Stone, in fragments of which gold was clearly visible, was then taken from the same place and 350 lbs. of it subjected to rough crushing in a stamper belonging to Mr. J. W. Minchin, and passed over a large blanket cradle, but the outturn was extremely disappointing, as only about 3 grains of gold were got, and yet more than this had been seen before the stone was pounded up. It was soon found, however, from subsequent experiments, that the gold

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

must have been lost in the stamping box which was merely a planked structure round the stamp-head ; and as no more trials could then be made on this reef, an average result has not been entered in the table.

The quartz of the Monarch Reef is generally a milky-white coarse-textured rather glassylustred compact rock. At times it is stained brown or red along the fractures, and shows thin sheets and seams of brown iron rust. Flakes of bright golden colored mica are frequent ; and there are rare seams of greenish talc and chlorite. White iron-pyrites occurs at rare intervals. The quartz is rudely laminated with the lie of the reef, and spurs of talcose schist are frequently running into the body of the lode. The casing is partly of talcose schist, with frequent laminae of pyrolusite. This description applies to so much as is exposed in the drive or cross-cut.

The foot wall and leaders of this great reef have been extensively worked on the slope of the ridge overlooking the old Dayvallah valley in Mr. Hughes' clearing, and in the valley itself.

Korurnbar Reef and others. — Between the Hamlin and Skull Reef, there are at least five lodes, but they are only traceable at intervals to the district road. One, called after the native miners who pointed it out, gave another set of curious returns, which will illustrate the faulty condition of the extemporized crushing apparatus with which work had to be done.

Seven pounds of stone from the Korurnbar Reef were liand-pounded and gave 12'40 grains of good yellow gold ; and a further crushing of the tailings of white iron-pyrites, of which there was a large quantity, added -40 grains to this ; being in the proportion of 8 oz. 10 dwt. 16 grains to the ton. One hundred and sixty pounds of this stone were then pounded, and all but 10 lbs. crushed and passed over the cradle, when gold at the rate of half a penny weight to the ton was got. But from the 10 lbs. remaining which was hand-crushed there was gold at the rate ot 71 . to the ton. In the meantime, another sample of 4 lbs. of stone was brought in from a new reef (Hamslade Waterfall) which gave 7 grains of gold, I then went to this reef with the men and quarried out about 70 lbs. of stone which was divided for separate trial by wet crushing and by hand work, when the following outturn appeared : —

30 lbs. hand work ... ... ... 5-3 grains of gold.

40 lbs. wet crushing ... ... ... 1'3 „ of „

The latter sample showed more gold than this in the uncrusbed stone. Even if the wetbrushed result be true, the proportion for this reef is 10'19 pennyweights. It was evident, however, that gold had been lost in the stamping box; had indeed possibly never left it, for the bed plate (fixed) could not be completely boxed in.

The outcrops of these reefs are very short for any continuous distance, but there can be little doubt that they will he found continuing northwards nearly up to the Marpanmudi ridge; and some of them show down in the Nadgani estate in the Careoor cherrum. They are thin, about 3 to 4 feet on the edge of the cherrum, and look at other points as though they kept to this. Their appearance is very favorable, being more or less colored with oxide oi iron, laminated, and full of white iron-pyrites ; and they show gold at times; in fact, they are just as promising-looking except in the matter of size as the l-eef to be noticed next.

The Shull Reef. — The outcrop of this lode is traceable nearly continuously for about seven furlongs, but it is in all probability connected with other outcrops of quartz to a complete length of at least four miles. Only a small part of the southern end of this reef has been taken up by tire Alpha Company. At the soutbei'n end it commences on the edge of the Western Glikts, a little more than a mile and a half due west of the Nadgani Bungalow, on the rounded grassy knolls of this part of the Dayvallah country. Thence it runs up to the top of a high hill overlooking Dayvallah and down to the road a short distance east of the bazar. Strong leaders from its foot-wall cross the road nearer the village and run

King : Gold-fields of S.-E. Wynatl.

through the wooded hillock ou which the old fort is situated. Its next appearance is in a high ridge on which the Koman Catholic Chapel is built, and again in the Harewood and Kiutail Estate east of Mr. Hamlin's bungalow. Beyond the cross range of Marpanmudi, it again shows in the bottom of the Strathern Estate : and still further northward in the Nallialum country.

The direction of the vein is, as usual with these south-east Wynad lodes, viz., northnorth-west, south-south-east, with a dip or underlie varying from 10° to 25° east-south-east. On the top of the hill overlooking Dayvallah the angle is low, in fact becoming flat, hut it increases as the reef descends, being at the quarries about 20° to 25°. At the place o 1 quarrying there is a large irregular surface of the vein exposed on the eastern slope of a grassy spur of the hills. This is full of caverns excavated by the old native miners who evidently scraped and dug at every bit of casing, enclosed country rock, and the leaders- The Manager of the Alpha Company is at present quarrying in at this exposed surface, and preparing stone in readiness for the crushing machinery which is to arrive in a few months from Australia. At the quarry the reef is about 15 feet thick, of rudely laminated quartz ; laminations with the dip and strike. The back or upper surface of the lode is of coarse white quartz. From this, as was seen by a cross-cut through the reef, the rock becomes more and more ferruginous and stained of dark brown, black, and reddish colors, cellular or mouseeaten, and charged at times with white iron pyrites much of which is decomposed, sulphate of iron and even traces of sulphur being left behind. At about 12 feet the quartz is more highly colored, very ferruginous, very cavernous, and gold is often visible in minute strings and masses. The quantity of rock worked out has not been sufficient to show whether there is any definite ' gold streak ' in this lode.

Through the kindness of the Directors of this Company and their Manager, Mr. Withers, I have been supplied with a fair set of specimens from this cross-cut, which have been crushed, washed, and amalgamated in a rough manner. Very good color of gold was got in nearly every dish of pounded stone ; but the results from amalgamation were very poor at first. The enormous quantity of iron pyrites associated with the gold came in the way of amalgamation, causing the mercury to granulate and become coated with the iron, sulphide ; in fact ' flowing ' (Australian term) set in.

I have not been able, owing to the difficulties in the way of crushing, failure of some experiments, and a want of time, to obtain a complete series of specimens and results from one cross-cut in this reef, much less from different parts of the lode, which would, of course, be the fairest way of testing the quartz, but such as have been got are now given —

Specimen of quartz.

Weight.

Appearance, color, &c.

Results.

Depth in cross cut from ' back ' of reef.

Compact, coarse texture, laminated; white color

1st foot.

Still white in color, but stained with ferruginous matter

3rd foot.

Whitish, more discolored with iron

None.

5th foot.

Ditto ditto ditto

Good color in dish : lost in amalgamation.

7th foot.

Still white, but ferruginous

10th foot.

a

Highly colored, red and brown, ferruginous, cellular, with white iron pyrites. Gold visible...

12th foot.

Ditto ditto ditto washed and amalga

mated in my presence by Mr. Withers. Gold not visible

13th foot.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

For this cross-cut there is therefore an average result of 11 . to the ton. At this point the richest part of the reef is a band of the laminated quartz about two feet thick within a couple of feet of the footwall or underside of the reef. The average of this rich band is 22'68 .

Mr. Withers informs us that he has got almost as good results out of a shaft and cross tunnel which he made at the southern end of the outcrop, but that the reef is there narrower, about 9 feet in thickness.

Hamsluck Reef. — About half a mile west of the high hill-outcrop of the Alpha Com pany's Reef overlooking Dayvallab village there is another strong lode cropping up in Mr. J. W. Minchin's estate of Hamsluck. The lowest part of this reef, or what is seen in the bottom of the valley at its foot, is about three furlongs in length ; and from this as base the reef slopes up the eastern side of a hill about 300 feet high. The strike of the reef is about the same as in others : the dip being about 20° to the eastward, though it is at a much lower angle on the summit of the hill. The known thickness of this reef is from 4 to 8 feet. The lode is cut off to the north by the dyke of green stone already noticed. It is traceable southwards into the Chullaymullay mountain, and probably runs under the northern end of Perseverance Estate. The eastern slope of the Chullaymullay alongside the latter estate has been perfectly riddled by the pits and excavations of the old miners who evidently worked at the side veins on the underside of the lode. Small samples of quartz were crushed, and gold was always got showing clear in every dishful of stuff; hut the result was small owing most probably to the presence of a great quantity of iron sulphide. Subsequent crushings gave the proportions shewn in the table.

Dunbar and Balcarras Reefs. — About two miles further west, but on the northern side of the deep trench leading to the low country by Carambat, there is a good outcrop of a reef about 4 feet thick in the Dunbar Estate. Mr. Powell, the Superintendent of this garden, when down showing me the reef, was successful in knocking out pieces of quartz in which small streaks of gold were visible. The underside of this lode is very like in color and contents to that of the Alpha Company, the richer seam in the quartz being on this side. Leaders are numerous and large. The casing is of talcose schist, and seamed with ferru ginous and manganese streaks.

The lode is traeeable northwards into the Balcarras Estate, where there is a great show of white quartz on the eastern slope of one of the low hills. This part of the reef has been very extensively riddled by the old miners. In fact, all its extension northwards towards Pandalur has been washed, and its immediate neighbourhood on the underside is still a favorite locality for washing during the rainy season. It runs through the Elizabeth and Sandhurst Estates, and close alongside the Caroline and Mr. Holmes' application, and thence

northwards.

My observations so far appear to show that quartz-crushing should be a success, in the Nambaly-code Amsham at any rate. Here, there are eighteen reefs aate°SI'eCtS °f Wyn4d up t0 which are more or less auriferous in themselves, or as to their leaders. The leaders and underside of these are all known, or l-eported, to be auriferous with coarse gold ; and it is probable that the great reason they are not worked now is that the pits necessary to be dug by the Korumbars would be too deep for their style of work, water being the great obstacle likely to be met with. The big reefs were not worked by these men on account of the difficulty of breaking up the stone, and because the gold is distributed too finely through it to have paid hand labor. With machinery and modern appliances, the reefs should pay even if only 3 . of gold are got always from the ton of quartz.

King: G old-fields of S.-E. Wynad,

The average proportion of gold for fifteen trials on different reefs is at the rate of seven pennyweights to the ton ; and it is almost certain, that many of these would have given a better outturn, could more perfect crashing apparatus have been used at the time.

The fineness or touch of the ore is inferior to that of Australia, but it compares favor ably with Californian reef gold. The percentage of 86'86 is given above as a fair average, for on looking at the differences between alluvial and matrix gold in other regions, it is found that they agree very closely with the difference between this sample and the alluvial ore of the upland ; while the assays of the Skull reef, and the upland and low country washings do not exhibit any gradation consistent with the amount of exposure to which the two alluvial golds must have been subjected.

In Australia these ratios are as follows :

C.g.

Percentage of pure gold.

Alluvial gold

If

Matrix gold

Of ...

Difference

Of

Californian tables give about the same

difference, but the

fineness of the gold

lower, viz., 21 c. 0 eg. or 88'00.

The Wynad experiments give —

c.g.

Percentage of

pure gold.

Alluvial

3f

Matrix

2f ...

Difference

This close approach of differences for the three countries implies also that a richer gold than this is not to be expected from the reefs ; though it must not be forgotten, as already stated, that the ore from the small veins and leaders is evidently superior.

The reefs are easily got at, the gneiss traversed by them being often wonderfully decom posed almost to any reasonable depth. For a long time there may be no necessity for deep sinking, as a large quantity of stone is held in the many rounded hills so common over the country, and thus little trouble is to be anticipated in getting rid of water in the mines when drives can always be made at low levels. The very prevalent idea that the must necessarily he richer the deeper it is searched, will doubtless he brought to bear on any mining which may be carried out ; but the safer plan in a preliminary opening up of a country like this will be to work at what will pay, rather than venture to mine ground requiring expensive pumping apparatus, in which there is— after all that has been written on the subject — no absolute knowledge that there must be more gold. It is worthy of notice that the present surface of Wynad has probably only been exposed after a slow wearing away of over 2,000 feet of superincumbent gneiss which was once continuous between the Ailgiri mountains and the Aellaramulla range, in which also these quartz veins may have been continued in their upward hade to the westward; and supposing that reefs become richer in depth, then the richness now got of 7 pennyweights, by denudation of 2,000 feet, is not any great increase on whatever may have been the state of things at the then higher outcrop ; while, if the same ratio of increase is to be counted on, any further considerable increment of gold can only be expected at a greater depth than is likely to be reached on the plateau. A reasonable view is that the occurrence of rich streaks of gold will be exceedingly variable ; while the prevalence of very fine gold dust in Malabar indi-

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

cates that fine gold is perhaps most evenly distributed through the matrix, and therefore that beyond the first fifty feet, to which depth weathering may be supposed to extend, the return shall be tolerably constant.

The working of the mines may possibly not be as cheaply done as the present rate of wages in Wynad would lead one to expect. The coolies employed on the coffee estates get from 4 to 5 annas a day per man ; but there is a decided scarcity of labor, and thus a higher rate must follow if the quartz reefs are to be worked. A further addition will be in the employment of a small number of skilled European or Australian workmen in the handling of machinery, and in directing the getting out of the largest quantity of stone, and timbering up. Still, with these additions, the labor in Wynad may be expected to be always cheaper than in other gold countries.

Great facilities towards the crushing of the stone are presented in the way of water power, which might in some cases be obtained direct from perennial streams with sufficient fall for any ordinary wheel ; or it might in most other instances be led or stored up without much difficulty or expense. The stampers, &c., of the Alpha Mining Company are to be driven by steam ; hut there would have been no difficulty in applying water-power at the site of their works.

Having then the presumable average proportion of gold in the stone, the value of the gold obtained so far, and the quality of the labor to be employed in getting it out, an estimate can be made of the possible paying capabilities of the Wynad reefs from the statistics of the cost of extracting gold in Australia, where the labor is manifestly much more costly than it can be in Wynad.

In Mr. Brough Smyth's "Gold Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria" the following returns are given of the cost of complete extraction of the ore from a ton of stone

£ s. d.

Ballaarat District ... ... ... ...0 8

Clunes ... ... ... ...103

Wood's Point ... ... ... 0 11 6

Sandhurst ... ... ... ... 0 11 8

Maryborough ... ... ... ...198

Castlemaine . ., ... ... . .. 0 11

Some of these rates are very high and paid on stone got from a good depth in places ill-situated as to supplies of wood and water, so that the average of 17,?. 4fi. is far beyond any expected estimate of this kind in Wynad.

The value of Wynad reef gold, when compared with the mint standard of £3 17.?. is about Us. 36-12-2 per ounce, troy, which is, of course, somewhat lower than the mercantile rate. Seven pennyweights, or the outturn of 1 ton of stone, would then be worth Bs. 12-13-10, which would leave a balance of Bs. 4-2-8 on every ton crushed, even if the high Australian rate were ever attained.

The country must now be tiled cautiously, while better or worse results may in the mean while be obtained from experiments which are being carried out, even before the arrival of the machinery of the pioneer Company now waiting to venture in the field. There is no promise like that of the Australian or American gold-fields ; no great nuggets have been found ; the washings have always been poor, though there is a small supply of gold swept down the hill sides every year from the wear and tear of the quartz ledges, and the areas over which they can be applied are very small ; and the gold which has been seen in the

King : Gold-fields of S.-E. Wynad.

reefs is only in minute strings and grains. The ground can only be worked out by capital, the most perfect machinery, and skilled hands to guide the cheaper labor of the country in getting out the stone in the safest and readiest manner. And naturally, where the percent age of gold in the quartz is as yet so small, everything will depend on getting out a sufficient tonnage of stone in a given time.

Until more is known of the gold-producing powers of the Wynad, no better guidance can be given than the following by Mr. A. R. C. Selwyn, Director General, Geological Survey of Canada " It should not be forgotten that the most favorable indications are not always reliable, and the sanguine prognostications they so frequently give rise to are not borne out by the result of actual working; wherefore I should, even under the most favorable circumstances, not advise any one to invest in such enterprises to an amount beyond what he can afford to lose without serious embarrassment."

Hitherto the land in Wynad has been principally parcelled out in coffee gardens, either

, , , free-liold, or paying an annual rent to the Rajahs who hold a great

Land tenure m Wynad. j n , . , ,,

quantity of the ground, or direct to Government. At the same

time, after a certain period, a revenue is derived from all the gardens by the Government,

whether it be Rajah's land, or not. Now that gold mining is likely to become an industry,

a new set of land interests are being developed. The Rajahs, of course, retain their right to

all minerals and can sell these as they like. The Government of Madras has not yet, I

believe, decided as to how they are to act in the matter, except that applications for land for

gold-mining and for agricultural purposes on which quartz reefs are supposed to exist, are

being reserved for consideration until the question of mining interest is settled.

In the meantime the Rajah of Nellambor has (according to their prospectus) leased a block of 15 acres of land near Da.yvallah to the projectors of the Alpha Gold Company for twelve years at an annual rent of Rs. 225. Since then it is reported that the Rajah in recent applications demands 10 per cent, on the out-turn of any gold-mining which may be carried on; and it is very probable he may change this rate. Nearly all the land in the Nambalycode Amsham is owned hy the Rajah of Nellambor. Equally, as with the revenue derived from estates on Rajah's lands, it may he found advisable that the gold from these reefs should pay a royalty to Government.

In conclusion, I have to tender my thanks to all the planters whom I have yet met in Wynad for their great kindness and hospitality, and for their assistance in every way. Also for the readiness displayed by the Directors and the Manager of the Alpha Gold Company in allowing me to examine their quarry and giving me such specimens as were required. To Mr. J. W. Minchin of Dayvallah the greatest debt is due for having allowed all the speci mens to be crushed at his extemporized stamper and subsequently manipulated by his Pannirs and Korumbars.

Notes and Observations on the Gold Fields of Quebec and Nova Scotia

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

Geological Notes on the Khabeean hills in the Upper Punjab, by A. B. Wynne, e.g.s.. Geological Survey of India.

The Khareean* liills are perhaps better known, to the natives of the country at least, by the name of PiibM, which seems to have an application to their low but broken forms. They are situated in the Upper Punjab, seven or eight miles southward of the river Jhilam, and station of the same name, forming the southern of the three minor chains which link, as it were, but without absolute continuity, the salt range to the Western Himalayan mountains.

These Puhbi hills extend from near the battle-field of Olulianwala, and closer to the banks of the Jhilam, in an east-north-easterly direction for about twenty-eight miles in the direction of Bhimber (in Kaslnnere territory), but sink into a sandy allah about four miles short of that town. They form throughout a low rugged chain, cut into by numerous ravines, having a general width of three or four miles, and a summit elevation of some 4 to 500 feet above the plains of the Jhilam and the more extensive ones of the Goojrat district.

Their culminating point is towards the western end of the range, and their declination eastwards is very gradual. In the latter direction they are crossed by the grand trunk road from Calcutta to Peskawur and by the Northern State Railway iu progress of construction.

The aspect of the bills is monotonously arid, barren and rugged, presenting everywhere steep or precipitous descents into dry sandy nullahs. Towards the eastward, the ' Puhhis ' are further apart, and scattered cultivated patches occur between the hills, which are separated by that peculiar labyrinth of ravines known in this country and the Pot' war as ' lehuddera.' f

The hills are composed of an enormous accumulation of sandstones, sands, conglomerates and clays belonging to the upper part of the tertiary rocks of the Northern Punjab.

Prom their position it was thought probable that here the Sivalik sub-division of these rocks might be developed, and their relations to the underlying beds discovered if the same marked unconformity, as occurs in other places, existed. On examination no trace of uncon formity within these hills has been found, and though the soft and friable nature of most of the strata would answer well enough for the description of Sivalik rocks in other regions, their whole character suggests their identity with the uppermost deposits of the Pot 'war to the north, similar clays and sandstones there having been always found to pass regularly downwards into the lower and older portion of the series, so far as has been gathered from observations hitherto made.

The arrangement of the Pnbhi rocks is simple ; they form a distinct anticlinal, the axis of which coincides with the higher parts of the range, a downward inclination of this at either end bringing at least a portion of the beds round to form the opposite sides of the hills. With the general form described there are many undulations of the rocks in bold

The word is pronounced by the natives Kharee-in, and the famous battle-field of Chilianwala they speak of as Chelianmojeearri.

t As characteristics of these Pubbi hills It may be mentioned that the chief obstacles to pedestrian progress, besides the innumerable khuds and ravines, are the difficulty of obtaining foot hold on steeply sloping clay surfaces covered with small pebbles, sandstone fragments or noddies of kunkur which slide under the feet, the insecure nature of vertically weathered parts of the soft sandstones and clays, and the trying strain iu the dry sandy beds of nalahs.

A striking feature of the ground is the contrast between its dryness and the abundant evidence of abrasion by water.

Although now so dry and barren, these hills were once populous and even thickly inhabited, as is evident from the very numerous largo village ruins scattered over them, and the size of some of the graveyards belonging to these villages, — fast yielding to the atmospheric erosion which frequently exposes the graves, showing that the potsherds left by the inhabitants were more lasting than their bones.

Other relics of a perhaps still older period are brick blocks of large size, though the buildings formed of these have all hut disappeared.

Wynne : Khareean /tills.

confluent curves ; they sometimes assume horizontal positions, sometimes dip steeply into the plains, but never present any high opposing clips to the general anticlinal conformation. The highest point of longitudinal curvature of the axis upwards coincides with the summit of the hills at Koar Great Trigonometrical Station, east-south-east of the village of that name and some eight miles westward of the trunk road. From this point the beds both slope to the ends of the range and curve downwards upon its sides. Here, therefore, in the bottom of the ravines the oldest rocks of the exposure ought to occur.

These are drab-brown and slightly pink or purplish red clays alternating with zones of coarse friable gray or greenish speckled sandstone formed of comminuted waste of granitic or crystalline rocks, grains of quartz, felspar, hornblende (or such a mineral) and spangles of mica. Layers and runs or scattered pebbles of hard crystalline rocks are not uncommon, increasing in quantity as the section ascends, with a predominance of white quartzite frag ments well worn, until on the flanks of the hills these pebbles of larger size and in greater numbers, including a few of hill-nummulitic limestones in many places thickly sheet the ground, pointing to the local destruction of loose conglomeratic pebble beds, which, from their friable nature, are seldom found in situ. The various and repeatedly alternating zones of clays and sandstones are often thick, ranging from G to 30 feet or upwards. In eastern parts of the range (he clays are more developed, deep khuds often showing little else than zones of thick purple clay, each band purple below and of a bright ferruginous yellow above, while the intercalated sandstone bands are by no means prominent, save whei'e they form caps to the hills or hard ledges defining the outlines of the ground in a widely extended and multitudinous series of scarped out-crops.

Through the whole of the sandstones, but rarely (if ever) in the clays, teeth and frag ments of large bones are thinly scattered. The beds may be searched for long distances without finding anything more than an obscure fragment broken before becoming embedded, yet in the debris between sandstone out-crops the fragments are more numerous, though seldom sufficiently perfect to he worth removal. These fragments have not been found in the clays, yet some dark liver-coloured hones seem to have come from the purple portions of these. Fossil wood has not been met with. The hones are usually whitish or huff, the teeth too hard to he touched by a knife, the bones often softer and calcareous, while some huge tusks are replaced chiefly by a pinkish white soft marly looking brittle clay or earth.

The state of fossilization exactly resembles that of the Lelirl bones thought by Mr. Theobald to ho of Nahun age (see Records, Geological Survey, No. 3, 1874).

The remains found in the above described beds include parts of large hones, such as the humerus, scapula, jaws, teeth and tusks of huge pachyderms. One of the former had a girth of 2 feet 7 inches, and fragments of a pair of tusks measured 12 feet in the aggregate with a girth of 2 feet in places. Large molar teeth resembling those of ruminants also occur, with some smaller teeth ; portions of joints of less sizeable, leg bones, vertebrae, fragments of lax'ge deciduous, deer horns nearly as thick at the attachment as a man's wrist, many mammalian rib hones, numerous unrecognisable fragments, and one small piece of the armature of a tortoise (?) none of which have ns yet undergone comparison or determination.

From the general aspect of the rocks no hesitation would be felt in referring them to the upper portion of the Pot' war tertiary series, but it remains to be seen if the fossils will give any support to the idea that they may he newer, or that these and some upper beds of the Pot'war may both he Sivalik.

Perhaps the only feature which relieves the stratigraphical monotony of these beds is an indication of a slow transition upwards into strata even more incoherent and more recent looking than those of the mass of the hills. These upper and outer beds are coarse sandy

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

gravelly and conglomeratic layers with drab or yellow clays containing knnkur (as indeed do many of the clays lower in the series). These clays are of the same color, and present but little difference from the alluvium of the neighbouring plains, while the sandstones and gravelly beds or base of conglomerates are of a duller and more muddy aspect than the clean gray sandstones beneath. In the sandstone or gravelly parts of these rocks an occasional rolled bone fragment or broken tooth may be found, and in some of the conglo merates pebbles of the tertiary sandstones themselves occur ; but notwithstanding the derivative aspect of the bones and of the last-mentioned pebbles, the containing rocks present no visible unconformity to the beds on which they rest. On the contrary, as stated, the transition to the softer and more recent looking layers appeal's to be gradual, while the dips are conformable and the newer beds are found all round the elongated oval formed by the hills.

Limits to these upper beds can only be approximately and arbitrarily assigned, but they may have a usual thickness of from 200 to over 400 feet.

The thickness of the whole Pnbbi series must also be estimated with caution. For 18 or 20 miles from the eastern end of the exposure, a continuous succession of layers coming out from beneath each other may be traced, all lying at low but very perceptible inclinations which would, even at angles less than 5°, give a large total depth. When the cross-section, however, is considered, between 2,500 and 3,000 feet would seem a sufficient estimate for them all, and the probability is that the amount may exceed rather than fall within 3,000 feet.

Outside the inclined newer light colored layers the alluvium of the plains may be found horizontally abutting against and resting upon these rocks. It is of the common drab argillaceous or somewhat sandy, and occasionally kunkery or otherwise calcareous character, the only traces of fossils observed in it being small, white, dead Bulimus shells and part of the skull of some large bovine animal (perhaps a buffalo) of recent appearance, hut buried beneath from 8 to 10 or 15 feet of clay and exposed in the bank of a nullah. In neither case can these indications be taken as contemporaneous witk the alluvium itself, for in so easily shifted and shifting a deposit, organisms of even more recent age might r'eadily become enclosed. Much of the eastern part of the broken Pnbbi country is formed of the deeply rained alluvium.

It is to be hoped that the fossils collected, few, imperfect and fragmentary though they be, may afford sufficient evidence to relegate these Pnbbi tertiary rocks to their proper place. Pending the examination of these fossils, the only conjecture that can be hazarded, based upon structural and petrological grounds, as well as Mr. Theobald's paper previously referred to, is that the fossiliferous portion of the Puhbi rocks is probably of Nahun age, while the age of the uppermost and more recent looking layers remains an open question.

Camp, A. B. WYNNE,

November 1874. 3 Geological Survey.

The folloiving is a rough list of the fossils collected by Mr. Wynne during his examina tion of this small range of hills, drawn up by Mr. JR. Lydekker, Geological Survey of India.

1. — JEqaus sivalensis, from north-west of Sundpur.

(a). 2nd premolar, right ramus of mandible.

2. — JEquus sivalensis, from near Changas, Pubbi hills — distal extremity, right meta

carpus.

Blanford : Water-bearing strata, Surat.

3. — Bos, Parr Kuss, inside of stream, in bank 8 to 10 feet below surface,— part

of maxilla of left side, containing 1, 2 and 3 premolars, and first molar.

4. — Bos, near Changas, Pubbi bills —

(a) . 2nd molar, right ramus of mandible,

5. — Bos, near Obangas, Pubbi hills, — 3rd molar, left maxilla.

6. — Bos, north-west of Sundpur or Bandepura, — distal extremity, right metacarpus.

7. — Bos, from Gotriala to Besa, — fragmentary teeth, mandible.

8. — Bquus sivalensis, from Gotriala to Besa, — 1st molar, right ramus of mandible.

9. — Bos, from Gotriala to Besa, — external second phalange, left foot.

10. — Bquus. Pir Jaffir, Pubbi,— left calcaneum.

11. — Bos, Pir Jaffir, Pubbi, — distal two-thirds, left calcaneum.

12. — Bos, Kniara, Pubbi, — neural arch and laminte, thoracic vertebrae.

13. — Bos, Kniara, Pubbi, — proximal head of radius.

14. — Genus, Pir Jaffir, Pubbi, — base of left horn.

15. — Cervus, Pir Jaffir, Pubbi, — base of right horn.

10. — Cervns, Pir Jaffir, Pubbi, — portion of horn.

17. — Elephas hysudricus, Pir Jaffir, Pubbi, — portion of molar.

18. — Elephas insignia (?) Ganem (?), west of Pir Jaffir, — part of molar; stated to have

been found with tuslis two feet in circumference ; from this probably belong to Ganesa.

19. — Elephas, Pir Jaffir, Mosque, — part of tusk.

20. — Elephas, — part of tusk belonging to No. 18.

21. — Crocodilus, — fragment of carapace.

Note. — As the fossils of Nos are only molar teeth and fragmentary bones, it is impossible to determine the species. — It. L.

Repost on water-beabing strata of the Surat District, by W. T. Blanford, f.r.s., F.G.S., Deputy Superintendent., Geological Survey of India.

It appears to me, so far as I can form a judgment on the question from the correspondence forwarded to me, that the problem presented may be briefly stated thus : Tu determine how far the irregularity in the distribution of sweet and salt wells in the Surat district is due to the geological structure of the country, and to ascertain whether that structure renders it probable that sweet water will be found in those parts of the district in which none has hitherto been discovered.

In endeavouring to solve this problem, the first point for consideration is the geological structure of the district, and the second the knowledge which is available of the distribution of sweet and brackish water. On the latter head most of the information obtained is from local sources and not from my own observation, I am consequently not responsible for its accuracy, but any error I may make will doubtless be corrected by the local officers.

The geology of the Surat district is simple.* In the extreme east, about Mandvi and elsewhere, bills of basalt and other volcanic rocks are found. Upon these rest limestones, sandstones, gravels, &c., of tertiary age, the lowest of which abound in nummulites. These

A sketch of it was given by Mr. A. B. Wynne, of the Geological Survey, in the Records, Geological Survey India, Vol, I, p. 27. I also described it in the Memoirs, Geological Survey, India, Vol. VI, p. 163.

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

rocks are seen in the Tapti river below Bhodhan and in the Kim river as far west as the neighbourhood of Elao, but throughout most of the intervening area they are covered up and concealed by alluvial deposits, and they are nowhere exposed, except in one or two small isolated hills, throughout the country south of the river Tapti. By far the greater portion of the country consists of an alluvial plain, the surface being covered with a thick coating of black soil. Along the sea-coast are low hillocks of blown sand.

The alluvial deposits furnish nearly all the water obtained in wells, and these deposits demand therefore rather fuller notice. They consist of days, sandy clays, and sand, much interspersed in places with concretionary nodules of carbonate of lime. Towards the surface they pass into black soil. They may contain beds of gravel (rolled pebbles) in places, but such appears to be uncommon, so far as my information extends. The different layers of sand and clay are probably very irregular in thickness and extent, but sections are rare, and very few borings have been taken. In those made for the Tapti bridge at Surat, however, as I am informed by the Executive Engineer in charge, a bed of hard clay with calcareous nodules, in which it is proposed to lay the foundations of the piers, was found to be very much thinner on one side of the river than on the other, the difference, which was not precisely determined, amounting to several feet. It is evident that this bed has an irregular and possibly a lenticular section, and the same is probably the case with all the strata in the alluvial deposits, whilst the more sandy layers in which, owing to their greater permeability, water is generally found, may very often thin out and disappear in the distance of a few yards.

I quite concur in Mr. Medlicott's remarks on the different reasons which may be assigned for the occurrence of brackish water in wells. These are, briefly, the presence of salt in the strata when originally formed, salt springs, and infiltration from spots in which salt is being deposited at the surface of the ground. To these may be added percolation from the sea or from estuaries, which, however, is practically identical with the third form. In the case of Surat, I believe that the salt was originally deposited in the alluvial strata.

The plains of Guzerat have every appearance of being estuarine or marine deposits formed from the clay and sand brought down by the Tapti, Narbadda, and other rivers. The deposits forming in the salt marshes and flats submerged at high tides near the mouth of the Tapti, which I had an opportunity of examining during my recent visit, are covered by a deposit differing so little from one form of the black soil, that it is impossible to draw a line separating the two, the blackish argillaceous dried mud of the estuarine flats and marshes being similar, both in colour and texture, to the black soil of the fields a few inches above the level of the highest tides, and this soil again differs but slightly, either in colour or texture, from the ordinary 'cotton soil' of Guzerat. Such differences as exist are, I think, due to surface action ; to the effect of rain and chemical changes, impregnation with organic matter,* and agricultural processes, and I see no reason for doubting that the whole of the surface formations in Surat may have been deposited from salt and brackish, water in tidal estuaries and salt marshes, precisely similar to those which are now being reclaimed and converted into arable land in places on the sea-board of the district. The more sandy beds must have been deposited where some current, due either to tidal or stream action, existed; the fine argillaceous black soil has probably been formed in back-waters and marshes.!"

Evidence of recent rise in the land has been found in several places on the western coast of India : instances are known at Bombay, in Katthiawad, and in Sind. There is every reason

It is probable that great part of Ouzerat has been covered by forest, and the soil impregnated with decayed organic matter. In this manner the best and richest cotton soil has very probably been formed.

IVIy brother, Mr. H. F. Blantord, several years ago pointed out a similar mode of origin of black cotton soil on the Madras coast, and I found a similar deposit forming under the same circumstances in Orissa.

Blanford : Water-bearing strata , Surat.

for believing that Surat has shared in this movement, and that the plains of south-eastern Guzerat have been raised above the sea-level at no very distant geological date.

Such being the geological nature and origin of the alluvial formations which cover the country, it may be inferred that more or less salt must originally have been left in the soil, and that the occurrence of saline impurities at present will depend upon whether they have been removed by the percolation of rain water — whether, in short, they have been washed out — since the deposits were formed. If other conditions remain similar, it is reasonable to anticipate that the salt would be removed more completely from those strata which have been raised to a greater height above the sea and from the more permeable beds because the first, owing to their elevation, and the second, in consequence of their porosity! have been traversed to a greater extent by water seeking a lower level. It is also probable that elevation has been gradual, and, if this has been the case, it is evident that the surface deposits at a greater height above the sea have been first raised, and have consequently been longer subjected to the action of sweet water. But these more elevated portions of the plains are farther from the sea, and consequently it appears probable that the amount of salt in the alluvial deposits diminishes gradually in passing from the lower ground on the sea board to the higher inland plains, the presence or absence of saline impurities also depending on the more or less porous nature of the beds ; or, which is the same thing, the proportion of sand and gravel to clay in their composition. Moreover, as the beds thin out within short dis tances, and the intercalation of sandy and gravelly layers with the less pervious argillaceous strata is variable, much irregularity in the extent to which the water is impregnated with salt may be anticipated. If the brackishness of the water depended directly on the perme ability of the beds, we should expect that the wells yielding the largest supply of water would be the least impregnated with salt, and although this does not appear to be universally the case, some instances in its favor have come to my knowledge in the town of Surat, but the amount of salt in each instance is much complicated by peculiarities in the course taken by the water in reaching the well from the surface, and the beds it passes through during the process of percolation.

So far as I am aware, this theory of the mode in which the alluvial deposits of Guzerat have been formed, and of the distribution of beds containing brackish water, agrees with observed facts. With the important exception to which I shall presently refer, and which I can, I think, explain, of certain perfectly sweet wells close to the sea, the water found near the coast is more or less salt, whilst that obtained in the higher portions of the plains away from the sea is sweeter ; but there is much irregularity. I have dwelt at some length on the theory by which I account for the brackishness of the well water, because it is upon the correctness of this theory that the conclusions formed depend ; because, by explaining my views fully, I afford an opportunity to the civil officers and engineers of the district to test and confirm or refute them, and because, in one instance at least, I have found theories put forward which appear to me erroneous.

There are two circumstances at least which appear at first sight to be opposed to the views above expressed. One of these is the occurrence, already alluded to, of sweet water in wells close to the coast. I was only able to investigate one instance ; this is at some bunga lows between the villages of Dumas and Bhimpur, just south of the mouth of the Tapti river, and about ten miles from Surat. At and around Surat city, on the road between Surat and Dumas, and in the village of Dumas itself, every well which I tried, and so far as I could learn, every well existing, is more or less brackish, some being sufficiently pure for use, whilst others contain water much too salt for either drinking purposes or irrigation. But at the bungalows just mentioned, which are within less than half a mile of the sea, the water in the wells is perfectly sweet. Now, the bungalows stand on hills of blown sand ; the village about a mile away is on black soil. The wells at the bungalows are very shallow,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

not more than 15 or 20 feet in depth ; those at the village, which is, I think, on rather lower ground, are double that depth. It appears evident that the water in the bun glow wells is derived from the sand resting upon the comparatively impervious black soil, and that the water in the sand is sweet, because any salt originally contained in the porous sand has long since been washed out of it, as water can percolate it freely in descending to a lower level.

I am informed by Mr. Clarke, the Executive Engineer, that the case at Yaux's tomb, especially mentioned in Mr. Hope's letter, is precisely similar to Dumas, whilst at Bhugwa Dundee, where no good water could be found, there are no sand hills. If my explanation be correct, the sinking of deeper wells at the Dumas bungalows or at Yaux's tomb will probably result in brackish water being found in the beds underlying those which now supply the wells.

The other difficulty to which I have referred is the existence of numerous wells in vari ous parts of the country, the water of which is said to have become gradually salter. This is rather opposed to the view above expressed, because it is probable that percolation removes the salt in any given stratum, and consequently wells should become sweeter by use if they undergo any change ; that is, provided that the water always finds its way from the surface into the wells by the same route, and traverses the same beds in its course. But the removal of water from a well may occasionally produce an inflow from other strata than those from which the supply was originally derived, and thus salter water may be introduced. The question is a difficult one, and 1 think some further information on the subject of wells becoming salter is desirable. In the first place, I think the evidence of increasing saltness in wells should be rather carefully examined ; of course no analyses of the water have been made, and, so far as I can learn, complaints about water becoming salt have been frequently made in order to obtain remissions of rent, as irrigated land is more highly taxed than land which is not irrigated. I should like to suggest the possibility that, in some cases at least, the change has not been in the water, but in the soil of the fields. As all the well water contains salts in solution, and as the water poured upon the land is evaporated, leaving the salts behind, a gradual concentration of the salt must take place in irrigated lands until it may, unless remedial measures be taken, become so saturated as to be unfit for cultivation, as in the case of the 'reh' lands of Upper India. In this case the blame would infallibly and justly be laid on the water used for irrigation, although no increase has really taken place in the saline impurities contained in the water.

I cannot say how far the wells in and around Surat represent those of the district generally, but if they do, I may add that the impurities of the water are not confined to common salt (sodium chloride). Some rough tests which I have applied with such means as were available showed the presence of lime, alumina, and of an alkaline earth, which I believe to be magnesia, in considerable quantities.

If the views above expressed are correct, it is evidently improbable that better water will be obtained by deep boring, unless the strata at a depth below the surface are much more permeable than the superficial deposits ; on the contrary, the deeper beds will have had less chance of being purified from salt by percolation than those near the surface. Where the beds at a greater depth are very porous, they may contain sweet water, but this is by no means certain, and I can see no reason for anticipating that the lower strata will prove very different in character from those exposed at the surface of the ground. Should rock be found, it is impossible to form an opinion without actual trial as to what the character of the associated water may be. The rock may very possibly belong to the lower tertiary strata, and similar beds in Kachh and Sind often yield brackish water.

Before concluding I may briefly advert to the water-supply of the town of Surat, to which my attention has been particularly drawn. I went over the town with Mr. Pandurang

part '2.] Blanford : Water-bearing strata, Surat.

Balkrishna, the Secretary to the Municipality, to whom I am indebted for most of the details mentioned.

Surat is a large town, with a population exceeding one hundred thousand. As in most old cities, the surface has been greatly raised in places by the accumulation of ruins of build ings and rubbish of all kinds. The town stands on the bank of the Tapti, here a tidal river, the water of which is sweet in the rainy season, but brackish at other times, and especially so in the hot weather.

There are in Surat numerous wells, one to nearly every house. The water of only two or three of these is used for drinking purposes ; nearly the whole of the inhabitants obtain their drinking water from the river, from cisterns in which rain -water is collected, or from wells outside the town. The depth of the wells inside the town varies from about 30 to about 70 feet, and the height at which the water stands in the wells above the datum to which all levels within tho municipal limits are referred (100 feet below a fixed mark in the castle) varies in different wells from 50 to nearly 70 feet. As a general rule, the wells inside Surat city contain very brackish water ; those outside the city proper, hut within the old walls, vary in quality, a few being just drinkable, whilst outside the walls there are some wells of so called sweet water. This last, however, though far purer than that obtained from the wells inside the city, is decidedly more brackish than good drinking water should he, and on testing it, it was found to contain lime, magnesia, and other im purities in considerable quantity besides common salt. The same remark applies to those wells inside the city which contain drinkable water.

The latter are only two in number : one in the castle and close to the river bank, the other at the house of a Mabaraj named Mandir. The former very probably derives its supply from percolation from the river -when in flood,* another well not 100 yards away, hut farther from the river, yielding brackish water. The well in Maharaj Mandir's house is rather deeper than usual, the bottom of the well being 48 feet, and the surface level of the water 56 above datum, and the supply is so large that an attempt to pump the well dry by a 6-horse power steam-engine scarcely produced any sensible diminution of the water level. At the same time other wells nearly of the same depth contain brackish water.

Two other incidents connected with the Surat wells may be here mentioned. The first is that there is a well in the public park used for watering the gardens : it is 63 feet deep, and contains, when full, 35 feet of water, the surface of the water being about 65 feet above datum. The supply is considerable, hut the water can be pumped dry by a 8-horsepower engine in 3 hours, and requires 24 hours to refill. After pumping for a short time the water improves, but when the well is left to refill it becomes brackish again. Another well, not 50 yards distant, contains very brackish water. The supply is, I believe, less than in the other well, but I have no certain information.

Another circumstance worthy of note is referred to by Mr. Hope in his letter No. 2280 of 1871. A well was sunk at the Surat race-course about half a mile outside the city walls, at a spot in tho middle of four existing wells, none of which are more than 150 yards apart. All these wells are comparatively sweet, certainly much better than any well inside the town of Surat, yet Mr. Hope's well proved brackish. In this case I think it is to be regretted that the well was not pumped for some time before being abandoned, since the salt may have been derived from the sides of the well and pumping might have caused an inflow from the stratum which supplies the other wells, but the saltness may have been due to the water finding its way into the well by a different channel to that pursued by the flood supplying the others.

The statement in a report by Mr. Sowerby on the water-supply, &c., of Surat, dated 7th N ovember 1868, that, the level of the water in the Surat wells is above that of high spring tides in the Tapti, appears to he incorrect.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

With reference to the impurity of the wells within the city walls, it is probable that water percolating through the accumulated debris of old mortar, ashes, burnt clay, &c., which have raised the surface of the ground inside the city from 10 to 20 feet, may dissolve a considerable quantity of various salts, and thus increase the saline ingredients of the well water.

So far as I can judge, however, none of the wells in or around Surat furnish water so pure as ought to be obtained for drinking purposes. I am told that no complete analyses of these waters have ever been made, and I should recommend that such be obtained of different waters, including the best and the worst, since the kind of salt present and the relative quantities may afford some clue to their origin.

The details just given concerning the Surat wells are certainly in favor of the conclusions already expressed as to the causes of irregular distribution of fresh water in the soils of Surat. These conclusions I will briefly recapitulate, pointing out their practical application —

1. There appears reason to believe that the greater portion, if not the whole, of the alluvial deposits near the coast of Guzorat were originally impregnated with salt in conse quence of their having been formed in salt-water. Where they are now free from saline impurities, this is due to the removal of such impurities by the percolation of fresh water.

2. Such percolation of fresh water has been efficient in proportion to the elevation above the sea, and to the greater or less permeability of the beds ; consequently, as a rule, those wells which are at the greatest height above the sea and those which yield the most water are the sweetest.

3. The distribution of permeable and impermeable beds is very irregular, most of the strata being lenticular in section and thinning out within short distances.

4. It ensues from the above, that there is no reasonable prospect of fresh water being obtained from deep borings, unless the strata beneath the bottoms of the existing wells are generally more pervious than those near the surface. This is possible, but there appears no sound reason for anticipating that it will prove to be the case, and it is probable that deep borings will give as irregular results as surface wells.

5. It is also improbable that fresh water will be found in wells sunk in the salt lands now being reclaimed. Should such be found, its occurrence will be, I think, accidental, and due to the existence of unusually pervious strata, and I think that these may very possibly prove local.

6. The presence of fresh water in some places on the coast, as near Dumas and at Yaux's tomb, appears due to, the existence of sand-hills resting on impervious clay. The quantity of water will probably bear some proportion to the extent of the sand-hills. Although a considerable supply may be derived from such places for local purposes, I do not think it probable that the quantity is sufficient to supply large irrigation works, nor should I be surprised if in some similar localities the water proved more or less brackish, owing to the presence of salt in the sand, or contamination from the subsoil. Deep wells amongst the sand-hills would probably yield brackish water

7. None of the wells about Surat town supply really good water, nor is there at present sufficient prospect of improvement to justify the sinking of deep wells, and, as an ample source of excellent water exists in the river Tapti a few miles higher up, and I am informed that it is proposed to introduce the same into the city, it appears scarcely worth while to incur expense in experiments which are very likely to fail.

Finally, I can only suggest that if further information be required, and to test the accuracy of the views here expressed, borings should be made to a depth not exceeding

Medlicott: Scindia's Territories.

150 to 200 feet. To attempt to raise water from a greater depth would probably involve greater expense than the value of the water for irrigation would cover. It would be well to make borings along lines, and at a fixed distance apart, in such parts of the district as it is particularly desired to explore. There appears no reason for selecting' any locality in particular, for, as I have above shown, the probability appears to me that sweet water will not be found, at all events not as a general rule ; at the same time, the matter is of such importance that the trifling cost of a few borings would be fully justified in order to obtain certain information, for, after all, the opinion given above is based upon very imperfect information.

When borings are made the water from every water-bearing stratum traversed should be separately tested, and, at all events, the quantity of salts in solution ascertained by evaporating to dryness, care being taken that some water is always pumped out before collecting specimens for analysis.

I would further recommend that complete quantitative analyses be made of a few of the Surat waters, especially of those in and near the town of Surat,* and I would also suggest that the water of some of the wells which are said to be gradually becoming salter be analysed, or, at all events, the quantity of salts in solution estimated (a very easy matter) from time to time.

As already pointed out, common salt is by no means the only impurity present in con siderable quantities in the well water of Surat, and other salts may be equally deleterious both to human health and to vegetation, although their presence is not so easily detected by the taste of the water. It is useless, without more exact information as to the nature and quantity of these salts, to attempt to trace their origin ; some have, in all probability, been derived, like the common salt, from the sea; others from the decomposition of the materials forming the alluvial strata.

II th January 1875.

Sketch of the Geology of Scindia's Territories, ly H. B. Medlicott, a. m.,f. a. s., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India.

Scindia's possessions are so scattered, that any connected physical description of them Configuration must include much adjoining ground. The extent and uniformity

of the natural features further involve this comprehensiveness, so that the following notice of the geology of the region comprises much of Holkar's territory, all of Bhopal and of the British district of Sugar, all of Kotah, a great part of Bundi, besides some other petty States of llajputana. All this ground belongs to the Yindhyan plateau, defined on the south-south-east by the Yindhyan range overlooking the Narbada valley, on the north-east by a scarp overlooking Bandelkand, and on the north-west by clifford ranges facing Rajputdna. Although its limits are so well defined, the character of this area as a single plateau is not well marked. The entire drainage is from the southern edge, the crest of the Yindhyan range; and in their progress to the Jamna the rivers have formed deep and wide valleys, so that a very large area of the so-called plateau consists of plains but little raised above the level of the country to the east and west: still the plateau form is every where maintained ; the smallest elevations are little table-lands or terraces.

It should be borne in mind that the greatest; care is necessary in collecting samples of water for analyses ; such samples Bhould be taken by a responsible officer personally, never on any account by a native servant or sub ordinate, and both bottles and corks must be perfectly clean Unless these precautions arc taken, the analyses when made will be useless.

5G

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

2. These features are directly connected with the rock-structure. The well known

, geographical name for the southern crest of elevation has been

Structure. i c

adopted for the great sedimentary formation which forms the basis of the whole plateau. Except along the edges of their ai'ea, the Vindhyan strata are hori zontal ; and this arrangement, combined with alternations of hard and soft rocks, induces the fiat scarped form of elevation. In the south-west part of the plateau in Malwa, where the Vindhyans are so completely covered by eruptive rocks, the same form of elevation is constant, illustrating admirably the step-like arrangement for which the name of trap-rock was originally given to these ancient volcanic products.

3. To proceed in regular order from the youngest to the oldest formations, brief notice

.. must be taken of the superficial deposits. There is little or no

Superficial deposits. . . 1 r

alluvium proper m this country, actual land-formation now in

progress from river deposits ; unless we are to include under this head the almost ceaseless and everywhere present action of wind and rain in shifting and arranging the earth particles at the surface. The soil and subsoil covering is on the whole inseparable from the thick accumulations of clays, sands and gravels occurring over the plains and valleys ; although the great depth of these and their forming steep banks high over the extreme flood level of the great rivers, clearly point to conditions of formation separated from the present by marked physical changes, involving a lowering of the water-level in this region. In confirm ation of this observation, we find these deposits continuous with those of the great Gangetic plains, in which the remains of extinct varieties of large mammals have been found. The best known locality for these fossils is near Etawa in the bed of the Jamuna, close to the north-east limit of Scindia's territory. It is very likely that similar remains might be found within the boundary in the Chambal and other large streams.

4. The trap-rock of Malwa is the next in order of ago to the valley-deposits, the break

, in time between them being enormous, embracing nearly the whole

The Deccan trap. . , ° a j

of the geological period known as tebtiaby. The formation is

known as the Deccan trap, this rook in Malwa being in unbroken connection across the valleys of the Narbada and the Tapti, with that forming the great plateau of the Deccan. The upper limit of age for the formation is given by the occurrence of nummulitic strata resting upon a denuded surface of the trap along the western base of the highlands near Broach. The lower limit of age is fixed by the occurrence of cretaceous rocks, supposed to be middle cretaceous, beneath the trap at Bagh in one of Sciiulia's outlying districts in the Narbada valley, and also on the plateau near Jabna. Within the formation itself there occur local intertrappean beds, patches of sedimentary rock, earthy and calcareous, frequently containing freshwater fossils. The independent evidence of these has been thought to connect the trap more with the tertiary than with the secondary epoch. The trap belongs to the basaltic family, hut presenting many varieties from greenish black, dense, columnar basalt, to porous amygdaloids with agates and zeolites, and to earthy ash-like beds. Within the district under notice no dykes have been observed, showing that it is beyond the immediate region of eruption. The present northern limit of the trap is an irregular line between Nhnaeli and Badrawas, It is purely a boundary of denudation, and it would be impossible to say how much farther to the north the eruptive rock may originally have extended. The laterite band which is so generally associated with the trap may give a clue to this question. There are many kinds of laterite of different ages and modes of origin. The variety here spoken of is a purely earthy ferruginous rock free from sandy detritus, its upper part, to a depth of ten to twenty feet, being intensely hardened by the segregation of the iron. It appears as a capping to the highest plateau of the trap, thus having the apparent relation of an original

Medlicoit : Scindia's Territories.

top-rock to the formation. If it could be legitimately taken as thus related to the trap, we could assert that this rock had never covered the whole surface in the neighbourhood of Gwalior, for laterite of this type caps the high hill eight miles south-west of the city resting on the Moral' rocks, without any intervening trap. A full half of Scindia's territory is on the trap formation. The laterite is finely developed about Guna and Augar.

5. Mention has already been made of the small patches of rocks of middle(?) cretaceous

, age in the Narbada valley about Bagh and on the plateau near

CictECGOiis rocks. u a

Jabna, both places in or near the Chujarra district. The most

important rock of the group is a limestone holding marine fossils, and underlaid by sand stone, or resting upon the basal crystalline rocks. The infratrappean or Lameta limestone and sandstone of the districts to the east (Sagar and Jabalpfir) are thought to represent the Bagh beds ; but as yet only vertebrate remains, some of great size, but unidentified, have been found in them. This information is given because the ground under description has been only partially examined, so that representations of either group might be looked for anywhere at the base of the trap.

6. There is an immense geological gap between the cretaceous beds and the Yindhyans,

. „ . which are the next oldest rocks in this region. In other parts

The Vindhyan formation. , , . , r

of India this gap is partly tilled up by the great rock series of

which the Indian coal measures form a part. Geologically, the Vindhyan plateau is a basin. The lower strata of the formation only appear along the boundary of the field, with a greater or less slope towards the centre in which direction younger beds succeed. The whole series has been divided into the following groups : —

Bhanrer ...

Riwa

Kaimtir .

Upper Bhanrer |Lower Bhanrer

5 Upper Riwa Lower Riwa

!Sirbu shales.

Lower Bhanrer sandstone. Bhanrdr limestone.

. Gandrgarh shales.

... Uyper Riwa sandstone. fJhm shales.

Panua shales, f Upper Kaimtir sandstone. £ Kaimur conglomerate.

7. Most of these groups are represented in Scindia's territories north of Badrawas. The Kaimur conglomerate and its overlying sandstone are admirably exposed about Gwalior. In the fort-hill and the adjoining scarp they rest upon one of the trappean bands of the Morar group. In the hills to the south they rest upon other beds of the same series. Passing north-westward the Panna shales are found in the low ground along the base of the next scarp, urhich is formed of the Lower Riwa sandstone. Beyond this again there is a third scarp formed of the Upper Riwa sandstoue with the JMri shales at its base. Still further to the west we find the Ganurgarh shales and Bhanrer limestone well exposed in the valley of the Chambul, the Lower Bhanrer sandstone forming the Dholpur ridge on the left bank of the river. In the Niinach district the same series is well developed ascending from the west. The Bhanrer limestone is well exposed between Nirnaeh and Chittorgarh. The age of the Vindhyan series is still quite undetermined. All that can be said is that it is greatly more ancient than the base of the coal measure series. Although so undisturbed and unaltered, and apparently so adapted by their varied composition and the conditions of deposition (as indicated by the variety and prevalence of water-marking), for the existence

Records of the Geological Surrey of Lidia.

and preservation of organic forms, the Vindhyan strata have as yet yielded no fossils. Fine building material is procurable from all the sandstones of this formation. Its most famous product is the diamond, the occurrence of which seems to be limited to the shales near Panna.

The Gwalior Series.

8. The most varied and instructive geological sections in all Scindia's territories are in the immediate neighbourhood of Gwalior itself, where the Vindhyans are in contact with the rocks next to them in age occur ring within our area. It would be impossible to find a better example of unconformity of strata. The lower rocks have not undergone any great disturbance, little more than the Vindkyans themselves, being still in approximate horizontality ; but scarped valleys of erosion are found in them filled with thick masses of (Kymore) Kaimur conglomerate and sandstone, the former being principally made up of angular debris of the subjacent strata. These rocks have been called the Gwalior series. The boundary of the Vindhyans passes close to the west of Gwalior, with a general north-easterly direction ; and the Gwalior series occupies a comparatively small area between the Vindhyan scarp and the river Sind, forming low east and west ranges of hills. The southern range is fifty miles long, and unbroken, being formed of a strong quartzite-sandstone, the bottom rock of the series, and known as the Par sandstone. This group has the same relation to the gneissic area of Bandelkand as have the Kaimur strata. Both present scarps towards the low ground of crystalline rocks, out of which the under-cliff is formed ; the irregular surface of junction between the Par sand stone and the gneiss slopes northwards, disappearing up the gorges at a few score yards from the line of the scarp, and so vanishing altogether towards the end of the range, where the Sind forms small cataracts over the Par sandstone at Seonrha. The same northerly slope prevails throughout the series, bringing in higher strata in that direction. The Par sand stone is thus succeeded by a great thickness of very different strata, known as the Morar group. These have some decided characters common throughout — finely laminated shales and flags, often highly ferruginous and very commonly banded with layers and nodules of jasper and horastone. Two very marked breaks occur in the uniformity of this group, owing to the intercalation of great sheets of eruptive rock, apparently of contemporaneous origin ; and this has resulted in a corresponding break in the form of the ground. The lower part of the Morar group is found along the north side of the main range of hills. In the irregular valley between this and the broken middle range, the rocks are concealed by alluvium ; hut at the head of the valley, near the villages of Chaora and Buda, two strong flows of trap are finely exposed. There is just enough evidence to show that the valley is excavated along the outcrop of this trap, it is seen in the stream close to Barori village, and again at the east end two miles west of Behat, This is a very ancient valley ; for in the middle of it, near Bastori, there stands a small plateau of Vindhyan sandstone. The plain of Morar, separating the middle range from the very broken chain of flat hills to the north extending eastward from the old Residency, is undoubtedly laid upon the denuded out crop of the great sheet of trap exposed continuously all round the base of the fort-hill and of the adjoining scarp where it is overlaid by Kaimur sandstone, and which is equally well seen along the south face of the northern hills to be overlaid by the jaspideous shales of the Morar group. There are several scattered hillocks of this same trap over the plain to the east of Morar. Besides the trap, the Morar group contains local bands of cherty limestone. One of these occurs in the hills about the old Residency ; another is traceable in many points in the middle range of hills. A very rich earthy iron ore has been extensively extracted from near the base of the Morar group in the southern hills. In the Sind, at the eastern end of the southern range, at a mile and a half above the village of Nardha, there is a vein in the Par sandstone said to contain lead ore (galena).

Accessions to Library.

There is but one other formation to be noticed. Scindiah's territories include a small portion of the crystalline rock area of Bandelkhand. The relation of this rock to the Gwalior and the Vindhyan series has been noticed. The gneiss is often highly granitoid, but no intrusive granite has been detected. Bands of schists, sometimes hornblendic, occur occasionally, having an east-west strike. The most remarkable feature of this area is the number of great reefs of vein-quartz, form ing narrow regular precipitous ridges, with a prevailing north-easterly direction. No trace of gold has ever been noticed about them. The gneiss is also much traversed by trap-dykes ; in these a north-westerly direction prevails. They have been found in some cases to traverse the quartz-reefs, and are, therefore, younger than these. But both reefs and dykes are older than any of the sedimentary formations in contact with this gneiss. At the western edge of the trap and Vindhyan plateau, there may be patches of crystalline rooks within the Amjhera and Javvad Nirnuch districts of Scindia's territories.

April 1873.

List Of Donations To The Museum.

1st Quaeteb op 1875.

Specimen (cast) of Eophrynus Prestvicii, H. Woodward, CurcAlioid.es id. Buckland, from the coal measures, Dudley, England. Presented by H. Woodwabd, Esq.

Series of Brachiopoda from the Jurassic of Germany. Presented by Pbof. Zittel, Munich. Six specimens of minerals and a sample of iron casting from the Ural. Presented by W T. Blaneobd, Esq.

Casts of Gastropod from nummulitic limestone near Cherra Punji. Presented by C. K. Hudson, Esq.

Accessions To Library.

Fbom 1st January to 31st March 1875.

Titles of Bootes. Donors.

Balfoue, J. H. — Introduction to the study of Paleontological Botany (1872), 8vo., Edinburgh.

Benecke, E. W., & Cohen, E. C. — Geognostische Karte der Umgegend von Heidelberg, Blatt. II, Sinsheim (1874), 8vo., Strasbourg.

Beneden, Van, & Gebvais Paul. — Osteograpliie des Cetaces vivants et fossiles. Livr. 12,

. Blum, De. J. R.— Lehrbuch der Mineralogie, Abth. I to II (1873-74), 8vo., Stuttgart. Bueat, A. — Gdologie de la France, (1874), 8vo., Paris.

Bueat, A. — Supplement au cours d' Exploitation des Mines, with 20 plates (1874), 8vo., Paris.

Correspondence regarding gold mines in Wynaad, Malabar District, (1874), 8vo., Madras.

Dept. Rev., Agric., & Comm.

Damon, Robert. — Geology of Weymouth and the Island of Portland (1860), 8vo., London. Daewin, C. — The expression of the emotions in man and animals (1872), 8vo., London.

R. Lydekker.

Records of the Geological Survey of India .

Titles of Books. Donors.

Doer, De. Robert. — Ueber das Gestaltungsgesetz del- Festlandsumrisse und die symmetrische Lage der grossen Landmasseu. Part 2 (1874), 8vo.,

Liegnitz.

Emmrich. Dr. II. — Geologische Geschichte der Alpen (1873), 8vo., Jena.

Erdmann, E. — lakttagelser biver Moranbildningar i Skane (1872), 8vo., Stoekbolm.

The Author.

Eyre, E. J. — Journals of expeditions of discovery into Central Australia, Yols. I and II, (1845), 8vo., London.

Hall, James. — Natural History of New York, Part YI, Palaeontology, Vol. IY (1867), 4to., Albany, New York.

Hauer, F. R. von. — Die Geologie und ilire anwendung auf die kenntniss der Bodenbesehaffenheit, Lief I — II (1874), 8vo., Wien.

Heatherington, A. — The Mining Industries of Nova Scotia (1874), 8vo., London.

The Author.

Hunt, T. Sterry. — Chemical and Geological Essays, (1875), 8vo., Boston.

Iaoninck, L. G. de. — Nouvelles Reckerches sur les Animaux Fossiles du terrain carbonifere de la Belgique, Part I (1872), 4to., Bruxelles.

Ivrefet, G. K. — Catalogue of the minerals in the collection of the Australian Museum, (1873), Svo., Sydney.

The Author.

Mastriani, F. — L'Eruzione Vesuviana del 26th Aprile (1872), 12mo., Napoli.

Page, David. — Economic Geology (1874), 8vo., London.

Pfaff, Dr. F. — Allgemeine Geologie als exacte Wissensckaft (1873), 8vo., Leipzig.

Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio, Vol. I. Geology and Palaeontology, Part I, Geology

Rosenbusch, H. — Mikroskopisclie Pkysiograpkie der petrographiseli wichtigen Mineralien

Sadebeck, Dr. A. — Ueber die Krystallisation des Bleiglanzes (1874), 8vo., Berlin.

Thorpe, T. E. — Quantitative Chemical Analysis (1873), 8vo., London.

Zirkel, F. — Die Krystalliten von Hermann Vogelsang (1875), 8vo., Bonn.

Periodicals.

American Journal of Science and Arts, 3rd Series, Vol. VIII, Nos. 47—48 (1874-75), 8vo., New Haven.

Annales des Mines, 7th Series, Vol. VI, livr. 4 (1874), 8vo., Paris.

L'Adminis. des Mines.

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Series, Vol. XIV, Nos. 84—86, (1874-75), 8vo., London.

Archiv fill' Naturgeschichte, Bd. XL, heft 2 — 3, (1874), 8vo., Berlin.

Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse. Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, Vol. LI, Nos. 201—203 (1874), 8vo„ Geueva.

Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse, Vol. LI, Nos. 203 & 204 (1874), 8vo., Lausanne. Cora, Guido. — Cosmos, Nos. 4 & 5 (1874), 8vo., Torino.

Guido Cora.

Geographical Magazine, No. 9, December 1874, and Nos. 1 & 2, 1875 (1874-75), 4to., London.

Part 2.J

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Hooks. Donors.

Geological Magazine, New Series, Decade II, Yol. I, No. 12, and Vol. I I, Nos. 1 & 2 (1874-75), 8vo., London.

Indian Economist, with Agricultural Gazette and Statistical Reporter, Yol. YI, Nos. 5 — 7 (1874-75), 4to., Calcutta.

Government or India.

Journal de Conchyliologie, 3rd Series, Vol. XIY, No. 4. (1874), 8vo., Paris.

Loudon, Edinburgh., and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 4th Series, Vol. XLVIII, Nos. 320—323 (1874-75), 8vo„ London.

Martini und Chemnitz. — Systeinatisehes Conchylien-Cabinet, Lief, 232 (1874), 4to.. Niirnburg.

Neues Jahrbuoh fur Mineralogie, Geologic, uud Pahnontologie, 1874, heft 8 & 9, & 1875, heft 1 (1874-75), 8vo., Stuttgart.

Novitates Conchologiese, Yorderasiatisclie Concliylien, (1874), 4to., Cassel.

Palffiontographica, Baud XX1I1, lief 3 (1874), 4to., Cassel.

Petermann, Db. A. — Geograpliische Mittheilungen, Band XX, Nos. 11 & 12, & XXI, No. 1 (1874-75), 4to., Gotha.

Poggendoeff, J. C. — Annalen der Physik und Cheniie, Yol. 153, Nos. 10—12 (1874), 8vo., Leipzig.

Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, 2nd Ser., Vol. IV, No. 15 (1875), 8vo., Roorkee.

Civil Engineering College,

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, New Series, No. 57 (1875), 8vo., London. Quarterly Journal of Science, No. 45 (1875), 8vo., London.

Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars for quarter ending 30th June 1874, fisc., Melbourne.

Govt. Mining Dept., Victoeia.

Government Selections.

Bombay. — Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, No. 140, New Series.

Papers relative to the Revenue Survey and Assessment of the Wagra Talooka of the Broach Collectorate (1874), 8vo., Bombay.

Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, New Series, No. 146.

Papers relative to the introduction of the Survey Settlement into the Broach and Ankleshwar Talukas of the Broach Collec torate, Guzerat (1874), Svo., Bombay.

„ Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, New Series, No. 154.

Papers relative to revision of the rates of assessment of the Kharapat Lands of the Alibagh Taluka (1874), 8vo., Bombay.

Bombay Government.

British Burma. — Report on the Administration of British Burma during 1873-74 (1874), 8vo., Rangoon.

Chief Commissioner, British Burma.

Haiderabad. — Administration Report of the Resident at Ilaiderabad for 1873-74 (1874), 8vo., Haiderabad.

The Resident, Haiderabad.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Bootes. Donors.

India. — General Report on the Revenue Survey operations of the Upper and Lower Circles for season 1873-74, (1875), Use., Calcutta.

The Revenue Survey.

„ Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 117. Report on the political administration of the Rajputana states, 1873-74 (1875), 8vo„ Calcutta.

„ Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 118, Annual Administration Report of the M unipoor Agency for the year ending 30th June 1873-74 (1875), 8vo., Calcutta.

Govt, of India.

„ Synopsis of the results of the operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, Vols. II & III (1874), 4to., Dehra Dun.

The Great Trigonometrical Survey.

Walker, Colonel, J. T. — General Report of the operations of the Great Trigono metrical Survey of India during 1873-74 (1874), fisc., Dehra Dun.

The Great Trigonometrical Survey.

N. W. Provinces. Atkinson, E. T. — Statistical, descriptive, and historical account of the North-Western Provinces of India, Vol. I, Baudelkhand, (1874), 8vo., Allahabad.

Govt., N. W. Provinces.

Punjab.— Report on the administration of the Punjab and its dependencies for 1873-74, (1874), 8vo., Lahore.

Punjab Government.

TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES, &c.

Berlin. — Monatsbericht der konig. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Septem ber and October (1874), 8vo., Berlin.

The Academy.

„ Zeistschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft, Band XXYI, heft 3 (1874), 8vo., Berlin.

The Society.

Bombay. — Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Yol. X, No. 29, (1874), 8vo., Bombay.

The Society.

Calcutta.— Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, Vol. XLIII, pt. I, No. 4 (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

„ Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. X, December, and No. I, January (1874-75), 8vo., Calcutta.

The Society.

„ Records of the Geological Survey of India, Yol. VIII, pt. 1 (1875), 8vo.

- Calcutta.

The Survey.

Dijon. — Memoires de l'Academie de Dijon, 3rd Series, Vol. I (1873), 8vo., Dijon.

The Academy.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Dublin.— Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. XXIV, pts. 9, 16, and 17 and XXV, pts. 1—9 (1870-74), 4to„ Dublin.'

„ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. X, pts. 1—4, and 2nd series, Vol. I, pts. 2 — 9 (1867-74), 8vo., Dublin.

The Academy.

Geneva. — Memoires de la Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve Vol. XXIII, pts. 1 & 2 (1873-74), 4to., Geneva.

The Society.

London. — Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vols. I — III, pts. 1 — 3 (1871-74), Svo., London.

„ Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Vol. VII, Nos. 60 & 61, and List of Members for 1874 (1874), 8vo., London,

The Institute.

„ Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. XXII, Nos. 155 & 156, (1874) 8vo., London.

The Society.

Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. XXX, pt. 4, No. 120. With List of Fellows for 1874 (1874) 8vo., London.

The Society.

Manchester. — Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol. XIII, pts. 6 & 7 (1874), 8vo., Manchester.

The Society.

Melbourne.— McCoy, F.— Geological Survey of Victoria : Prodromus of the Paleontology of Victoria, Decade I (1874), 8vo., Melbourne.

Mining Dept., Victoria.

Moscou. — Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Vol. XLVIII, No. 1, (1874), 8vo., Moscou.

The Society.

Neuchatel. — Bulletin de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel, Vol. X, pt. 1, (1874), 8vo., Neuchatel.

„ Memoires de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel, Vol. IV, pt. 2,

The Society.

Paris. — Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France, 3rd Series, Vol. II, Nos. 3 — 5 (1874), 8vo., Paris.

The Society,

Philadelphia. — Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3rd Series, Vol. LXVIII, Nos. 3 — 5 (1874), 8vo., Philadelphia.

The Institute.

Plymouth. — Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association, Vol. VI, pt. 2 (1874), 8vo., Plymouth.

Rome.— Bollettino R. Comitato Geologico d' Italia, Nos. 11 & 12 (1874), 8vo., Rome.

Geological Commission of Italy.

Salem. — Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol. XXII, (1874), 8vo. Salem.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Donors.

Titles of Bootes.

Stockholm. — Beskrifoing till Kartbladet " Riddarhyttan " No. 46.

„ „ " Orebro" No. 48.

„ "Segersjo" No. 49, (1873), 8vo,, Stockholm.

„ Bortzell, A. — Beskrifning over Besier. — Ecksteins Kromolitografi och,

Lie Ausstellung der Geologischen Landes. — Untersuchung Schwedens, (1873),

8vo., Stockholm.

Erdmann, E. — Description de la Formation Carbonifere de la Scanie, (1873), 8vo., Stockholm.

„ Gum.zelins, 0. — Bidrag till k. om Sveriges erratiska Bildningar, (1872),

8vo., Stockholm.

„ Hummel, D. — Ofversigt, af de Geologiska Forhallandena, (1872,) 8vo., Stock

holm.

,, Linnaksson, J. G. O. — Om Nagra Forsteningar fran Sveriges och norges

Tornebohm, A. E. — Ueber die Geognosie der Schwedisclien Hoehgebirge, (1873), 8vo., Stockholm.

Bureau Becher., Geol. Suede.

Vienna. — Jahrbuch der k. k. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Band NXIV, No. 3, (1874), 8vo., Vienna,

„ Verhandlungen der k. k. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Nos. 12 & 13, (1874), 8vo., Vienna.

The Institute.

Yokohama. — Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Natur und Volkerknnde Ostasiens, heft VI, (1874), fisc., Yokohama.

The Societt.

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Records

Of The

Geological Survey Oe India.

The Sjtaptjr Coal-field, with notice of Coal-explorations in the Narbada region, by H. B. Medlicott, m. a., f. g. s., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India.

Section 1.— Notice of recent exploration.

„ 2.— The western extension of the Satpura basin,

n 3.— Possible coal-fields on the lower Narbada.

„ 4.— The Shapur coal-field. Summary.

I. — Notice of recent exploration.

The question of the coal-supply in the Narbada valley has now been for long before the public, and is still unsettled. Molipani is still the only locality where workable coal is known to occur ; and the extension of the coal here is as yet unproved. Since December 1872, explo rations have been carried on in several places under the orders of Government, but so far without result. The region to which these remarks apply is the northern portion of the great Satpura basin of the coal-bearing rocks, within comparatively easy I'each of the Great Indian Peninsula Bailway. It has long been known that there are numerous outcrops of coal along the south margin of the field ; but the distance would greatly add to the cost of exploitation. To that ground, however, we must have recourse if our endeavours to find coal in a more favorable position prove unavailing. With this in view, a survey was made during the past season of the western and more accessible portion of the southern region, known as the Eetul or the Sluipur coal-field.

Before proceeding to describe this field, with the aid of the annexed outline-map, I would give a sketch of the explorations up to date. It cannot be said that any of the experiments has proved a failure, because no one of them has attained the full limit contemplated for the search. No success, however, can he reported as yet; and in one case some disappointment lias to be recorded. Having had the entire responsibility of choosing the positions for the trial borings, I am, of course, anxious, for the satisfaction of Government, that a right understanding should exist of the grounds upon which I decided : it is so easy after the fact to condemn a project as hopeless ; and there are always people ready to take the credit of wisdom on such occasions. The data available were never more than could warrant a fair possibility of success, as was duly explained at the first.

Records of lie Geological Survey of India.

'i'ke regular mode of proceeding in this investigation would have been to explore the measures at Mohpani — to see how the coal-seams behave on this side of the basin to the deep of their only outcrop. Information might thus have been gained giving some .grounds for a definite opinion as to the position and depth of the coal elsewhere along this region. This course was not available, the ground being in the possession of the Narbada Coal Company. The interests of this colliery depend largely upon the conditions in question ; but as yet little or no light has been thrown upon them — no coal has up to date (June 1S75) been found beyond the limits of the faults against which the original working stopped.

Thus the attempt that had to be made was not that of exploring a known coal-field, but to look for the coal-measures in a great series of formations where it was known they might occur. The explorations proposed were of two kinds : one depending upon the unknown limits of the rock-basin itself ; the other upon the unknown lie of the coal-measures within the known area of the basin.

So far as appears on a geological map, the northern limit of the rocks with which the coal-measures are associated would approximately correspond with Talley of the Narbadaf °lJUl the slightly irregular line indicating the southern edge of the alluvial plains. Along certain portions of that line narrow outcrops are seen of metamorphie rocks ; and where these appear, tho continuity of the younger rockbasin is, of course, cut off. There are, however, wide gaps where no older rocks appear, where the valley-deposits rest against the coal-hearing formations. It was for a time supposed that the junction of the sandstones with the metamorphie rocks occurred along a great fault, by which the newer rocks were thrown up to the north and removed. Were this so, we should be entitled to draw a fixed fault-boundary to the possible coal-bearing ground across those gaps between the existing outcrops of the metamorphics. From a careful study of the rockjunction where seen, I came to the conclusion that no great lino of dislocation could be proved : the actual contact of the two rock-series was almost everywhere found to be the original one. I even got remnants of the younger strata on the north flanks at tho same level as on the south of the narrow ridges of metamorphics. It thus becomes apparent that the gaps in the present boundary, where the alluvium laps against the sandstones, may only represent bays in the original edge of the basin of deposition of the coal-bearing formations. A full discussion of this question is given in my last report upon this ground; it can only be by a revision of that discussion that the exploration for coal in these blank areas can be shown to be unwarranted.

The Mohpani colliery, on the Sitariva, lies in the centre of one of the longest of these blank portions of the boundary. Almost tho last rock seen in the river is the coal, in full strength, underlying steeply towards the plain. An attempt was made to work the coal here, but it was found to bo too much broken and crushed to be worth extracting. It was to tho north of this position that I recommended borings to be made in the alluvium, close to the branch railway, where coal, if found, would be very favorably situated. There were of course, other doubtful conditions besides the principal one already indicated : the bay may have been there, and yet the coal deposits have found small place in it : or whatever had found place there may have been to a great extent cleared out by the excavation of the hollow in which the alluvium now lies. The probability, such as it is, of coal existing under any considerable portion of the immense area covered by the alluvium seemed sufficient to warrant some outlay upon the search. Boring was attempted at Gadarwara station and at Sukakheri, at ten and four miles from tho boundary. Tho former trial broke down at a depth of 251 feet. Tho hole at Sukakheri was carried to a depth of 491 feet, yet without piercing through the valley deposits. Both these trials were started when boring implements were

Medlicolt, Shapur Coal-field'.

deficient ; and although I gave 500 feet as a possible thickness for the alluvium, I certainly expected rock to be struck at a less depth ; thus the borings were not begun on a sufficient scale for such a depth where piping had to be used throughout.

There was nothing whatever for a positive opinion that the superficial deposits would be so deep. The Narbada flows on the north side of this broad plain ; and within com paratively short distances throughout its course it touches rock, leaving the valley through a narrow rocky gorge 100 miles to west of, and at a level about 200 feet below, the surface at Gadarwara. This gorge is the lowest lip of the rock-basin of the actual valley ; for the watershed on all sides is on rock. Wo have thus at least learned from this Sukakheri boring an interesting geological fact regarding the depth of the pleistocene valley.

A complete prognosis of the case would involve also the consideration of yet another, great valley of excavation in the same area, but regarding which our information is still more obscure. The valley occupied by the pleistocene deposits was to a great extent cut out of the great trappean formation, which had filled up a previous valley to the full level of the highlands on the north and south. Both to east and west of the Sitariva bedded trap is, at several places, the last rock seen passing under the alluvium at the south side of the valley. Locally, too, it is underlaid by thin fresh-water deposits supposed to be of upper cretaceous age. That pre-tertiary valley to some extent corresponded with the existing feature, being principally bounded by the Vindkyans on the north and the Mahadeva hills on the south ; but it is improbable that its line of discharge was the same as that of the present Narbada. Regarding its possible relative depth there is no certain clue ; but there is nothing to suggest its having been great in the Sitariva region, older rocks being seen at many places to east and west. There were some symptoms that the boring at Sukakheri was approaching a bottom of this kind ; the last samples of clay brought up were much charged with granules of iron oxide as if from a lateritic layer which is frequently found coating the trap.

The discovery of the great depth of the sui-faco-deposits at Sukakheri is, no doubt, a check to our hopes of finding the coal-measures within easy reach in this neighbourhood, and may therefore divert the press of exploration to other points ; but, of course, the question of the existence or not of the coal-bearing rocks in this position is quite untouched. The argu ment on this point stands just as at the beginning; and unless before long coal is found under more favorable conditions elsewhere in this Satpura region, I would certainly recom mend the prosecution of the search here. The actual position might be shifted to Gagavola, a village a mile and a half south of Sukakheri. I went clear to the north in first choosing a site, to avoid coarse gravels in the covering deposits near the hills, and to get well beyond a known region of disturbance in the coal rocks, should they be found.

Exploration

region.

the hill-

The other class of exploration is directed to find the coal-measures within the known rock basin. On the south side of the basin the outcrop of the measures is nearly continuous from east to west. The hope of finding them on the north side is based upon the single outcrop on the Sitariva, and upon the fact that very generally they are closely associated with the Talchirs, and these are found at several places along the north boundary. The reasonable conjecture is, that the coal may be more or less continuous throughout the whole basin, beneath the covering Mahadeva rocks. For a short distance west of the Sitariva the Talchir rocks, and even the coal-measures, are traceable; their manner of disappearance in this direc tion is not seen ; the nearest section is very obscure and greatly affected by trap dikes.

In the first complete Section exposed, in the Dudhi and east of it, younger rocks occupy the whole ground up to the boundary with the metamorphies. When next the lower mem bers of the series come to the surface along the boundary, the Talchir group alone is found, overlaid by younger rocks than the coal-measures, the latter being completely cut out , or 1 overlapped.'

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

In explorations of this nature it is commonly the case that some approximation can be made towards computing the depth at which the object should bo attained. The simple general rule is — from the proposed point of experiment to follow the descending section directly across the strata to the outcrop of the hod sought for ; and then, from the surface distance and the mean dip of the rocks, to calculate the depth from the surface at the required point. Were this rule to hold good in the present case, the coal would he hopelessly out of reach where we are now seeking for it. Throughout this whole central area of the rock basin, the strata have a very constant northerly slope to within a short distance of the north boundary, where, according to the above rule, the dept h to the measures would be enormous. The rule, however, works upon the assumption that the beds continue to the deep as they appear at the surface ; and it is quite certain that this is not the case with the rocks we havo to deal with here. They are for the most part massive, irregular sandstones ; and it is demonstrated that not only individual beds, but whole groups of beds, die out to the deep and arc overlapped before reaching the north side of the basin. There is no law known, or in the nature of the case possible, for such a mode of extinction and succession of stratified deposits. Their distribution depends upon the local physical conditions at the time of their formation, the only evidence for which conditions is to ho found in tire deposits themselves. Thus, there can he no reason assigned why the coal-measures themselves should not also die out to the north, they being composed of thick sandstones not unlike those above them. The hope that such is not tho case rests upon the features along the north boundary, as already noticed.

The facts bearing upon this class of explorations have also been given and discussed in some detail in my last report on this ground; but from tho foregoing brief remarks it can be seen that these trials, though under such very different conditions, are of a scarcely less precarious nature than are those in the open valley. It may also here be understood that any offhand opinion ou the point can be of no value, unless in so far as it may be based upon reasons such as those indicated.

In selecting sites for these borings, I gave, as for the others, a wide berth to the known difficulties close to the general boundary of tho field ; such as, firstly, the greater disturbance of the strata, often with trappean intrusion ; secondly, the coarsely couglomeritic character of the Mahadovas in this zone, which has proved so obstructive to borings at Mohpani ; and thirdly, to give a better chance of getting below the known overlap. To these considerations the surface features added other inducements. On tho east and west of the basin, two wide open areas are presented in the valleys of tho Dudhi and tho Tawa, separated from the plains of the Narbada valley by a narrow belt of low hills. If the Satpura coal-basin over fulfils our reasonable hopes as regards coal, it is in these areas that tho industry would be established, and here that it should be started. Whether or no coal should be found some what nearer the surface towards the edge of the basin, it would be a duty to ascertain if it lay within reach of these central areas whore mining must be located if it is ever to expand ; hut to fulfil this purpose the borings hero should be carried to the full depth at which there would be any prospect of mining being profitably carried out. Upon this point my knowledge and experience scarcely entitle me to an opinion : I should say conjecturally, that supposing coal to be present, it would pay better in the long run to work it at 150 fathoms in the centre of the field than at 50 fathoms near tho margin.

In commencing operations, preference was given to the Dudhi area, for tho reason that

„ . „ tho strongest natural outcrops of tho coal both to north and south

Valley.

were ou the east side of tho basin. The borings at Ivhapa

and Manegaon were commenced in the middle of February 1874. Both start in tho Denwa horizon of the Mahadeva series. At the close of the season, on tho 1st Juno, they had reached the depths of 260 and 242 feet. After the stoppage of the Sukakheri boring, work

Medlicott, Shapur Coal-Jleld.

was resumed at Khapa and Matiegaon on the 15th January 1875. On the 23rd of April work was suspended at the Mancgaon boring (at 419 feet), the depth now attained necessi tating the constant attention of the European foreman at one boring. At the close of the season (15th May) the hole at Khapa was down to 472 feet. The sections of these borings give as yet no hint as to the prospect of finding coal : the rocks are throughout the same as at the surface, purple and greenish clays, alternating with sandstones, either white or tinted by admixture of the coloured clays. In the Khapa hole the proportion of clays to sand stones is 193 to 279, at Manegaon it is 219 to 200. There is nothing discouraging so far. I have shown elsewhere that the Pachmari sandstone (lower Mabadeva) passes into clay to the deep ; and the change to the coal-measures would probably be abrupt.

On the representation by the Railway Department of the importance of a supply of coal Tawa Valley. as far as to tl,e wesfc as possible, the trials in the Tawa valley were

commenced on the 25th December 1874 at Kesla, and on the 1st January 1875 at the Sulctawa, under the management of Mr. A. Gardiner, si. e. The latter Is entirely in strata of the Damuda formation, on tho horizon of the Bi jori beds as described in this region, and nine miles south of tho Shapur coal-field. The Kesla boring starts in the lower beds of the Mahadevas, somewhere in tho Pachmari horizon, so far as can at present be determined, four miles due north of the Suktawa boring; yet, if the structure upon which all these trials depend is favorable, if tho Barakar coal-measures rise again towards the north edge of the basin, they may be nearer the surface at Kesla, which is only three miles from boundary of the nietamorphics. When closed for the season (30th April) the Kesla hole had reached to 302' 0", that at the Suktawa to 241'. Clay greatly preponderates in the Kesla boring, a hard sandy rock variegated brown and red. The Suktawa rock also maintains the same characters as at the surface, alternations of strong sandstone with slightly carbonaceous shales. I do not find in them any grounds for a change of opinion regarding the original project; tho depths as yet attained are no greater than might occur at a short distance from tho outcrop.

There is, however, already the surety from those borings that mining in this central

Other trials recommended. re"!°n wiU have to be deePei' than .haS & been tempted in India. Por this reason, and to provide against the by no means improbable event of failure to roach the coal-measures at all in this position, it is certainly advisable to commence trials in other ground. Two projects are open to us : to try for tho measures close to the north boundary of the basin, in a position analogous to that of tho outcrop at Mohpani ; and, to commence the exploration of the Shapur coal-field. With this view I have selected four sites for trial borings along the northboundary: one on the road into the Dudhi valley, about seven miles west of Mohpani ; one on each of tho roads to Pachmari, close to patches of Talehir rocks ; and one at Lokartalai. For the southern region I have selected a site near the village of Sonada. One or more of these trials can be carried on at the same time and under the same management as one of tho deeper borings in each of tho river valleys, say at Khapa and tho Suktawa.

II. — The western extension of the Satpuea basin.

The occasional mention of tho probable extension of the coal-bearing series beneath tho trap to the west of tho known Satpura basin, and the fresh demand for coal for the new State Railway starting northwards from Khandwa, led to tho request for an examination of tho line of ground most likely to throw light on tho possibility of finding coal in that direction At tho end of the season I made a tour to the west of lokartalai along the direction of the north boundary of the basin. There cannot be said to bo any immediate practical result, but observations have been made confirming and greatly extending the conjecture upon which the

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

hope was based : direct evidence has been found of the underground continuation of this important series of rocks for some distance beyond the limits hitherto known; and an identifi cation of Mahadcva rocks has been made far to the west on the Narbada near Barwai, which opens the question whether some of the so-called cretaceous sandstones along the valley of this river to near the coast may not belong to the same much older series, and thus be indicators of western coal-fields corresponding with those of the Damuda valley on the east.

The Zumiui section.

No observation has hitherto been made (or at least published) of any appearance to the west of Lokartalai of rocks closely connected with the coal-hearing series. At page 43 of my last report (1872) on the Satpura basin (Mem. Greol. Sur., Vnl. X) a brief notice is given of the western part of the northern boundary of the basin. The following remarks are in continuation of those there given. It was said that cast of Sali the metamorphics are in force along the boundary. This was hazarded on the strength of a small outcrop at Sali, and of their forming the principal part of the range twelve miles to the east on the high road north of Kesla. I find, however, that intermediately there is an important section in which the Mahadevas are continuous to the plains. It is 'south of Zumani in the Narbada valley, and north of Lalpani in the Tawa valley. Along the base of the hills north-west of Ivesla and Tako the Bagra limestone is in force, with a dip of 30° to north-north-west. The overlying sandstone and conglomerate with a low dip in the same direction form the scarp above. From the large and numerous blocks of trap at the foot of the waterfall there is probably an outlying cap of this rock on the hill. The crest of the pass north of Lalpani is on the southern ridge of the range, on the run of the high dip, 30° to north-north-westerly, in conglomeritic sandstone overlying limestone. There is probably some slip or sudden twist along the north of this ridge, for on the sloping high ground in that direction the strong limestone is again in force, with a low north-north-westerly dip. On the rise to the outer crest of the pass the overlying sandstone and conglomerates come in again. These breccia-conglomerates are splendidly exposed in the steep gorge to east of the road. In a spur near the mouth of this gorge there is a small Mahadeo rock-temple in the conglomeritic sandstone, having a dip of 3° to north-north-west. A little below this the dip rises rapidly to 40°, in hardened sandstone distinctly overlying the conglomerates ; there is then a band of crushed rock and a trap dike, hut within about eighty yards apparently the same sandstones are again 30° to north-north-west, rapidly falling to 5°. The beds that come in here are peculiar : a whitish sandstqjje (which has been a good deal quarried), with partings of white shale and a layer of pyritous coaly shale. The character of these beds and their stratigraphical position at the top of a long ascending section of the Bagra group make it highly probable that they belong to the Jabalpur horizon, the nearest known position of which is capping Chatar hill sixty miles to eastward. When last seen in the stream under Jalpa the beds are quite flat, and end abruptly, with somo crushing, trap being the next rock seen. This is, perhaps, the most important section wo have of the north boundary, as it marks so clearly the upheaval of the Satpura area, or the depression of the Narbada valley, along it. It illustrates and explains somo of the sections to the cast, especially that on the Anjan (op. eit., p. 37).

About six miles cast of Lokartalai there is a fme section of the boundary under the

scalp of Budimai ridge. South of Batki the Bagra limestone Eudimai section. ,

appears in toree m the low ground at the base of the scarp, dip.

ping at 30° to north-north-west, under the trap of the valley. Along the strike to the south west of those outcrops the limestone disappears, but there is a much fuller section of this fringing zone of rocks. They form quite a flanking range outside the scarp, separated from it by a chain of small longitudinal valleys excavated along the broken uniclinal flexure,

Meillicoll , Shapur Coal-field.

between the nearly horizontal beds of the scarp, and the same beds tilting down under the plains. Before these beds disappear the dip flattens very much, or oven slightly turns up to the north, while near the axis of the flexure it is nearly vertical. I did not here detect any characteristic Jabalpur rock, but unless faulting interferes with the sequence they ought to be represented. The fine Dnndiwara sandstone, so much prized on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, comes from the top beds of these inclined strata. Structurally this section corresponds with that of Zumani, only the flexure is more marked. It is important to remark that in both cases the sandstones reach well to the front of the run of the nearest metamorphic rock. The strike of the latter into the anticlinal axis rather suggests that they acted as a fulcrum upon which the overlying strata were bent and broken.

No special disturbance was noticed in the trap on the Moran. In passing to the wost- The western inkers. south-west on the strike of the little rib of metamorphic lime

stone south of Lokartalai, at about a mile distance, there is a low ridge. A clear section of it is seen in the stream, showing it to be formed of trap, with a central band of gray and reddish clay, all having a dip of 60° to south-south-east! In the next stream there is a still better section of this continuous little ridge, just under Salei village. The clay band here is calcareous, and is locally full of JPht/sa Primepii, the common fossil of the iutertrappean formation. The dip is the same as before. The ridge passes just to south of the village, and immediately north of it there is a strong outcrop of hard conglomeritic sandstone, about 30 yards wide, the dip being 60° to 70° to south-south-east. The trap occurs again immediately north of it. Tiiis rib lasts for about a mile, the iutertrappean hand being traceable much further. In the Ganjal at Uskali, and exactly on the same strike, there is a stronger outcrop of the same sandstone. It has been extensively quarried in the little hill east of the village. The dip here is 45° to south south-east, and in front of it the trap is well seen, although the beds are massive, to have the same dip, gradually lowering to 5° at half a mile up stream. The iutertrappean band is absent in this section. Immediately below the sandstone there is a small obscure section of trap. Two miles further, on the same exact strike, at Kupasi and Jinwani, the rib of sand stone appears again, still at 60° to south-south-east, and just under it at Kup&si there is a small crop of metamorphic limestone. This is the last appearance of the sandstone, at eleven miles from Lokartalai. The structural feature, however, is well marked for a much greater distance, and exactly on the same strike : south of Padarmati there is an outcrop of intertrappeans still at 50° to south-south-east ; in the streams at Kathmakliera and binganpur, and better still in the Machak above Magardha, the zone of high dip in the trap is well seen. Beyond this it seems to die out, being scarcely noticeable in the Siani below Makrai. Magardha is twenty-five miles from Lokartalai.

The feature just described is a very remarkable one. The sandstone of these inliers Interpretation of tl.em. seem to be,ong to the Bagra rocks ; it is quite like the rock found near the metamorphics all along the boundary. It is tho structural feature that exhibits such a change. Even this might have been anticipated in kind : the steady south-westerly dip of the sandstones on tho Moran indicates a depression of the formations in that direction; but it was not there detected that the trap participated in that disturbance. This fact comes out very forcibly from these western sections; and they give one, too, an idea of tho magnitude of the event. For a thickness of quite 1,000 feet the trap affects the same steep dip as the sandstones, which must, one would think, carry the latter to at least that depth in the ground to the south. This, of course, would put the chance of coal indefinitely out of reach in this immediate region ; the horizontal extent of the feature being quite in proportion to the vertical magnitude. The geological reading of it is very puzzling, especially when it has to he taken from such scattered observations as can be made during a single march across the ground, I can only state

1&#x27;Z

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Whether faulted.

the puzzle as it stands. The extraordinary straightness of the feature compels one to consider it as possibly connected with faulting. In this connection especially these western outcrops must be taken as solidary with the rest of the boundary to the east; for the disappearance of the sandstones on the Budimai and Zumani sections is exactly on the same line. The great contrast, however, in the features of the cross-sections to east and west makes it especially difficult to connect both with one and the same master-dislocation.

Apart from the fact of remarkable continuity and straightness, the prima facie sugges tion of faulting is the same in the east as in the west of the line. The abrupt termination, with especial crushing, of the fiat sand stones at the north end of the Zumani section, with trap at a lower level close-by in front, is strongly suggestive of faulting with northern downthrow ; the only other explanation being the pre-trappean origin of the edge of sandstone. Similar close vertical juxtaposition of formations occurs to the west : trap is found close to the north of the sandstone outcrops, and at a lower level, at Salei and Uskali, suggesting the same northern downthrow, or else pvetrappean exposure. The rock itself of the western outcrop does not suggest any difference of throw east and west. Nor is there any excuse for placing the fault (if there is one) between the sandstone and the metamorphic limestone at Kupasi : the sandstone seems to be of the same horizon as that occurring at the same level east of the Moran, — a breccia con glomerate, such as is found in natural contact with the metamorphics all along the boundary ; and at the Moran this ridge of supporting rock strikes into the axis of the Budimai flexure, well to the south of the supposed fault-line. Thus from this move direct portion of the evidence, one must, I think, conclude that if there is a fault it is post-trappean, and has a southern upthrow throughout. The collateral evidence, with reference to faulting, presents, on the contrary, a great difference between the eastern and the western areas. The proof of a great post-trappean southern depression by flexure at the edge of the stratigraphical basin to the west of the Moran is now beyond question. This, though perhaps not incom patible with a southern upthrow by faulting along the north boundary of the same area, certainly does not seem to agree with that supposition. The evidence of elevation, by Hexure along the same line of disturbance, of the area to the east of the Moran seems equally clear, and this would remove the necessity for upthrow by faulting along tho northern boundary, though not incompatible with the co-operation of such a feature. The certainty of the post-trappean age of the western depression might afford presumption that the elevation to the east was of the same age, opposite effects in adjoining areas being rather the rule than otherwise in crust movements ; but I shall presently in this paper call attention to the evidence of extensive disturbance and denudation of the Mahadeva and underlying series prior to the outflow of the trap. The fact, as I said, is a very important one ; and if it is established at one point on a 'geological horizon, it must be taken some account of throughout.

III. — Possible coal-fields on the Lower Narbada.

Finding myself at Khandwa, after a vain attempt to discover any further sign of the infra-trappean formations along the Satpuras, I devoted a few days to visiting Barwai, where so many different rock-series are represented within a small area. A combination of favorable circumstances, due to the works of the Holkar State Railway now in active progress, put it in my way to add another to the list of geological attractions of this ground.

When the general description of the western Narbada region was prrblished in 1809 (Memoirs, Geological Survey, Yol. VI, pt. 3), the original conception of the Mahadeva formation — that it was quite unconformable to, and independent of, the coal-bearing rocks of the Damuda series, and superior even to the

The Barwai area.

The Mahadeva horiicn.

Ncdlicoil, S/uqjar Coal-field.

Rajmahals had not been rectified. Mr. Blanford accordingly, in correlating the groups of the lower with those of the upper Narbada valley (which he had not seen), affiliated the Lameta, ami with it the Mahadeva beds of the latter, to the cretaceous horizon of the former area. Tins view has been so far upheld as regards the Lameta group ; but in November 1872 (Records, Geological Survey, Vol. V, p. 115), the correction was pointed out as regards the -Mahadevas. In making so important a change it might have been thought better to adopt a new name, but if that were done the correction would not have been so apparent— the old name would have held on. in its false connection. Besides, the correction was made in the typical area : the Pachmari (Mahadeva) sandstone is now known to hold a middle horizon m a continuously superposed series, of which the Jabalpur (Rajmahal) group is the upper most, and the Talchirs the lowest member. The original Mahadeva ground contains four

well marked groups (Jabalpur, Bagra, Bemva, Pachmari) forming the present Mahadeva series.

The correction just quoted led, of course, to tho view that there were no Mahadevas in True Mahadevas at Banvai. the lower Narbada area ; that all the infra-trappean strata there either belonged to, or were closely connected with, the much younger cretaceous group of Bagb. The observation I have now to bring to notice is that there are true Mahadevas at Barwai, unconformable to the cretaceous beds of that place. The proof of this discovery is due to Mr. Moore, oue of the engineers at the railway viaduct on the Narbada. Mr. Moore has charge of the great quarries opened at Gratta, on the upland east of Barwai, on tho hanks of the Choral, and to which a temporary railway is laid from the viaduct. In the bottom of a small valley, about a quarter of a mile north, o! his bungalow, Mr. Moore discovered a number of fossil oyster shells in a shallow water course. The ground being quite flat there was no section ; so at my request Mr. Moore had a shallow pit sunk, and has sent me the following description : —

" r

6'' 9"

entirely of oyster shells.

Thin bed of conglomerate with fossils imbedded.

Bed of soft white sandstone ; first foot excavated with a pick ; the rest harder and distinctly stratified with perfectly level beds.

Thick bed (bottom not reached) of water-worn pebbles and small boulders imbedded in still yellowish-brown clay or loam."

From this spot, by sinking shallow pits, Mr. Moore traced the fossil-bed (without getting to the end of it) to within 400 feet of the scarped upland, about 80 feet high, formed of the massive sandstone in which quarries are opened over a very large area. It is a hard white rock with red streaks and mottling. Pebbles (chiefly of Vindhyan quartzite) are scattered through it locally so as to form a conglomerate ; but even in the clearest sections in the quarries no regular bedding is visible, the strings of pebbles, however, indicating that tic mass is undisturbed. Well marked joint-planes traverse it in various directions. It is a thoroughly consolidated rock, though portions of it are much harder than others through infiltration of silica from the once superincumbent trap. No earthy ayer is found in it ; and along the Choral it is seen resting directly on the nearly vertical -bijawar limestone and breccias.

One could scarcely desire a more distinct case of a wide geological break than Is pre sented m this section : the petrographieal contrast is evident enough from the foregoing csciiptiou, suggesting in the strongest manner the necessary distinction of the formations, c ease foi uneonfoimity may not he considered conclusive : a small fault between aland the scarp to east of it would account for the actual relative positions ; coucea c sliaip ottryu in the bedding would have the same effect : or even it might

Records of the G eologicul Surrey of hula.

be an original great bank of sand witli the muddy oyster bed alongside of it. Nothing short of an artificial out across the rocks could finally dispose of all these objections; but certainly the first and most probable explanation is that of original denudation-unconformity. The incompatibility of the even approximate contemporaneity of such rocks as these now are, indefinitely increases this probability.

The oyster bed and its associates are characteristic representatives of the Bagh beds of this region. All the petrographies! characters of the Gatta rock point to its being a re presentative of some member of the Mahadeva series of Central India. I failed, owing to the Ituli festival, to get to the larger area of similar rocks about Kdtkot. I suspect the great quarries opened there for the works on the ghat are in the same rock as at Gatta.

Inference as to coal.

The observation I have just explained has a very direct hearing upon the object of my trip westward — the possible extension of the coal-fields. It has not been sufficiently noted that the. resemblance of the massive sandstones of the lower Narbada valley, especially in the Deva valley close to the alluvial plains of Broach, as repeatedly observed by Mr. Blanford, is a permanent character, and would hold true whatever geological rearrangement the original Mahadeva group might undergo; also, that the connecting of those rocks with the overlying cretaceous beds is given with great doubt by Mr. Blanford, more because be bad not detected any break be tween them, than from any dependence upon their apparent confomiability. This missing link of evidence has now been found, and Mr. Blanford's original conjecture confirmed. It is certain that at least some of the rocks in tlie Western Narbada area provisionally placed with the cretaceous formation are not only lithologically like the Mahadevas, but are stratigraphieally related to the cretaceous beds just as the Mahadevas of the eastern area arc to the Lametas. There is scarcely much risk in supposing that the sandstones of the Deva valley arc the same as the Gatta rock; and if so, the position of the Mahadevas as now understood would give a new significance to the fact, suggesting very directly the possible or even probable occurrence of the eoal-measnres. It is not for a moment supposed that there are outcrops of the Damudas in the Deva valley ; and no probable guess can be made as to the depth at which they are likely to lie ; 2,000 is as likely as 500 feet.

The prospect would include the neighbourhood of Burwai. No doubt the rock at Gatta rests immediately on metamorphics ; but there are like overlaps of the Mahadevas in their typical area. The Katkot outlier is also very likely to he shallow. I saw, however, at the viaduct a quantity of cut stone of the same description from a place near Akhund, to the south-east. It is possible this may he the lip of the basin from which Gatta is an overlap, ami that coal may be within reach. Of its great value in such a position I need not remark. 1 had sent my camp by forced marches to Banker! railway station, and had no means of going about, having already overtaxed the hospitality of the local officers.

A general consideration of the case does not discourage those suggestions. The great Satpura basin almost certainly had its outlet to the west. Its uppermost strata spread out to the east over the gneiss at the watershed of the peninsula. It is not unreasonable to suppose that to the west as to the east of India an expansion of the lower coal-bearing groups took place towards the sea-board, and that the Bengal fields may have underground equivalents in the region of the lower Narbada.

IV. — The Shapue Coal field.

In the event of failure to find coal, and in sufficient quantity, on the north side of the Position Satpura basin, the alternative will he to take up the most accessi

ble position on the southern outcrop of the measures. In anti cipation of this necessity, a survey has been made of that portion of the ground where

Medllcotl, SAapur Coal-field.

such trials should be commenced. Throughout the whole length of the basin from east to west, the Barakars are exposed in a more or less continuous outcrop. On the east, where unfortunately the coal is in much greater force, the position is quite out of reach of present demand in an upland valley of the Punch river, which is a tributary of the Wein Gunga, which, as the Prenhita, is an affluent of the Godavery. The head waters of the Tawa adjoin those of the Pencil ; but they fall rapidly to a much lower level, flowing at first in deep gorges, which soon open out into broad undulating plains. This broad valley of the Tawa, though containing some large patches of Hat alluvial land, is for the most part barren, rocky, and uneven. The high road between Hosungabad and Betul crossing it from north to south is decidedly a rough one.

The annexed map represents a portion, about twenty miles long, on the southern and Map western borders of this valley. It is taken from sheets 6, 7, 1'2,

and 13 of the Topographical Survey. The topography is very far from being as accurate as is required for close geological work, but for present purposes it will suffice in the hands of any one in the least fitted to look after coal, The boundaries of the coal-measures are about as close as the transitional character of the formations admits of. The other geological features are accurate so far as given, but a good deal remains to be done in the way of following out trap dikes, quartz reed's, and like details.

General characters of groups.

The first thing to be done is to indicate what rooks constitute the coal-measures, or in a wider meaning, the Barakar group. Coal and carbonaceous shale are seen to he confined to a special line of country ; but it soon becomes apparent that the rocks containing them are not constantly separated from the ad joining rocks by any sharply defined features, that in fact, the measures only form a zone, horizon, or group, in a closely connected stratigraphieal series. The demarcation of fixed boundaries thus becomes a matter of much difficulty, and must be accepted subject to cor rection. In the absence, or very rare occurrence, of fossils, the problem lias to be worked out conditionally from lithological and stratigraphieal data.

The whole rock-series is composed exclusively of sandstone and clays, the former greatly preponderating, except at the base. The character of the bedding throughout is massive, and, as is then generally the case, irregular. It is ouly in the most general way that either jock can he said to prevail in any particular zone. There are, however, some types of com position and of texture more or less characteristic of different portions of the series, and it is upon these that the discrimination of the several groups in a great measure depends. Throughout a great thickness of strata at the base the sandstones are very fine-grained and of a pale greenish-yellow tint. ; the clays are hard, splintery, and silieious ; both often enclose large erratic blocks and other debris, forming coarse conglomerate, generally with a large preponderance of matrix. These beds form the Talehir group. Above this comes the coalhearing zone, the Barakars; in which the sandstone is generally white, somewhat coarse and gritty ; the clays being shaly and carbonaceous. The sandstone of the next overlying band of the Motur horizon is softer than that of the coal-measures, more earthy and of mixed composition, and having corresponding gray, brown, and greenish tints; the clays are lumpy, sandy, and oehrey. The distribution and the relations of these groups will appear from the description of the local sections.

The difficulty of demarcating the several formations is much increased by the disturb-

Conditions of disturbance. faces that haTO aI1'ected the wllole series> Producing intricacies in the boundaries very troublesome to make out where the pri mary characters of the groups are so undecided. The dips arc not often high, but they vary much; and faults are numerous, some having a great throw. There are also many trap

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

dikes and quartz veins or reefs. These are seldom connected with actual dislocations of the strata, but they often disguise the mineral characters of the rock, and thus obstruct the identification of isolated outcrops.

The south boundary of the area under notice is the base of the sedimentary series, — the junction of the Talehir group with the gneissic and schistose rocks The southern boundary. forming the highland of Betul. For the most part the contact

occurs in the low ground along the base of the hills of crystalline rocks. It forms an exceed ingly indented outline, being in fact the intersection of two very irregular surfaces — the present ground surface with that of tho original floor of deposition of the Talchirs. The actual contact is frequently exposed ; nowhere better than in the Phopas (at the south-east corner of the map) : the gneissose schists are denuded in the bed of the river, and for several

score yards along the left bank the Talehir boulder clay is seen resting flatly on a rough, sharply weathered, ancient surface. At some points this boundary seems to be a faulted one, as in the section of the Amdhana stream at the south base of the Bhaorgarh ridge; the contact here is very steep and crushed, and is moreover on the run of the Machua, uorth-east to south-west, fault. In the west, at the head of the Bhoura and iSiiki valleys, the Talchirs rise to a consi derable height, forming the upland about Kota, between the Bhaorgarh crystalline ridge on the south and the basalt-capped ridges on the north. The formation is splendidly exposed in the scarps of this small plateau, west of Mura village. The exact position of the southbound ary has only been fixed at a few points of our area, the intermediate portions being left un coloured in the present map.

The northern limit of the area to be described is an arbitrary line in the great sandstone deposit overlying the coal-measures. These beds belong to that ,1-lhem limit of map. portion of the Damuda series of the Satpura basin indi

cated in my former paper as the Motur horizon, in which carbonaceous matter seems to be altogether wanting (but reappearing in the overlying beds of the Bijori horizon). The clays of the Motur group are often slightly ferruginous.

The Motur-Barakar boundary line is, on the whole, well defined. At several distant places, as Dolari and Kosmeri on the Tawa and below Sonada on Motur-Barakar boundary, he stream, the contrast is very well marked between the hard white sandstones of the coal-measures and the softer earthy tinted rocks above. On the Tawa below its confluence with the Madina the distinction is not so marked. Some other parts of the boundary are only approximately accurate on account of the covered condition of the ground.

The base of the Barakar group is very vaguely definable as a strict geological horizon.

The characters of the two deposits are not only blended vertically Barakar-Talctir boundary. interstratification, hut it would appear as if this also Occurred horizontally — beds of decided Barakar type in one place being represented by as decided Talehir rock elsewhere. TLus it may be that the line given is not truly equivalent in differ ent parts of the field. This feature will be indicated in the descriptions of the different sections.

The physical features suggest the division of the area into four portions : on the east a great fault quite detaches the Dolari outcrops from those lower Pom separate .uens. down the Tawa; the great Machna fault cuts olF this second area

from that traversed by the Suki, and this again is separated from the Sonada outcrops in t he valley of the Bhoura by a steep ridge of indurated sandstone along a vein of quartz infiltration.

Medlieotl , S/iajmr Coal-field.

Coal-measures : upper beds.

The Dolari area.

In the Tawa under Dolari village there is the fullest section of characteristically Motur beds Barakar roclcs within this whole district. The steep narrow

Lodadeo-Baramdeo ridge has a hack-bone of vein quartz, and the sandstone is disguised beyond recognition. In the small stream close under the north base of the ridge, thick, soft sandstone and red and green clay have a northerly dip of 20°. It would seem, therefore, that the main part of the ridge must bo formed of these Motur rocks. In the Tawa, to the north, these same rocks have a low south-westerly dip. Below the Karia stream, the dip is 3° to south on both banks of river for half a mile and then turns up sharply to a south-easterly dip of 20°, lowering to 10° near the quartz vein which crosses the river obliquely to east-30°-south in the direction of Lodadeo. The same rocks, with a more easterly dip, appear below the quartz reef up to the trap dike which crosses the river to south-35°-west, immediately under the eastern village of Dolari- The dike does not disturb the strata, the same strong bed of mixed earthy sandstone appearing on its west side, where it rests directly on a bed of coal.

The change of formations is thus lithologically as abrupt at this spot as it could be ; but the parallelism of stratification is unbroken. The coal is only seen just under the sandstone, the rest of the outcrop being covered up ; hut there is room for a large seam. From beneath it there rises a strong bed of white felspathic sandstone. Immediately under this again coal is seen for a small thickness, the rest of the outcrop, full twenty yards wide, being concealed. Below this, for 130 yards, there is white sandstone; then again coal. The covered outcrop of this seam is 40 yards wide, in which some layers of dark shale can he traced under water, hut there is room for much coal in the unseen portions. There is then 50 yards of sandstones, and below it 20 yards of covered outcrop with coal at top. This fourth seam is also underlaid by strong white sand stone. These 350 yards of section, with an average easterly dip of 12°, represent about 200 feet of strata, containing what may he four strong seams of coal. I saw nothing to suggest that any of the outcrops are due to repetition by faulting.

There is a marked change in the character of the underlying measures. The thick rough white sandstones are replaced by sharply defined hard flaggy beds, very fine in texture and of dull greenish-yellow shades, more of the Talchir than the Barakar type of rock ; but the alternating shales arc copiously carbonaceous, and with some strings and thin beds of bright coal. There is more disturbance in these beds, the dip being sometimes as high as 30°, but in the same easterly direction. The thickness is about 100 to 150 feet.

Below these thin measures there is still a descending section for over half a mile to Lower beds. where a run of quartz crosses the river from north to south.

The only rocks seen in this reach are thick sandstones, in com position and texture mostly of the Barakar type, though some would pass as Talchir, especially the lowest bed adjoining the quartz vein. The intervening earthy beds are com pletely covered ; I conjecture that they are of Talchir type, not carbonaceous. I have, however, coloured the whole as Barakar, not to complicate this small area with boundaries of doubtful nature and position, as undoubted coal-measures occur again close by. The thickness of these lower beds may be GOO to 700 feet.

The quartz vein just mentioned occurs on a broken anticlinal axis; the silica simply filling the many cracks in the fractured sandstone, some central ones being much stronger than the rest. 'The reverse dip is seen in the indurated rook forming the reef, below which there is a blank of some 300 yards to where sandstone appears in force in the left bank at the con-

Middle beds.

The Pliopas fault.

section and

7S

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

fluence with the Phopas. It is a typical Barakar sandstone, and dips south-westerly at 15°. This rock forms the left bank of the Tawa for a quarter of a mile. It becomes much crushed and silicified, and is finally cut out by a run of broken Talchir rock agglomerated by silica. Up the Phopas, there is an ascending section for some 200 yards, the upper beds haying somewhat the aspect of Motur sandstone ; and they abut at a moderate angle directly against the same crushed mass of Talchirs. There is clearly here a fault of very considerable throw. The ridge of crushed and indurated Talchir rock is about 40 yards wide ; and immediately on its south-west side the boulder-clay is quite undisturbed.

In the small stream running parallel to the Phopas under the Lodadeo ridge, and at

100 yards from the Tawa, there is a two-feet seam of bright coal, The Lodadeo stream. ,

covered by strong sandstone and resting on thick carbonaceous

shale. The dip is 23° to west-south-west. Per more than a mile in a direct line typical Barakar rocks are exposed at intervals up this stream; the dip is very variable in amount and direction. The last outcrop, at west-6°-north from Lodadeo, is a white sandstone, dip ping north-easterly at 15°; Talchir clay occurring close behind it at the same level. The fault here is unaccompanied by any crushing or vein rock.

The Dolari fault.

The above indicate all the outcrops in the Dolari area. The continuation of the measures along the south base of Lodadeo has not been followed out. In the stream north of Dolari, I fully expected to find the repetition of the main section in the Tawa, the ground between being quite flat, with nothing to sug gest a great break in the rocks. At the nearest point, however, just to north of the village, typical Motur beds occur, having a low southerly inclination, and continue so to westwards. In proceeding down the westerly reach, there is a run of fracture with quartz veining ; and the dip increases, through an ascending section of the same sandstones, to within 300 yards of the Tawa, where it is 30° to south-south-west. The actual rock against which these sandstones abut is not exposed in the banks of the stream ; but a little below its confluence with the Tawa, there is a good section of one of the reefs of broken rock cemented by quartz infiltration, so frequent in this region. I believe the rock it includes to he Talchir ; but owing to the small scale of the map, I have not complicated it by attempting to represent those small and obscure outcrops. Talchir clay is seen at several points with a low northerly dip on both hanks throughout the Baspur reach of the Tawa. There can he no doubt of the presence of a great east-west fault, having a northern down throw of several hundred feet, bounding the Dolari coal-field on the north. Two miles east of Dolari, at the angle of the stream south-east of Siwanpat, there is an outcrop of broken and silicified rock on the exact run of the Dolari fault. The whole country here north of tiie Tawa is deeply covered by soil.

Site for a boring.

A boring in the gully between the two villages of Dolari ought to cut all the coal within 250 feet from the surface.

The Machna Aeea.

The Dolari fault is well seen in the Tawa at the bend below Baspur. A mass of crushed

Talchir rocks indurated by silieious infiltration projects into tbe The Golai reach. . , ,

river from the west. Close under it on the left bank, massive

wliite Barakar sandstone is seen dipping at a moderate angle from tbe fault; but within a few yards it turns up to a low southerly inclination which lasts throughout this north east reach of the river, and as far as a pair of strong trap dikes cutting very obliquely in a nearly east-west direction, across the Tawa, under Gola.i. The sandstones throughout this length are decided Barakar, and unless repeated by faulting (of which there is nq

Meddlcolt, Shapur Coal-field.

appearance) they represent a thickness of 700 to 800 feet. The outcrop is very little in terrupted, but no coal is seen ; and such earthy beds as are exposed are only slightly car bonaceous, yet nearly the whole group must be here exposed.

The two great trap dikes south of Golai about correspond with an anticlinal flexure.

The silapti reach. the mou df the Gonapur stream they are beautifully exposed,

cutting sharply through a strong bed of fine pale greenish-yellow sandstone of decided Talchir character. It contains, however, small strings of bright coal; and the gray sandy clay under it, as seen up stream in the Tawa, is slightly car bonaceous. The low northerly dip of the sandstone is not in the least disturbed by the dikes, each about 20 yards wide. The sandstone is continuous down the loft hank of the Tawa, gradually vising to the west and then to north, where the gray clay rises with it. Under this another strong bed of fine sandstone crops up in force, ending at a line of broken and crushed ground. As in the Dolari area, I have coloured these doubtful beds with the Barakar group. Beyond the crush, which may also include a small fault, a very typical Talchir rock appears, massive greenish-gray splintery clay with thin hands of hard compact limestone ; it is overlaid by thick sandstone like the preceding. All have a low northerly inclination, soon becoming quite flat, and then turning up to the north. These beds are very well seen in. the stream between Silapti and the Tawa, and threads of coaly matter are observable in the sandstone. They end along a marked line of fracture crossing the river to west-30°-north ; some Baraltar-like sandstone occurring im mediately to the north of it, and then there is a blank of fifty yards in the section.

It would he impossible to follow closely the lines of this Silapti inlior to east or west, the ground is so flat and covered with clay. In the stream north-east of Golai only Barakar beds are seen, with some crops of very poor coal. The feature north of the Golai dikes is, on the whole, a blunt wedge of lower strata exhibiting two flat synclinal folds with inter vening crush, elevated with faulting, and throwing off the coal-measures to the south and north.

The Temni reach.

To the north of the blank in which the last section ends, thin-bedded measures come in with carbonaceous shales and poor coal, probably representing the middle measures of the Dolari area. The dip is at first southerly, soon turning over in a flat anticlinal, and the northerly dip lasts up to the con fluence with the Machna. The outcrops are nearly continuous throughout, strong sand stones of undecided character ; the few earthy partings being also uncharacteristic, and but faintly carbonaceous. The whole are, however, Barakar. A thin seam of coal occurs under the great sheet of sandstone on the left bank, at the Temni ford. I saw nothing to suggest a concealed outcrop of strong coal.

So far, in what might bo called the main section through this Machna area, there is very small appearance of useful coal deposits. It was from out crops in the Machna itself under Mardanpur that the large quan tity of coal was taken which gave such satisfactory results in a trial on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway in 1873. Prom the confluence of the Machna and Tawa a great sheet of strong Barakar sandstone rises gently to westwards along the bed of the former stream. Under Douri a long deep pool has been cut by the water through this rock into an underlying earthy bed, which is quite concealed, the same mass of sandstone continuing above the pool and extending on the left hank up to where the river bends to the west-south-west. For a hundred yards or so near the bend the sandstones on the right hank have a consider able north-westerly dip ; and in the bed of the river is visible the crack along which, by faulting, this abutting stratification takes place. There must also be a south-westerly or some equivalent line of fracture at the back of this upheaved mass of beds. It is at the

The Mardanpur outcrops.

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

top of this little section that the coal seams occur, cutting very obliquely across the river bed. At every available point of the outcrop, along a length of some sixty yards, coal was cut on both sides of the river. The holes are now filled in, and little can be seen. There are two seams, the lower one apparently with a strong parting of shale. There did not seem to bo in either seam room for more than four to five feet of coal. The dip is 30°. At a short distance up stream the dip changes to north-east, and continues so up the next, nortlisouili, reach. I could not find that the seams are repeated on the reverse outcrop. There is thus here an oblique synclinal flexure, sloping towards the main fault, and the continuity of the coal at this spot is therefore closely limited. The place seems, on the whole, very unpropitious for mining operations.

The Kotmi Beetion.

The next north-westerly sweep takes the river for about half a mile across the main fault into most typical Talchir rocks, the massive fine clay with thin hands of dense, nearly black, limestone. Above this there are again Barakar beds, showing an east-west flat synclinal, south of which a very massive bed of sandstone rises to the next bend of the river. Beneath this rook, along the east-west reach, a band of flaggy sandstones aud coaly shales is very well exposed, and the same are traceable for some distance up the gully draining from across the fault to the west. All have a moderate northerly dip, and at the head of the island, at the southerly bend of the river, they are regularly underlaid by the fine Talchir sandstone. These flaggy measures may correspond with those already noticed twice on the Tawa.

Hitherto we have only seen broken sections between the Barakars and the Talchirs.

In the Macbna the sequence is quite continuous; and if the The Talchirs on the Machna. conjecture regarding1 the identity of the flaggy coal-measures

here and at Dolari bo correct, the contrast between the underlying bods in the two sections is striking: at Dolari the Barakar type of sandstone prevails, while in the Machna, from below the flaggy coaly hods a mile north of Shapur, we meet only rocks of Talchir character. There is another feature in these beds on the Machna different from what is found to the west — the sandstones are in force down to a low horizon in the series, alternating with the boulder clay and even containing large erratic blocks itself. From the Machna the section was followed to the south boundary up the stream flowing near the high road. The moderate northerly dip is remarkably steady throughout, and unless there are repetitions by faulting the thickness would be over 2,000 feet. From the top of the section there are broad intervals between the successive crops of thick line sandstone. The clays which no doubt occur in these spaces being quite concealed, an important aid was missed in fixing a fair boundary for the groups ; the presence of carbonaceous matter was thus also not ascertainable. I did not hit upon the clay with limestone which is peculiar to the Talchirs, though not confined to a particular horizon. The boundary I have given is certainly higher than that taken elsewhere. Locally it is the best marked line in the series, and for coal-searcliing purposes the most suitable. I had not time to work the question out more minutely.

The Machna fault is quite as well marked as those In the Dolari area, and has nearly as great a throw. The upland to the north-west of it is almost entirely formed of Talchir clay, except the hills north-west and north of Shapur, which are mostly sandstone, perhaps partly Barakar. The Barakars occu py the low ground along the river. The run of the fault is very steady; the bulge appear ing in it on the map may he due to incorrect plotting of the river course. At both points where it cuts the Machna there is much confusion of the stratification, with infiltration of silica ; hat at the only point where I got a view of the actual plane of contact, the feature is very sharply defined. This occurs in a small gully-, within fifty yards of the river at the

The Machna Fault.

Medlicolt, Skapur Coal-field.

north-westerly elbow above the Murdanpur coal crops. The exact line is not traceable in the covered ground north of Douri, nor can it be fixed on the Tawa. It has probably died out in that direction, as all these features are clearly connected with the special disturbance of the stratification along the margin of the basin. To the south-west the fault is seen at the base of the range of gneissic rocks at the mouth of the Amdhana gorge. Its continuation up the valley lias not been followed out.

For reasons already indicated, I should not advise any outlay upon an attempt to mine Site for a boring. tbe seams_ 111 tlle detached block of measures south of Murdanpur.

„ . . „ , , If t,wre is ay continuity in the measures, the seams should be

ound in a favorable position away from the fault-group. A good site for a boring would

l'® °" th,e left bank of the Tawa> a below the confluence of the Machna. A depth of 4J0 feet here would probably prove the whole of the measures.

The Scki AREA.

The east end of this portion of the field, about Bhumkadhana and Kosmeri, is hopelessly Kosmeri. concealed and obscure. From isolated outcrops and the frequent

. , , „ ,, occurrence of vein quarts, it is plain that the stratification is much

disturbed. On the left bank of the Tawa at Kosmeri there is typical Barakar sandstone and on the right bank as typical Motor rock. At a few feet from the base of this latter group there is all along this portion of the boundary an extensive exhibition of trap rock appearing generally as a sheet-dike along the outcrop of a massive bed of rusty clay. This c inracter is well displayed in the Lobar river, where there is a wide spread of the sandstone covering the trap at a low angle, and broken and altered by it.

In the Sulci itself there is an unbroken section, including apparently the whole Barakar The'SAki section. group ; and if it is so, the promise of coal is very poor indeed

beie being no seam of workable thickness or quality. At the very mouth of the river the strong white Barakar sandstone is in force; typical Motur beds appearing a little to north of it on the left bank of the Tawa ; all with a steady northerly dip. At top of an irregular earthy parting in this hand of massive sandstone, there are three inches of platy coal. Up stream, in a short west-south-west reach, under the ton sandstone there is a flat section of very irregular flaggy sandstone showing already some Talchir characters. Above this there is a long north-south reach with no strong crop but on right bank the section is almost continuous ; a low northerly dip in soft sandstone and sandv micaceous shale. Two of these beds are carbonaceous, with mere strings of coaly matter the associated sandstone being persistently fine, earthy, greenish. From the upper end of this reach to the causeway at the road-crossing there are continuous crops of strong fine sand stone with a few thick irregular partings of sandy micaceous shale, faintly carbonaceous in strings. The flat reach above the road is along the top of a lower hand of softer, finer sand stones, below which the Talchir clays come in with scarcely any associated sandstones.' In

this section the characters of the two groups are run together in a very puzzling manner the Talehir-Barakar sandstones are clubbed in force with interspersed carbonaceous matter The boundary adopted is a very marked one, but manifestly on a lower horizon than that taken on the Machna. If the section on the Machna were to be interpreted by the analogy of that on the Suki, the base of the Barakars should he taken well to the south of Shapur. °

The question of coal in this locality turns upon whether the shales observed become Doubtful prospect of coal coal to the deep, and whether some of the top measures may not be suppressed by faulting, I noticed no direct evidence for the latter supposition : there is no doubt much quartz-veining along the boundary at this spot, hut I do not think it is connected with faulting; such is rarely and indirectly the case with

Records of the Geological Survey of India,

West of the Sviki.

Tlio north boundary.

tlie many runs oE vein-quartz observed throughout the district. The conformable succession of strata here seems unbroken. There is also little encouragement to adopt the other sup position. I would rather connect the want of coal here with the other peculiarities noticed in the original characters of this formation in this position.

In the left hank of the Tawa, on the strike of the ridge of indurated rocks separating the Bhoura and Suki streams, there is an excellent section of the bottom Motur beds. There are two strong bands of mottled sandy clays overlaid by thick sandstones, These latter pass up to form the crest of the ridge along the quartz vein. The extension of the Baralcars along tlie base of this steep ridge is quite covered up by debris.

The Sonada abea.

The point at which the Motur-Barakar boundary crosses the ridge of induration is put in inferentially, from the apparent structure, the rocks of the ridge being too much disguised for close identification. The position of the boundary on the Bhoura Nadi is well defined. In the reach to south-east of Bandabir the massive greenish-brown and mottled purple clays of the Motur are in force. A lower baud of the same appears near the bend of the river to east-by-south of Sonada. To the west, along the flanks of Jamgarh, these bands, if present, are concealed by talus. But I rather think they die out to the rise : the sandstone forming the east flanks of the hill are seen to pass down into the low ground to the north ; at the high level they are porous and conglomeritic, while low down they become earthy and fine grained.

The Barakar beds are fairly exposed for several miles along the Bhoura stream, the

course of which is very oblique to the strike of the formations.

The coal-measures. e ,,

For this reason and the doubtful accuracy of the map, it is im possible to be certain whether two or more of the outcrops may not belong to the same seam, or to assign an approximate thickness for this group. It is certain, however, that the coal-measure characters are more pronounced than on the Suki. The top rock is as usual a very strong white sandstone. Under Sonada, near the top of the long westby-north reach of the river, two poor strings of coal occur in local partings of this rock. Above Sonada there is a succession of south-westerly reaches, across the measures, and westnortli-westerly reaches more or less along the strike. At the northerly elbows between tlio four first pairs of these reaches coal is seen on the left bank under strong sandstone. The first two are, I think, the same seam, and also tlie third and fourth, at a lower horizon. From one to two feet of coal is seen in each case ; but there is room for more in the concealed part of the outcrop. There are besides several bands of covered ground in these sections that may contain coal. To the west the whole group passes into the base of the Jamgarh range, and is obliquely overlapped by the covering trap which passes across it to rest on the Talchirs west of Teter. The first scarp north of Teter is of coarse Barakar sandstone, locally altered by the overlying basalt.

Here again we find an instance of the mutual accommodation that occurs between these

two groups : as the Barakar type of sandstone, and with it true The Talchirs. " A ° x

coal deposits, increases, the Talclm* stamp of sandstone decreases. I

have still left a considerable band of these latter within the coal-measures boundary, so as to let it correspond with the continuous line iu the Suki area ; taking as top of the Talchirs the first appearance of the massive, fine, siiicious clays with thin bands of hard compact limestone north of Kupa. Beneath this there are still some strong beds of the fine yellowish sand stone. The very massive Talehir clay is deeply weathered out in the broken ridge south of Teter, showing the quartz veins passing vertically through it. Lower still the boulder deposits are splendidly exposed in the eastern scarp of the Kota plateau.

Mecllicott, S/iapur Coal-field.

Site for boring.

The high road (it only deserves the title from the causeways and culverts constructed across the watercourses) passes through the Suki area, which, as has been shown, offers the least promise of coal. For any really effective roadway from the north, Sonada is much the nearest and most accessible point of the coal-measures. There is no serious obstruction to overcome between it and Dliar on the present road. For this reason it is here that a first attempt should be made to prove the ground for a workable coal, although the apparent prospect of success may be less pro mising than in the Machna or Dolari area. In choosing an actual site for boring one might at first be inclined to avoid the visibly barren ground at the top of the measures at the bend of the river just above the village. Yet, as none of the outcrops are very tempting, the object should be to test the whole measures a little to the deep of the outcrop. With this in view I should take up a position immediate!}' to the north of Sonada village. When there is such uncertainty as to the thickness of the measures it is difficult to assign a depth for a boring. If 400 feet at Sonada did not clear all the measures, the remainder could bo tested by another shallow boring half a mile to the south.

Teap.

The few trap dikes that occur are not likely to prove very troublesome. The only one seen in the Sonada area is close to the Talchir boundary. There are none in or near the Suki section. None is seen either in the Machna. A ten-yard dike stops just short of its left bank, at the mouth of the little stream south-south-west of Douri. It is very remarkable for its finely developed prismoidal structure. Two small dikes cut across the Tawa, just below the mouth of the Machna. A boring here might be placed between the two, or below the lower one. Several fine dikes cross the Tawa within this area to south. In the Dolari area a strong dike crosses the river immediately above the outcrop of the coal seams.

The general habit of the trap dikes is to coincide approximately with the lines of flexure, and therefore with the local strike of the strata. The great dike at Kamti and that north of the Tawa at Ivosmeri cut across the strike and parallel to the Machna fault. There are some good instances in this field of the tendency of intrusive trap to run out in sheets at the contact of thick clay bands with strong overlying sandstone. The broad run of trap along the north bank of the Tawa in the Ivosmeri reach is a good case of this, as already mentioned. There is also a very good example of it in the Talchirs on the I'hopes : a band of hard sandstone is seen broken or tossed about upon an underflow of trap. I am disposed to think that the cotemporaneous trap said to occur in the Talchirs elsewhere is only an exhibition of this phenomenon,

I have seen nothing to disturb the opinion I have already expressed that all the trap in these formations is of the age of the Deccan rock. There is excellent evidence within the range of our map of the advanced denudation of these formations at the time of its outflow. The trap forming the summit of Jdingarh is fully 800 feet thick, the top scarp of Motur rocks having an elevation of about 2,000 feet. At a distance of little over two miles, in the gorge west of Teter, the trap is at the lowest level. The fact of there being no infratrappean deposits in such a position only shows that even then this must have been an upland gorge. There is one mode of occurrence of the trap that suggests at first sight an opposite conclusion regarding the periods ol denudation. The best case in point I noticed this season, about twelve miles to the east-north-east of Dolari : a very strong dike, traced for several miles along the low ground, cuts straight up the west face of Ivilandeo hill and forms a ridge on the summit. It is certain that when this occurred the whole ol the present low ground was

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

filled with rock; but it is quite open to supposition that the filling rock was in great part trap. The unquestionable tact, that the main Narbada valley itself, formed on the south by scarps of Mahadeva strata, is re-excavated out of the covering trap-formation-the floor of the valley being still of this rock at many places in front of the Mahadeva scarp — removes any apparent improbability in such a conjecture as that here made regarding the inner vallies of tho basin and the pretrappean denudation of the Mahadeva formation. A just estimate of this feature is an important factor in our judgment upon the time-relations of the Maha deva series, the top member of which is the Jabalpur (Rajmahal) group, in comparison with the Bagh series (cretaceous) in this region ; and also upon the distinction of the Deccan and Rajmahal trappean formations.

Quaetz-veins and faults.

The frequent occurrence of strong and continuous quartz-veins is perhaps the most pecu liar feature of tho southern zone of this rock-basin. Along the Quartz-veins : composition, northern margin, where the contortion of the strata is locally greater than here, I have not observed a single case of quartz-veining ; and in other basins of these formations the thing is almost unknown. There is, however, one marked feature of these veins that has long been familiar to us in many parts of India in metamorphic and transition rocks — a peculiar pseudomorphic structure, thin shining plates of pearly white quartz, either in parallel arrangement or confusedly entangled, with empty interstices. I do not recollect noticing this form in vein-stones of other countries ; but in India it seems to be nearly universal. The fine lines on these shining plates have suggested that they may be after micaceous iron. Stains of iron are common, but there are no signs of any other metal in these veins. There is often associated brecciated quartz.

The whole rock was for long currently designated amongst us as ' fault-rock.' In highly contorted and altered strata, where this stone was most familiarly Not fault-rock. known, it is generally difficult to establish the fact of faulting ; but

in these little disturbed and unaltered deposits the evidence is often complete. From many observations made in this field I can say that this rock seems rather to shun a connec tion with faults, as if they were related to opposite results of disturbing action— such as if faults occurred along lines of maximum compression and these veins along lines of tension. The vein forming the core of the ridge between the Suki and Bhoura streams is at least eight miles long, varying from one foot wide m the Takhir clays to six feet in the sandstones. In the masive uustratified clays vertical dislocation might not be detected, but there is little or no sign of crushing or rubbing alongside the vein, clear sections of which are abundantly exposed in the broken ridge south of Deter. In the sandstone it is quite surprising how this Assuring of tho rock and introduction of foreign matter does not even locally derange the moderate dip of the bed ; an indurated shell of sandstone of variable width commonly adheres to the south face of the vein, to the rise of the dip ; and in this, as well as in the strips of rock enclosed by the ramifications of the. veinstone, the low northerly dip is uniformly undisturbed. The best defined and most continuous of the quartz-runs correspond with this description. The few cases where the quartz appears locally near the Dolari and Machua faults might be quoted on the other side ; but besides that these spots are quite local as com pared with the length of those faults, it can generally be seen, as in the Tawa and the Phopas, that the quartz is located in broken flexures adjoining the fault, where no vertical displacement lias occurred, and does not represent what is properly designated by the term fault-rock ; it is simply veinstone. One of the veins which have given rise to the group of sandstone ridges north-west of Shapur is seen on the path descending the Amdhana gorge to the south, to run continuously into the gneiss as a comb-vein one foot wide.

Medlicott, Shapur Coal-field.

The structure of some of these runs of vein quartz is peculiar : the small veins of which

the reef is made up are not always coincident with the general direc- Peculiar local structure. T ,, y ,, , n

tion. In the hill north-west ol bhoura the component veins are nearly normal to the direction of the aggregate. In the Tawa above Temni the run of the quartz rib is east-west, while the veins composing it lie north-east, south-west. It is per haps conceivable that 'colliding' earthquake waves might shatter the rock in this manner.

The induration and metamorphism of the sandstone that occurs in connection with this infusion of quartz is sometimes remarkable, as it takes the form of Peculiar induration. felspathisatiou, the development of innate crystalline felspar. I

noticed this at the contact of the Lodadeo reef iu the Tawa. It is important to find it in this connection, because the most marked case I found of this form of induration is not visibly connected with any veining. It is in the small hills on the Bhoura stream south west of Baudabir. They are formed of sandstone having quite a granite-like hardness ; the porosity of the sandstone is not destroyed, nor is the earthy matrix quite obliterated ; but bright glassy facets of a felspar are disseminated, manifestly innate ; and it must hold the whole in an invisible bond to account for the peculiar hardness of the rock.

The well-marked faults within the stratified series form another peculiar feature of this

. . region. We are familiar enough with the word 'fault' in the

Faults : dimensions. D .

northern region, about Mohpani ; but they would he correctly

termed slips in comparison witli the principal faults in the Shapur field, where top Barakavs

or even high Motur strata are brought into contact with middle or lower Talchirs ; in which

cases the throw must be from 500 to 1,000 feet.

Notwithstanding the dimensions of these faults, I cauuot look upon them as anything

, , but local features, not merely in the literal and obvious sense, hut

Local relations.

as connected with and determined by pre-existing local conditions.

The Machna, north-east-south-west, fault runs with the crystalline range of Bhaorgarh ; but I cannot regard them as concomitant effects of elevating action. I rather connect the fault with a pre-existing feature of the basin of deposition, of which there seems to be coincident evidence in the marked change in the character of the Talchir strata along that line.

The only noteworthy instance in India of Barakar deposits occurring at a high elevation is

on the continuation of these outcrops to the east, in the Pencil valley. Different throw in east and m, , n ,

west. The case has been appealed to as a sulheient refutation or the ge

neral remark that the areas of Barakar deposition correspond in a recognisable manner with the existing depressions of the peninsula. The objection, however, will not hold if it is shown that the apparent exception is due to local elevation ; and there seems every probability that such was the case. But for the great faults which set on to the eastward from Shapur, the coal-measures here would correspond in position with those in the Pencil. The fault which brings up the coal on the Pencil river west of Chendia has, on the contrary, its upthrow to the north : here, too, the quartz veins keep clear of the faults.

The structural features of this region offer a most tempting subject for study. I believe it will appear that the limitation of the sedimentary basin here is not in any important degree due to elevation from the south ; hut rather that this present local stratigraphy is connected immediately with pre-existing surface features.

Summary.

Although the foregoing details are reduced to the minimum required for any one who would carry on the investigations described, or even as evidence for any one who would study the questions discussed, each of which is marginally noted, it may be well biit'H} to point out what conclusions or opinions have been arrived at.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

As to coal : the only tangible and immediate prospect is, of course, where we are certain of the coal-measures ; I think there is a good prospect of coal in the Skapur field ; if not in the Sonada area, then further east, on the Tawa.

Regarding those places where we are searching for the measures themselves, I can only say that there is a reasonable hope of finding them. In the central area, where the deep borings are being made, the chief risk is that the measures are out of reach. In the trials along the border of the basin the extra hope is that the measures, if there, have partaken in the extension and rise of the Talchir bods towards the northern outcrop ; the extra risk, that the boring may be outside the overlap.

The prospect held out of coal on the lower Narbada is in some ways more precarious, the ground being so very far from any known occurrence of the coal-measures ; yet the countervailing suggestion of a probable original expansion of the measures towards the sea board is not without weight ; and the presence of a rock that is known to overlie most of the important coal-basins in India is no small encouragement. Considering the importance of a local supply in Western India, the chance ought not to be left untried.

Note on coals recently found near Moflong, Khasi Hills, by F. R. Mallet, Esq. ,

Geological Survey of India.

On the 19th April 1875, I visited the coal recently discovered near Umsaomat and at Dedum Hill.

Two spots were pointed out to me near Umsaomat, one about half a mile, and the other a mile south-east of the village. The coal at both these places is worthless, being shaly, and the seams only a foot thick.

The following assays have been made of the Dedum coal, and for comparison of that at Maobelaka, the latter seam is that which for some time past has been worked for the supply

of Shillong with fuel : —

Dedum Hill.

Maobelaka.

ITygroscopie water ...

Volatile matter, exclusive of water

Fixed carbon

Ash

ioo-o

The Maobelaka coal was taken from the fresh working face of the quarry, while that from Dedum was from the surface of the weathered outcrop. The latter coal would pro bably be found considerably better a few feet in. The seam is three feet thick (the Maobe laka coal being 3' 6" to 4' 0" ), but the outcrop is at the foot of a perpendicular sandstone cliff 15 feet high, from the top of which the hill slopes back steeply for 30 or 40 feet more. The hill near the top of which the seam is situated appears to be equally steep all along the southern side, so that the coal could not be quarried. If sufficiently good in the interior, however, and no better seams should be found in the neighbourhood, it might be worth mining on a small scale, as when the projected new road is completed, the facilities for carriage from Dedum to Shillong will bo considerably greater than those from Maobelaka. The roof is good and the seam horizontal, and a few miners could raise sufficient coal to supply Shillong. The chief difficulty in the way of opening such a mine under native supervision would be the risk of explosions it it were not properly ventilated.

Accessions to Library

Donation To Museum.

During April, May and June.

Laterite from Pigeon Island. Limestone from Bittrapar one of the Laccadives, and Rock specimens from the Yingorla rocks. Presented by A. 0. Hume, Esq. Secretary to Government of India.

Accessions To Libeaey.

From 1st April to 30th June 1875.

Titles of Boohs. Donors.

Duchateau, J. — Notice sur les A'ino, (1874), 8vo., Paris.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. I, 9th Edit., (1875), 4to., Edinburgh.

Helper, Dr. J. W. — The Provinces of Ye, Tavoy, and Mergui on the Tenasserim Coast,

(1839), reprinted 1875, 8vo., Calcutta.

Government op India.

Jeffreys, J. G. — British Conchology, Yol. Ill, (1875), Svo., London.

Kinahan, G. H.— Valleys and their relation to fissures, fractures, and faults, (1875),

8vo., London.

Koch, Dr. L.— Aegyptische und Abyssinische Arachniden, (1875), 4to„ Niirnberg. Plattner.— Manual of qualitative and quantitative analysis with the Blowpipe, (1873),

8vo., New York.

Report on the effects of artificial respiration, &e., in Indian and Australian Snake Poison ing, (1874), 8vo., Calcutta.

Surgeon Major Ewart.

Skertchly, S. B. J. — Geology, (1873), 8vo., London.

Toula, Dr. F. — Kohlenkalk und Zeehstein Fossilieu aus dem Hornsund an der Slid

Periodicals.

American Journal of Science and Arts, 3rd Series, Vol. VIII, Nos. 49 & 50 ; IX, Nos.

The Editors.

Annales des Mines, 7th Series, Vol. VI, livr. 5 & 6, (1874), 8vo., Paris.

L'Adminis. des Mines.

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Series, Vol. XV, Nos. 87—89, (1875),

8vo., Loudon.

Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, Band XLI, heft 1, (1875), 8vo., Berlin.

Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse, Vol. LII, Nos. 205—207, (1875), 8vo., Lausanne. Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse. Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles,

Vol. LI, No. 204, & LII, Nos. 205 & 206, (1875), 8vo., Geneva. Geographical Magazine, Vol. II, Nos. 3—5, (1875), 8vo., London.

Geological Magazine, New Series, Decade II, Vol. II, Nos. 3 — 5, (1875), 8vo., London. Hanley, Sylyanus, & Theobald, Wm.— Conchologia Indica, Part VII, (1874), 4to.,

London.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Boolcs. Donors.

Indian Economist, with Agricultural Gazette and Statistical Reporter, Vol. VI, No. 8, (1875), fisc., Calcutta.

Government of India.

Journal do Conchyliologie, 3rd Ser., Vol. NV, No. I, (1875), 8vo., Paris.

List of Officers in the Survey Departments on the 1st April 1875, (1875), Use., Calcutta.

Dept. Rev., Agriculture & Commerce.

London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 4th Ser.

Luynes, LE duc de. — Voyage d'Exploration a la Mer Morte, a Petra, et siu-la Rive Gauche du Jourdain, Vols. I & II text, and livr. 19—25 Plates, (1875), 4to., Paris.

Martini und Chemnitz.— Conchylien Cabinet, Lief. 233 & 234, (1875), 4to., Niirnberg.

Nature, Vol. XI, Nos. 278—291, (1875), 4to., London.

Neues Jahrbuch fik Mineralogie, Geologie, und Palieontologie, Jahrg. 1875, heft 1 — 3, (1875), 8vo., Stuttgart.

Palseontographica, Band XXI, Lief. 6, (1875), 4to., Cassel.

Peteemann, Dr. A. — Geographische Mittheilungen, Band XXI, Nos. 2—4, (1875), 4to,, Gotha.

„ „ — Geographische Mittheilungen, Supplement, Nos. 39 to 42, (1875),

4to., Gotha.

Poggendorff, J. C. — Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Band 154, Nos. 1 — 4, (1875), 8vo., Leipzig.

Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, 2nd Ser., Vol. IV, No. 16, (1875), 8vo., Roorkee.

Thomason College, Roorkee.

Quarterly Journal of Science, No. 46, (1875), 8vo., London.

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, New Series, No. 58, (1875), 8vo., London.

Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars for quarter ending 30th September (1874), ., Melbourne.

Govt. Mining Dept., Melbourne.

GOVERNMENT SELECTIONS, &c.

Bombay. — Report on the Assessment of the Rygur Talooka in the Colaba Sub-Collectorate, (1866), 8vo., Bombay.

The Bombay Government.

„ Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, New Series, No. 145.

Papers relative to the revision of assessment of certain villages in the Nasik Collectorate, (1875), 8vo., Bombay.

The Bombay Government.

India. — Report on the Revenue Survey Operations of the Lower Provinces from 1st October 1873 to 30th September 1874 (1875), ., Calcutta.

The Revenue Survey.

„ Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 119. Report on the administration of the Ajmere and Mhairwara Districts for 1873-74, (1875), 8vo., Calcutta.

Foreign Department,

„ Walker, Col. J. T. — General Report on the operations of the Great Trigonome trical Survey of India during 1873-74, (1874), ., Debra Dun. .

Great Trigonometrical Survey.

Accessions to library.

Titles of Bootes. Donors.

India. — Walker, Col. J. T. — Synopsis of the results of the operations of the Great

Trigonometrical Survey of India, Vol. IV, (1875), 4to.. Dehra Dun.

Great Trigonometrical Survey. Madeas. — Report on the Administration of the Madras Presidency during 1873-74, (1875), 8vo., Madras.

Madras Government,

Mysore. — Report on Public Instruction in Mysore for 1873-74, (1874), 8vo., Bangalore.

Chief Commissioner of Mysore.

TRANSACTIONS & PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES, &c.

Berlin.*— Monatsberichte der konig. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Novem ber to February, (1874 & 1875), Svo., Berlin.

The Academy.

„ Register fur die Monatsberichte der k. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, von 1859 bis 1873, (1875), 8vo., Berlin.

Berlin Academy.

Bombay. — Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. X, No. 30, (1875), 8vo., Bombay.

The Society.

Buffalo. — Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Vol. II, No. 2, (1874), 8vo., Buffalo.

The Society.

Calcutta,— Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, New Series, Vol. X, pt. 1, (1875), 8vo., Calcutta.

The Society.

„ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, Vol. XLIII, pt. II, No. 4, & Vol. XLIV, pt. 1, No. 1, (1874-75), 8vo., Calcutta.

Ditto.

„ Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Nos. II — V (1875), 8vo., Calcutta.

Ditto.

Dresden. — Sitzungsberichte der naturwissenscliaftlichen Gesellschaft Isis in Dresden, Jahrg. 1874, April to September, (1874), 8vo., Dresden.

The Isis Society.

Dublin. — Journal of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland, New Series, Vol. IV, pt. 1, (1874), 8vo., Dublin.

The Society.

Edinburgh. — Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. VIII, No. 87, (1874), 8vo., Edinburgh.

The Society

„ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. XXVII, pt. 2, (1874)

4to., Edinburgh.

Ditto.

Glasgow. — Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, Vol. V, pt. 1, (1875), 8vo., Glasgow.

The Society.

Lausanne. — Bulletin dela Societe Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 2nd Series, Vol. XIII, No. 73, (1874), 8vo., Lausanne.

The Society.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of Boohs. ' Donors.

Liveepool. — Abstract of the Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society, Sessions I to XV (1859-1874), Svo., Liverpool.

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, Yol. XXVIII, (187 4), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

London. — British Museum,. — A Guide Book to the Exhibition Booms of the Departments

of Natural History and Antiquities of the British Museum (1874), 8vo., Loudon.

The Beitish Museum.

„ „ Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. I (1874),

8vo., London.

Ditto.

„ Gbay, De. J. E. — Hand List of Seals, Morses, Sea Lions,

and Sea Bears in the British Museum (1874), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

„ Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Yol, IV, No. 1 (1874), 8vo., London.

„ Journal of the East India Association, Vol. VIII, No. 3, (1875), 8vo., London.

The Association.

„ Proceedings of the Boyal Geographical Society, Vol. XIX, Nos. 1 — 3, (1875), 8vo., London.

The Society.

„ Proceedings of the Boyal Society of London, Vol. XXIII, Nos. 157 — 159, (1874), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

„ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. XXX, pt. V, No. 120, and Vol. XXXI, pt. I, No. 121, (1874 and 1875), 8vo., London.

Ditto.

Manchestee. — Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, "V ol. XIII, pts. 8 & 9, (1875), 8vo., Manchester.

The Society.

Melbouene. — Smyth, B. B.— Geological Survey of Victoria. Eeport of Progress, No. II, (1875), 8vo., Melbourne.

The Suevey.

Moscou. — Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Vol. XLVIII, No. 2, (1874), 8vo., Moscou.

The Society.

„ Nouveaux Memoires de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Vol. XIII, livr. 4, (1874), 4to., Moscou.

Ditto.

Munchen. — Abhandlungen der Math. — Phys. Classe dor k. b. Akademieder Wissensckaften. Band XI, Abth. 3, (1874), 4to., Munchen.

The Academy,

„ Annalen der koniglicheu Sternwarte bei Munchen, Band XX, (1874), 8vo. Munchen.

Ditto.

Accessions to Library.

Titles oL Bootes. Donors

Munchen — Erlenmeyer, Dr. Emil.— Ueber den Einfluss des Freiherrn Justus von

Liebig auf die Entwickelung der reinen chemie, (1874), 4to., Munchen.

The Academy.

Sitzungsberichte der Math,— Phys. Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften, heft. 2, (1874), 8vo., Miinehen.

Ditto.

New Zealand. — Ninth Annual Report of the Colonial Museum and Laboratory, 1873-74,

The Geological Survey of New Zealand. Paris.— Bulletin de la Society Geologique de France, 3rd Series, Yol. I, pp. 441—53!!,

Vol. II, No. 6, and Yol. Ill, Nos. 1 & 2, (1874-75), 8vo., Paris.

The Society.

Philadelphia.— Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3rd Series, Yol. LX VIII, No. 6, and

The Institute.

,, Lyman, Theodore. — Commemorative notice of Louis Agassiz, (1873),

8vo., Philadelphia.

American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rome. — Bollettino R. Comitato Geologico d' Italia, Nos. 1 — 4, (1875), 8vo., Roma.

The Geological Commission. Vienna.— Denkschriften der k. Akad. der Wisseuschaften, Baud XXXIII, (1874),- 4to.,

Wien.

Si

Si

ss

The Vienna Academy.

Sitzungsberichte der k. k. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Band LXVIII, Abth. I, heft 3 — 5, Abth. II, heft 3 — 5, and Abth. Ill, heft 1 — 5, Band LXIX, Abth. I, heft 1—3, Abth. II, heft. 1—3, (1874), 8vo., Vienna.

Ditto.

Jahrbueh der k. k. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Band XXIV, No. 4, (1874), 8vo., Vienna.

Verhandlungen der k. k. Geologischen Vienna.

The Institute. Reichsanstalt, Nos. 16 — IS, (1874), 8vo.,

Ditto-

Zurich. — Abhandlungen der Schweizerischen palskmtologischen Gesellschaft, Vol. I, (1874),

4to., Zurich.

,, Neue Denkschriften der Allgemeiuen Schweizerischen Gesellschaft, Band XXV and XXVI, (1873-74), 4to., Zurich.

„ Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich, Jahrg. XVIII, heft 1 — 4, (1S73), 8vo., Zurich.

The Society.

„ Neujahrsblatt von der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, No. LXXVI, (1874), 4to., Zurich.

Ditto.

Metilicott Ne-puL-

Geological S U I&lt;- V E Y Op In V I A

Records Nov 18 '/S'

Records

Of The

Geological Su1Iyey Oe India.

]SiOTE on the Geology of Nepal,* by H. B. Medlicott, m. a., f. g. s., Deputy Superin tendent, Geological Survey of India.

Through the kindness of Mr. Girdlestone, the Resident of 1 epal, I had an opportunity in May last of visiting that very secluded country. It will surprise many to hear that although the marches of Nepal run for more than 500 miles along some of the most fertile and populous districts of British India, that country is still rigorously tabooed to all outsiders, Englishmen included. With the exception of the track to Katmandu, no part of that extensive area has been traversed by civilized man. Even the route to the capital is only open to political envoys, and by special favor to invited guests ; and any digression from the actual road-way is suspiciously watched. The permitted range of exploration from Katmandu is correspondingly restricted: one may go as far as the Trisal-ganga, on the north west, about sixteen miles (direct), and to about an equal distance on the south-east, in both cases a short way beyond the precincts of the actual valley. The following observations are therefore most scanty, there being no opportunity to followup and examine features of special importance in tbe general section. They may, however, have some interest as a term of comparison between the known ground on yie east and on the west, about midway between which this section occurs.

It is necessary briefly to state what the features are with which this comparison is to be made. From the Sutlej to the westSrn frontier of Nepal there is continuously traceable along the margin of the mountains a zone of variable width formed of slates and thin silicious beds surmounted by sandstone and strong limestone. The latter have been described as the Krol group ; the lower horizons being distinguished as infra-Krol, Bliui (a thin lime stone) and infra-Blini. They usually form a broad, crushed synclinal ridge at the edge of the mountain-area, as at Mussooree and Naini Tal. In the Simla region they extend far beyond this ridge into the interior of the mountains , where they become obscured by metamorphism, their relation to the gneiss rocks not being as yet satisfactorily determined. In Kumaon, at least north of Naini Tal, there is an abrupt change, along a line of trappean intrusion, between the range of semi-metamorphic strata and the gneiss rocks to the north. It has been conjectured that the Krol limestone is triassic, and the underlying groups palaeo zoic.

Within the territories the name Nepal is only applied to the valley of Katmandu,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The section in Sikhim, to the east of the Nepal territories, is petrographically very different from that in the Simla region. The schists and gneiss come close to the edge of the mountains, in some places quite up to it. But in many parts there is a narrow hand of partially altered strata, which have been fully identified as belonging to the Damuda formation, the coal-measures of India, thought to he of upper palaeozoic age. But the curious point is that these beds are the lowest and oldest member of the rock-series, conformably underlying the schists, and these again passing regularly beneath the gneiss, which forms the greater part of the mountains in the Darjiling district. In Sikhim the usual outer ranges of the sitb-Himalayan hills, enclosing long valleys at the base of the mountains, are not represent ed. The inner zone of sandstone at the very base of the mountains is, however, in-force.

In the Nepal section wo find a very complete exhibition of the sub-IIimalayan hills, as known to the north-west. The Churia Ghati range, in size, structure and appearance is a fac simile of the original Sivaliks. Inside it the dun or mari of Etoundah is an excellent example of these characteristic sub-Himalayan valleys. And to the north of this, along the Base of the mountains, there is a flanking range of sandstone, harder, and apparently older, than that of the outer hills, just as occurs in the western region. There is still so much uncertainty about the grouping and distribution of these sub-Himalayan rocks, that I cannot speak confidently as to those in the section under notice. It is quite recognised that there are two strong and stratigraphically well separated groups — the Sivalik and the Nahan in the trans-Jumna region ; but considerable doubt has been thrown upon the view I at first adopted, that the cis-Jumna Sivalik hills belong to the upper group of rocks. Lithologically, the resemblance is more with the Nahun than with the Sivalik group. Thus it would appear that structural position, even in the case of what is physically a single range, is no criterion of the geological horizon of the rocks ; and wo are unable on these grounds to assume that the Churia Ghati strata are true Sivaliks. Lithologically too, they have small resemblance to the typical Sivaliks of the trans-Jumna range. In mere composition they are much more like rocks of the cis-Jumna hills, consisting as they do in the lower half, of massive gray sandstone, and above of great beds of conglomeritic gravel. There are, however, some points of difference: in the west the change from the sandstones to the con glomerates is gradual and alternating ; here it is rapid and complete, from an almost unbroken mass of fine grey sand to an equally uniform mass of pale yellowish -brown conglomerate. This character can have no significance ; but I was much struck with the very fresh aspect of these Churia Ghati deposits as compared with those of the range south of the Dehra-Dun. The sand, in solidity as well as in appearance, is scarcely different from that forming the chars (temporary islands) in the great river beds. I should, perhaps, mention that it is several years since I have seen the Sivalik sections, nd have since then been occupied with much more ancient formations. On one point, however, I will speak firmly : I must at present refuse to believe that the Churia Ghati strata can be of the same horizon as the sandstone forming the hills north of Etoundah ; and so, these being presumably Nahans, the former may for the present be set down as Sivalik.

At the outer base of the range, at Bichiakoh, there are some rusty earthy beds ; and all are greatly crushed, locally quite vertical. The dip soon settles down to 30°, to northnorth-west, maintaining it steadily to the top of the pass. This is the type structure of these detached sub-Himalayan ranges, of whatever group composed : the flat, hall of a normal anticlinal flexure. The range is about four miles wide, which would give an ag gregate thickness of about 10,000 feet of rock* The pass, as is universal in these ranges,

It is still necessary to note that this does not imply vertical sequent' .

Mediicott : Note on the Geology of Nepal,

follows the liroad bed of a torrent, to near the very summit, where it turns up a steep gully, partly artificial. Here I noticed a strong bed of ochreous clay. A similar rock is very com mon in a like position in the passes south of the Debra-Dun. Boulders of from 12 to 20 inches cube are common in the bed of the torrent, though it is rare to see stones of this size in the conglomerate forming the cliffs on each side, from which, it would he assumed, all must he derived. Near the foot of the steep rise I observed a huge block of quartzite, measuring 10' X 7' X 6'. Deference to it will be made further on.

In the Rapti, immediately under Etoundah, there are outcrops of the rusty sandy clays and greenish-gray sandstone at the base of the section north of the dun. They dip at 60° to north-by-east. Wherever observed along the road, this dip (with slight variation in amount) was found constant, and there is hut little change in the character of the rock. It is clearly an ascending section : clays occur, but very subordinately ; the sandstone becomes somewhat softer in the higher beds, and there are here several layers of thin conglomerate. In no single feature is there any precise resemblance to the series in the outer range. The strata closely correspond with the Nahan group of the north-west, and with that described by Mr. Mallet at the base of the Sikhirn Himalaya. At Etoundah the formation is about a mile wide, which would give an accumulated thickness of about 10,000 feet, there being nothing to suggest repetition by faulting or flexure. A blank covered space of fully 100 yards, between the last outcrop of the sandstone seen on the road section and the first outcrop of the slates, conceals the contact. It is probably, as usual, very steep, if not overhanging. Mr. Mallet has adopted for the Sikhirn ground the view I put forward regarding this main feature of the mountain-structure in the north-west, that it is not primarily a faulted rockjunction. There is no sign at the base of the section, nor as a remnant along the junction, ot any older tertiary rocks that might represent the eocene group of Subatlm. The inner limit of these sandstone hills is well marked by narrow longitudinal valleys of denudation.

The first rocks seen north of the tertiary sandstone are some earthy schists, with a crushed dip of 50° to north -by -east, quite parallel in strike to the sandstone. A thin hand of blue limestone occurs in these beds, and further on a strong band of black schistose slate, in which are some irregular vein-like nests of impure carbonaceous matter. All these beds within a few hundred feet of the boundary, though decidedly subfoliated, are less altered than any rocks to the north of them, and also less highly-inclined. They are overlaid by more silicious rocks, flaggy schistose quartzite, nearly vertical, or folded in zigzag contor tions. There is again a small appearance of more earthy schist, or possibly a reappearance of the former band, for tbe beds are greatly contorted, although the northerly underlie rooms constant. A trappoid rock occurs here ; but its intrusive character is not well marked. It is the only rock of this kind that I observed in Nepal. The thin quartzites come in again and pass up into stronger beds of the same rock, which are overlaid by massive white crystalline limestone, all dipping at 70° to 80° to north-by-east. This limestone must he several hundred feet thick. The sample I brought with me is not dolomitic. At Bhaiusi Daman, where the river takes a bend, and above it for some miles, the rooks are much broken and confused. Great masses of the white limestone form irregular cliffs on both sides, the underlying rocks being concealed by vegetation and valley-deposits.

It would seem as if the ascending section from the boundary to Bhainsi Daman here passed into a broad, broken and contorted synclinal basin. The east-by-south general strike is maintained throughout ; it was observed in some quartzites a mile below Bimphcdi, which stands at the bead of tbe valley close under tbe steep ridge of Chessa-garhi. This glen of Nimbua-Tanr on the upper course of the Rapti is one of the most picturesque I have ever seen.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Although this Chessa-garhi range lias a nearly east-west direction, parallel to the strike of the rocks to the south of it, it is formed, at least at this point, of rocks having a widely different direction. Even at Bimphcdi, at the south base of the ridge, the strata strike to north 35°' west. They are again thin quartzites, greatly folded and shattered, hut maintain ing a dominant high underlie to north-east-by-eafit. A little below the crest of the ridge on the northern descent, the quartzose schists are associated with strong bands of prophyritic gneiss, which is the dominant rock towards the base. The strike would take it into the ridge well within the basiu of the Eapti. At the north base of the range the Pinouni river flows from the north against this mass of gneiss, and turns away to the east. Just above the bond of the river there is a cliff-section showing the crushed condition of the gneissic strata, contrasting well with the steady high underlie of the sharply bedded quartzites through which the river cuts its way obliquely. The general strike in both rocks is the same ; and the whole feature suggests that the gneiss has been formed, and perhaps faulted up, along a broken anticlinal axis of flexure. It is near this line of disturbance that the copper mines of this locality occur. I was, of course, unable to visit and inspect them ; but by a curious coincidence I passed at this very place a number of coolies laden with foreign copper for Katmandu, which suggests that the native resources in this metal cannot be very

great. Here, and at several other places where I saw abundant refuse of old copper smelt ings, the work seems to be now abandoned.

From the Sango bridge at Tamba Khoneh, along the Pinouni nearly due north to Marku, and then up the Chitlong valley to the north-east, there is an ascending section (obliquely) through the sharply bedded quartzites underlying steeply to east-35°-north. Wherever their composition is more earthy, foliation is well marked; but I did not see any gneissic band. Towards the head of the Chitlong valley the strike of the rocks becomes more easterly, up to the Cheudragiri ridge, where it is east-15°-south ; and the rocks are freely calcareous.

The Cheudragiri ridge overlooks the Nepal valley, which is enclosed, except on the north, by rocks of the same description as those found here. There is, however, nothing like a circular arrangement of the ridges or of the rocks ; the strike of both is most constant, between 15° and 25° to south-of-east ; and the form of the valley is consequently most irregular— a number of longitudinal valleys, united in a central area by the suppression of the ridges, which are in some cases mere spurs running a short distance into the open ; others, again, as that of Kirthipur, are nearly continuous across the valley : sometimes, as at Pashpati, the rock appears isolated in the alluvial deposits. The south-west corner of the valley divides the Cheudragiri from the Phulchok range, on the same strike. Here at Katwaldar, the Baghmati leaves the valley through rocky gorge across vertical quartzites. It is a moderately sized torrent, the watershed being confined to the ridges immediately surrounding the valley, which is only about sixteen miles long from west-north-west to east-south-east, and about twelve miles transversely, from Katawldar to the base of the Sheopuri range on we north. The alluvial area may be about 125 square miles. The elevation of Katmandu is given as 4,500 feet. Phulchok on the south-east is the highest summit of the surrounding hills, rising to 9,720 feet.

Excluding the Sheopuri range on the north, all the ridges skirting or abutting into the Nepal valley are formed of steeply folded repetitions of one set of rocks, in which, as already noticed, a calcareous ingredient is very general. It often appears as limestone, in some force and of various degrees of purity. The summit of Phulchok is of thick white crystallin' limestones. Strong beds are also found on Cheudragiri and Nagarjan, both of which are synclinal ridges. The pure rock would thus seem to occur chiefly near the top ot the series, but

Medlicoll : Note on the Geology of Nepal.

some single beds ave found low down. The schistose limestone of which the monoliths of Katmandu and Patun are made is quarried low down on the Kirthipur ridge at Choubal, where it is well seen at the gorge of the Baghmati. There are some thin bands of limestone also in the gorge at Pashpati. The prevailing rock is a peculiar massive, very fine schistose quartzite with a trifling percentage of carbonate of lime, yet to this minimum ingredient is, I believe, largely duo the physical condition of this mountain zone — its deep erosion, as chiefly exhibited in the basin of the Nepal valley. This rock is very prone to decompose, by the abstraction of the small calcareous element in it, and is therefore seldom found in clear out crops. It is well exposed in the little stream at the north-west side of Sambunath. For the most part it forms at the surface an ochrey sandy clay. When only partially decomposed it forms what might be called a sandstone (freestone). In this state it is quarried at the base of Nagarjan for building.

From the frequent reappearance of similar rocks across a broad zone of more or less vertical strata, one might of course presume that there is repetition by folding; but this condition is independently established : both Cliendragiri and Nagarjan ridges, and those flanking Phuleliok, are on synclinals. There would thus seem to be from the Pinouni into Nepal a repetition of the structural feature observed in the outer zone along the Kapti valley — an ascending section, only affected by minor foldings, through thinly bedded quartzose schists into a broad many-folded synclinal, in which axr upper group of calcareous strata is frequently repeated at the surface. There is also sufficient likeness in the two series to suggest that they belong to the same formations, the most marked difference being the concen tration of the calcareous element at the top of the southern section and its dispersion in the upper part of the northern one.

I would further venture to suggest that this series may be the continuation of the Krol and underlying formations of the Simla region. The flaggy quartzites of the lower horizons in the Nepal sections would very fairly represent the thin silioious beds that form so large a part of the Simla slates, or infra-Blini zone. Cases have, moreover, been recorded of the Krol limestone being represented elsewhere by more or less calcareous sandstone : a re lation quite analogous to that now suggested between the strong quartzite and limestone of Bhainsi Daman and the calcareous quartzites of Nepal. Katmandu is in about the same zone of the mountains as Simla and Almora, being only thirty miles in a direct line from the plains. There are two points of contrast between the section here and iu the Simla region, supposing the rocks representative : the contortion and the metamorphism of the strata in the latter position are local and partial, whereas in Nepal they are general and more or less complete. The limestone on the crest of the Chendragiri pass between Chitlong and Nepal is somewhat less altered than usual ; in it I noticed some small facets of spar having a central puncture, and which I took to be crinoidal ; but Dr. Waagen could not say positively tkat.they were so.

On the north-north-east side of the valley the alluvial deposits rest against gneiss at the base of the Sheopuri range. The white patches so conspicuous along this edge of the valley are slip-faces in this rock where it is deeply decomposed. It is a coarse felspathic gneiss with much silvery mica and schorl. Its debris is a prominent ingredient of the valley deposits at Katmandu. On the spur north of Bodlinath and that connecting Sheopuri with Nage" jan, one finds very fine mica schists, first alternating with, and then succeeding to, the gneiss. The compression of the whole is so excessive and the underlie so variable, that it would he impossible to conjecture, without very detailed study, what the normal order of the strata maybe. On nearing Nagarjan the underlie sets towards it; but the flaggy quartzites of Chitlong, which certainly underlie the calcareous zone, are not specifically recognisable in the

Records of Lite Geological Surrey of India,

short section between the limestone and the gneiss. In crossing the range northwards, schists are frequently observed with the gneiss, always intensely crushed ; hut the general strike of the Nepal rocks is maintained. At Chitrali Powah, some height above the north base of the range, the gneiss is permanently replaced by1 schists, which here have a decided southerly underlie towards the gneiss. The valley of the Tadi and that of the Trisal-ganga between Debighat and the Nyakot sango are in these rocks, variously inclined at high angles, but with an east-north-easterly strike.

There seems to he scarcely any specific resemblance between the Nepal section and that in Sikkim, beyond the undoubted equivalence of the tertiary sandstones at the foot of the range. The slightly carbonaceous band at the base of the section in the Rapti valley cannot be directly identified with the coal-measure zone to the east, the associated rocks being quite unlike the Damuda sandstone, in which the crushed coal occurs at the base of the Darjiling section. Bearing in mind the great distance (more than 200 miles) between the two, it is, of course, quite possible that true equivalence may exist, but from simple petrographical comparisons, the carbonaceous schists of the Rapti would be more like the similar rock in Mr. Mallet's Daling series, over the coal band. The chief discrepancy occurs, how ever, in the ascending sections : in one case we find massive limestone, in the other massive gneiss. It would be idle to speculate upon the possible reconcilement of those features from such very scanty evidence. One may only notice that although the degree of metarnorphism has increased from Nepal to Sikkim (if, indeed, the prevalence of gneiss does require this assumption), the degree of disturbance is far less marked in the latter area, judging from published descriptions.

It is truly vexatious to think that the settlement of questions of such wide scientific interest should be held in abeyance to gratify antiquated and barbarous official prejudices or customs. I met with the greatest civility from the few country-people with whom I chanced to come in contact. The obstructiveness is entirely on the part of those in power, who think their own dignity enhanced by exclusiveness. The officials at Katmandu were most anxious to obtain from me some useful information regarding a sulphur mine recently discovered at the base of Gosain Than mountain, in the upper valley of the Trisal-ganga, or rather in the main branch of that river that does not flow from the sacred lake ; but nothing could persuade them to allow mo to visit the locality. Their state of enlightenment in such matters may be judged from the fact that they imported from England a number of Davy lamps to counteract the effects of the noxious gases or vapours pervading the mine, but which I could not make out from their description to be of the nature of fire-damp. For much formal courtesy received I would ofEer my thanks to Sir Jung Bakadoor.

To the foregoing sketch of the older rock formations I would add a few words regard ing more recent deposits. I have said that the Nepal valley contains some 125 square miles of alluvial land, but in precise language I am not prepared to say to what extent those deposits are alluvial or lacustrine. They are, on the whole, analogous to the Karewah deposits of Kashmir, as partially described by Major Godwin-Austen ; but there is here no present lake, however small, to suggest a formerly more extensive water basin. The sacred myths, of course, record that the valley was once a lake, and even account in the usual miraculous way for its mode of origin ; so far as I could observe, however, the oldest temples were founded during the existing phase of the surface, which is one of arrested erosion of a once continuous deposit. The feature all over the valley is flat uplands separated by broad flat valleys, locally called and Khola, and corresponding exactly to the Bhongar and Khadir of the upper gangetic plains. There is much artificial terracing where the upland flats pass into the rain-wash slopes from the mountains ; but I observed only one regular river terrace,

Medlicoti : Note on the Geology of Nepal.

that made by the actual course of the streams. Although, wherever a bend of the channel touches the edge of the upland, the side-erosion is still in progress, enlarging the area of the khola land, the rivers are not now lowering their bed. If any change is in progress, it is the reverse ; the channels are very wide and shallow, and in some places at or above the level of adjoining cultivation. Such at least is the case above the gorge at Choubal ; below it the channel is more confined, as occurs when a river is deepening its channel : _in this position the upper surface of the valley deposits must he 500 feet above the stream, which gives a minimum thickness for the formation.

There are within the valley three remarkable instances of the rivers having cut deep narrow clefts through rook-barriers. The one just referred to at Choubal is the largest, where the united drainage of the main area crosses the point of the Kirtbipur ridge. There is another much higher up on the Baglnnati at Gaokaran, through the point of a ridge flanking Sheopuri ; and a third at Pashpati, where the Bishenmati passes through a low isolated outcrop of rocks on the strike of the Nagarjan ridge. They are mere clefts, narrower than are at all usual in the most confined gorges. One must suppose that the bygone con ditions which produced them were in some manner special, and connected with the produc tion of the alluvial basin ; i. e., they can hardly he accepted as remnants of the primitive channel of the Baghmati valley, before that simple feature of denudation had been con verted in its upper area into a basin of deposition.

It may he presumed that the valley of Nepal is a true rock basin — that the rocksurface beneath some considerable portion of the covering deposits is below the level of the outcrop at the head of the gorge of outlet. It would seem indeed to comprise a series of such basins : if the clefts through the several ridges, as described in the last paragraph, were filled up, this would certainly be the case now ; and that such has been the case there can he no doubt, for the beds now forming the adjoining terrace-land above those gorges could not have been formed had these outlets been then available. Thus the excavation of these rock-gorges by the existing rivers accounts for the present features of the valley deposits, and gives some measure of the antiquity of those features.

The fact of a rock-basin, even of considerable depth, does not Involve a water-basin. This would depend upon the relative activity of the production of the harrier and of the accumulation of deposits above it, which cannot be independently determined. The question must be settled by observation as to whether the deposits are alluvial or lacustrine, and of this the evidence is not very fixed or easy of application. The degree of horizontality is one of the best tests, hut needs much caution and accuracy in applying it ; the slope at which true alluvial deposition may take place being so small, and there being always a chance of a very slight movement giving a tilt to originally horizontal layers. There is, indeed, sufficient evidence that some such disturbance has affected these deposits in Nepal: at several points, south of Ilhatgaon and in the Katwaldar area, along the south side of the valley, near the base of the hills, I observed dips as high as 15° in fine deposits, directed from the mountain. I could find no such occurrence in exactly similar deposits along the north edge of the basin. It would seem as if the action which originally formed the rock basin had been again, or still, at work after the formation of some of the highest beds. Major Godwin -Austen, records a similar feature in the deposits of the Kashmir valley : a dip of 20° and upwards on the south and none on the north (Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, London, 1864, p. 383).

There is, however, one observation showing that at many different levels the surface at the time of formation was not a submerged one. Beds of an impure peat are of

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

frequent occurrence. I noticed them at the lowest levels exposed in the gullies close above the Katwaldar gorge, and near the surface of the uplands north of Katmandu, and not confined to the edges of the valley. Thin layers of the same kind occur in Kashmir; but in Nepal they are thick, and pure enough to be much used for burning bricks. Such deposits are only compatible with swamping, such as is an ordinary concomitant of alluvial con ditions. There is another deposit of extensive occurrence in Nepal, and of which I find no mention elsewhere. It is a fine stiff blue-gray clay, which is very extensively used all over 1 he valley as a manure. Although it commonly contains particles of carbonized vegetable fibre, the little organic matter in it can hardly account for its fertilizing properties. This would seem to be due to the presence of phosphate : I noticed that blue specks of vivianite are freely scattered through the clay.

It will hardly be believed that I obtained no fossils from such deposits as these. I never was near a section without having a look out for shells, and I examined several spots carefully, without any success. This may be another argument for the alluvial mode of formation of the deposits, for certainly this process is not propitious to the preservation of organic remains. In extenuation of my failure I would mention that one of our best known Indian naturalists (Brian Hodgson) was for many years Eesident of Nepal ; he cer tainly would have at least noticed and recorded the fact had he observed any in the sections that confront one in every direction. The case is the more remarkable, since Major Godwin- Austen (in 1864) describes land and fresh-water shells as abundant in the Kashmir deposits. So at least it is in the south-east side of the valley ; but in his first paper on the subject (in 1858), derived from observations on the north-west side, he remarks — " in all my wanderings amongst the Karewah Hills I never was able to find the slightest trace of a land or freshwater shell in any of the many sections I have examined." I would urge the matter upon the attention of future dwellers in Nepal. The remains of mammalia or of plants would be specially interesting ; and both might be expected to turn up occasionally in such beds as the peat and the phosphatic clay.

There is no temptation to attribute the rock-basins of the Nepal valley to glaciers. Even if it were proven that glaciers had extended to a much lower level, the form and conditions here are not such as would result from or account for the existing features through that agency. The valley is not in the course of any main drainage line ; on the contrary, the watershed is closely restricted to the hills immediately surrounding, none of which are of great elevation. The valley is only a local exaggeration of what has occurred generally along this mountain zone. I have said that along the strike in both directions special denudation has taken place, which I have attempted to account for by the nature of the rocks; and in both directions we find the valleys more or less filled with deposits exactly like those of Nepal. The phenomenon is longitudinal with respect to the mountain system ; and can be rationally understood as the effect of compression. The local yielding might be induced by the special excavation along this zone ; and the effect would be a relative elevation of the ridges on the down side, producing rock -basins. It is an illustra tion of a process I appealed to last year in explanation of the cretaceous rock-basins in the Garo Hills (Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., vol. VII, p. 62),

Although rejecting the intervention of glaciers in connection with the Nepal valley, I have been much puzzled with what I took to be glacial evidence elsewhere. Etoundah stands in the Dun exactly facing the gorge of the Rapti. The ground all about is strewn with great boulders, up to 10 feet cube, principally of coarse gneiss, high and dry above the present bed of the river, in which no such blocks are now to be seen. I came to the opinion that thev must be glacial erratics ; although the elevation of the locality is probably well under

Medlicott : Note on the Geology of Nepal.

1,500 feet. Proceeding np the valley I did not notice any such blocks up to Nimbuatanr, where the bottom of the valley is quite choked with an accumulation of similar blocks. These I took to be a later moraine deposit. Above this they become gradually concealed, as it seems, beneath lighter detritus, over which the stream runs for some way, and which passes into a great fan-deposit stretching across the valley from a lateral gorge on the east just below Bimphedi. Here the main branch of the stream runs upon rock at a much lower level, passing by a steeply cut channel along the west side of the valley. No great blocks appear in or upon this diluvial fan.

The case was not a little complicated at first by the fact that, along the whole valley of the Rapti ana up to the crest of the Chessa-garhi ridge in which it rises, no gneissic rock was observed in place. The first rock of this kind crossed on the road is some way down the northern side of the ridge. The strike of the rocks, however, would take this gneiss into the ridge east of the road well within the head-waters of the Rapti ; and from this source, it must be presumed, all the aforesaid erratics were derived. The highest point of the watershed of the Rapti must be under 7,000 feet.

It would hardly have occurred to me to question the glacial origin of those immense boulders had I succeeded in finding any confirmatory evidence of glacial conditions in the higher mountain region. If the Rapti valley were ever occupied by ice, the whole country to the north must have been in a similar state. Yet I have to record that throughout the rest of my trip I failed to find any symptom of such conditions. Thinking that the valley deposits of Nepal would be younger than the glacial period, and might cover its most characteristic remains, I searched for such at the deepest point of erosion, about Katwaldar, but without success. I was more surprised, and should have been so independently of the suggestion in the Rapti, to find no signs of glacial action in the Trisal-ganga valley at Nyakot. This is one of the great rivers, draining from the Grosain Than, a peak of over 26,000 feet in elevation, and it must now be fed by immense glaciers : yet in a length of sis miles, from Nyakot to Debi ghat, I could find nothing to suggest glacial action. It is true the same excuse would apply here as in Nepal ; this portion of the Trisal-ganga valley is occupied by deposits, well stratified and with peaty layers very similar to those about Katmandu, the river only touching rock at a few points ; still it were marvellous that no trace should be seen of such a glacier as must have lain here had the ice ever advanced to Etoundah.

Despite all this want of confirmation, I cannot declare finally against the glacial origin of the Etoundah erratics. I know that torrents can do wonders in the way of moving large masses. But it does not appear that the Rapti can now stir such blocks as these, much less pile them together as they are at Etoundah. The great block noticed in the Churiaghati pass may be a straggler from the Etoundah rocks, though I could not see any like it on the northern slope of the range.

I trust that these crude notes will be of some service in guiding future visitors to Nepal Even incorrect suggestions may lead to observations that would otherwise have remained unnoticed.

H. B. Medlicott.

August 1875.

R'ecords of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. vm.

The Raigarh and Hingir Coal-field, by V. Ball, m. a., f. g. s., Geological Survey

of India.

Intkoduction.

The following account refers to the south-eastern extension of a very considerable tract of coal-measure and associated sedimentary rocks which is situated in the south-west frontier districts of Bengal, and some of the north-eastern districts of the Central Provinces. The limits and consequently the contained area of this tract are at present imperfectly known, hut not improbably the latter exceeds 5,000 square miles. To the whole the name south west frontier coal-field might he given ; hut for convenience in the description of certain portions which admit of separate treatment, such names as Bisrampnr and Raigarh— Hingir have been employed in previous accounts.

The name Raigarh— Hingir was first adopted in 1871 as being less likely to mislead than the old name Gangpur no portion of the field being in Gangpur proper. The exten sion of the coal-field, as ascertained during the past season, has not rendered any further change of name desirable, the States of Raigarh and Hingir being sufficiently centrically situated in the now known area to furnish a suitable local name; hut the fact that the area so indicated is not an isolated coal-field should not he lost sight of. To the west, through U dipur, the coal-measures or their associated rocks spread continuously to Ivorba in Bilaspur, while to the north, through Sirguja, the connection is unbroken up to Rewa and the borders of Mirzapur.

The Talchir coal-field, f" though quite detached, is only a few miles distant from the most eastern points of our field, and may not improbably have been at one time connected with it.

The area occupied by that portion of the coal-field to he described in the following pages has a very irregular outline. SaVe for two narrow prolongations which extend to the east of the Ebe, it may be said roughly to commence in the angle enclosed between the Ebe and Mahauadi rivers a few miles to the north-west of Sambalpur. Thence it spreads in a north westerly direction, the southern and south-western limit being defined by a well marked and in part faulted boundary. On the north-east, for about twenty miles, the boundary has only been partially examined, but sufficient is known of it to show that it is of an unusually com plicated and obscure character. Originally it is not improbable that, the extension of the Barakars was limited by the tolerably regular cliff of a low plateau of metamorphic rocks ; but at the present time a considerable thickness of a newer series of rocks laps over this boundary and forms the hilly and difficult country of northern Raigarh and Hingir, thus concealing the edges of the Barakar rocks.

The reasons for supposing the Barakars not to have extended much further north are, that in a line with the bounding, uncovered metamorphics of the north-eastern corner of the field, exposures of the same rocks are found at intervals, as we proceed westwards, paving the deep-cut valleys between the ranges of upper sandstones.

How far these upper sandstones stretch northwards through Serapgarh is not known. It is possible that they conceal some small detached basins of Barakars. Thus far for twenty miles ol the northern and north-eastern boundary, but for thirty miles further, until Rahkob on the Maud in U dipur is reached, no northern limiting metamorphic rocks have been met with as yet.

Records No. 4, 1871, p. 101. All previous notices of the field will be found mentioned in that paper, t Described m Mem. G. S, I., vol. I,

Ball: Raigarh and Hingir Coal-field.

In the present account the coal-measure rocks which occupy the valley of the Mand and stretch thence to Korba are not described, as they have not been fully examined, lliey extend over a considerable area and contain many seams of coal.

I. — General Geology.

The rocks which occur within and in the vicinity of the coal-field belong to the following series and groups : —

Metamorphic Series.

Vindhyan

Talchir

Damuda „

Barakar Group.

Upper sandstones or Hingir Group.

Laterite.

The rocks of the metamorphic and Vindhyan series, which surround and underlie the coal-field, are not described at present, as the examination of them has been limited to the immediate vicinity of the field, and no general exploration of them has been yet attempted.

The Talchir series does not in this area attain any great thickness. Probably 250 feet is its maximum, but this estimate, in the absence of reliable data, is, it must be admitted, purely conjectural.

The rocks constituting the Barakar group are, I believe, of much less thickness than in the Damuda valley coal-fields; but there are no sections which would justify any definite statement.

The upper sandstones, for which the temporary and local name of Hingir group is used without prejudice to their future relegation under one of the titles used for similar rock elsewhere, may in places exceed 1,000 feet, but that is, I believe, a fair average. It has been arrived at from the measurement of horizontal beds from the level of the Barakars to the tops of the highest hills.

The thickness of the laterite seldom exceeds 60 feet. Generally it is much less.

II. — Talchir Series.

Within the area under description, the rocks which belong to the Talchir series do not anywhere attain any very great importance either as regards their thickness or the area occupied. As to the amount of the former, only an approximate and very rough estimate has been offered, no measurable section being exposed. Of evidence of faulting alone the boundaries, except in the case to be hereafter mentioned, there is none. On the whole, it would appear that the representatives of this series merely occupy originally shallow and more or less detached depressions in the metamorphic rocks, and before any marked disturb ance. or denudation took place, were covered up and overlapped in most instances by the Barakars. One well marked case, at least, occurs, however, where Talchirs are immediately superposed by the upper sandstones, no trace of intervening Barakars being found.

In their lithological characters the Talchirs of this area conform closely to the wellknown types, as will be seen from the following detailed descriptions.

For purposes of reference it will be convenient to refer to the several areas of Talchir rocks which occur along the margin of the coal-field by the names of the principal villages or rivers withm their limits. Thus denominated they would stand under the following heads

Sasun— Eemra. This area occupies an irregular strip of country which stretches from a tew miles east of Sasun* westwards to beyond Eemra, in all for a distance of about twenty miles, and with a breadth of from three to six miles.

Sasun is about eight miles north of Sambalpur.

104 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. viii.

In the neighbourhood of Sasun the rocks are much concealed by alluvium and laterite, and the exact position of the eastern boundary is from this cause somewhat uncertain. Both to the north and south of Sasun short sections of sandstones and shales are seen. Some of the beds of the former are tolerably thick, and one, a bluish-grey fine-grained rock, has furnished both building stone and material for vats used in lac manufacture. So far as it is seen, the boundary appears to be quite natural, following the irregular edges of the basin of deposit. West from Sasun, and on both sides of the Ebe, laterite conceals the Talckirs to a very con siderable extent ; though in this particular section of the country it is not abundant on the older rocks. There is sometimes, for several miles together, a most remarkable coincidence between the Talchir-gneiss boundary and the edge of the terrace-like spreads of laterite. So much is this in some places the case, that one can follow the boundary with the eye from a distance by means of the raised banks of laterite which terminate abruptly at the junction of Talchirs and gneiss. Of the cause of this I am at present unable to oiler even a plausible explanation, and must therefore confine myself to the simple record of the fact.

The greater part of the bed of the Ebe, where it traverses these rocks, is one unbroken waste of sand ; but there is a short section of sandstones and shales, with a dip of 8° -15" to north-north-east, at the bend near Mangalpur. Here, too, in the bed of the channel, there is a boulder bed, tho boulders in which are not very numerous nor of large size, but they can be seen sticking out of the silt here and there underneath the clear waters of the river.

In the country to the west of the Ebe so complete is the covering of laterite, that exposed outcrops of Talchir rocks are only very occasionally met with. In the eastern branch of the Kadam river at Gorgoda and Bodopali, and in the western at Binlci and Bolunda, there are short sections, and the existence of a spur of metamorphic rocks running into the main Talchir area is rendered vipparent. Half a mile north of Binki there are seen, in the high ground, shales and thin sandstones with a dip of 30° to north-east which has been caused by some very local disturbance.

At Eemra (Remda of map) there is an inlier of metamorphic rocks whose boundaries are much concealed by laterite. From this westwards, the Barakars, which first appear overlying the Talchirs at Telunpali, gradually lap over, and before Borkliol is reached all traces of Talchirs at the southern boundary have disappeared. This total disappearance is, however, probably not exclusively attributable to overlap, as the boundary appears to be a faulted one, and a portion of the originally existing Talchirs may have been cut off. In the stream west of Dagarmunda the Talchirs for a short distance dip away from the gneiss at an angle of 60°.

A small outlier from this area of Talchirs exists in the valley of the Ebe near the vil lages of Taldi and Terda. The rocks seen are shales and sandstone.

This area covers something under one square mile, and was in all probability, judging by the character of the surrounding country, originally, as it is now, quite detached from the main mass.

Kiearama — Putra'pali. — Some eight miles to the north of the strip of Talchirs men tioned above, a second spur-Hko eastern prolongation of the field crosses the bed of the Ebe. Although Barakare are the principal rocks seen, indications of underlying Talchirs are not waiting at the margins. The first of these is at Kirarama. The principal rock is a boulder bed which is exposed at the foot of some small laterite hills to the east of the village. The boulders consist of j a sperconglomerate, quartzite, &c., all of quite foreign origin. The boundary here is not improbably natural, the beds appearing to rest against hornblendic gneiss, a section of which is seen in the bed of the river. To the south and west the boun dary is much concealed by laterite.

Ball: Raigarh and Hingir Coal-field.

Apparently disconnected from this patch, Talohirs again crop out from beneath the Barakars in the bed of the Ebe below Ramesur, where there are green sandy shales with a low dip to north-east. Further east, in the village of Putrapali, sandstones come to the surface. To the north-east of that village, in heavy jungle, there is aridgeof pseudomorphio quartz which is not improbably connected with some faulting, hut I failed to discover its character owing to the laterite covering. South-east from Putrapali, along the boundary, small outcrops of shales are seen at various points ; and beyond Burimal, in the high ground, there are some consider able lenticular masses of limestone included in the beds of silt. Further east from this, de tailed examination was not continued, but Talchir rocks were observed at Bursipali and Kurimoul.

Rajpur. — On the northern boundary of the above mentioned spur, Talchir rocks appear in the vicinity of Raj pur, especially in the Godadia near its junction with the Baisunder, where there is a short section of shales and boulder bed, the latter resting naturally on gneiss. In the Baisunder, too, close to the junction, there are some sandstones with a dip of 5° to the south-west. In the bed of the Ebe the rocks are for the most part concealed by sand ; hut at Degam, on the western bank, there are short outcrops of shales and sandstones.

To the south-east, at Siugaboga, some fine sandstones and shales are exposed, otherwise there are no other outcrops, and it would appear that at Chaltikra the Takhirs are completely overlapped by Barakar*.

Garganbal. — Further north a narrow strip of Takhirs occurs on the boundary near Garganbal. The lowest bed is generally formed of arkose, as I found to be the case a little further north at Kosira on the Baisunder.* It rests naturally on the gneiss.

Sambulpubi. — Passing now to the southern boundary of the field, a narrow strip of Talchirs is met with between the villages of Jamga and Laka. In some places, as to the south-west of Badpali, they dip away from the gneiss at a high angle. Sambalpuri is situated at about the centre of the area, and in its vicinity are the best sections. In some the beds dip at a high angle from the boundary.

A little beyond Laka these rocks are overlapped by Barakars, which are again, them selves, covered up by the upper sandstones.

Still further west is the area which may be conveniently indicated by the name of the river.

Kueket. On the east and north the Talchirs of this area are bounded by the upper sand stones. Possibly the eastern junction may be faulted, but it has not yet been fully examined. On the west they are bounded by Barakars and on the south by gneiss. Close toLotan there is a fine boulder bed.

HI- — Damuda Series— Barakar Group.

In describing the Barakar rocks of this field, we have to deal with a number of detached or semi-detached areas. Those on the north have been partially or fully described in the already published report on the Baisunder and other river sections, and the area in the Mand valley, and thence westwards, has only been partially examined. As neither it nor the Baisunder section were visited during the past season, they will not be alluded to further here.

Valley of the Ebe area.— Commencing on the extreme east of the known ..'exten sion of this area, a narrow strip or spur of Barakar rocks is found iu the vicinity of Lupunga, where they are horizontal and much concealed by superficial deposits. Towards the north, the junction with metamorphics, as seen at Bomali, is quite natural, the Talchirs being com-

Vide Records Geological Survey, India, 1871, p. 102.

Records of the Geological Survey of Lidia.

pletely overlapped. On the south, however, there are indications all along the boundary, from Bursipali to the Ebe, of underlying Talchirs.

Proceeding westwards, the northern boundary is found to strike obliquely across a great loop bend of the Bonum river at Chalitikra, but the lowest seen sandstones there seem to be Talchirs. Between this loop and the Ebe, the country is very hilly aud uneven. The rocks are coarse sandstones and conglomerates, some of the beds being of considerable thickness. As seen in the neighbourhood of the old fort of Rampur, in the Ebe section and in the country further west, some of these rocks resemble the upper sandstones of the Hingir group ; but after full examination I am inclined to refer them to the Barakars. Brown haematite iron ore is very abundant, and especially so to the east of Eamesur. It does not appear there, however, to constitute any definite continuous bed, but to occur rather in con cretionary nests and bands in the sandstones. Fragments of ore from this source spread over a considerable surface, and give the appearance of an abundant supply, especially in the valleys where they have accumulated for ages. Iron is manufactured at Chalitikra, and was formerly at Rampur, where there are still considerable heaps of slag to be seen.

Some of the conglomerates seen here consist of pebbles in a matrix which is barely suffi cient to bind them together. As this matrix is often removed at the surface, the hills of conglomerate look simply like piles of loose stones, not a sign of consolidated rock being apparent. The bed of the Ebe affords no continuous section of these rocks, the few outcrops being for the most part separated by long stretches of sand. As, moreover, the beds are here horizontal, or nearly so, nothing of importance regarding their thickness can he made out. Opposite the mouth of the Bonum river, a cliff of sandstones covered by conglomerate rises to a height of from 50 to 60 feet. These rocks, though not exactly like the usual types of Bara kars, from their position and physical relations, should, I think, be referred to that group, 'the rocks of this horizon can be traced north and south over about ten miles, from the neigh bourhood of Cherla to Bograchaka ; they form long low ridges with a very slight dip to the west, which carries them under the more typical Barakars containing coal and some ironstones which are about to be noticed. Between the Ebe and the boundaries of the upper sandstones underneath which the Barakars disappear, rivers and streams occur in abundance, but in two only have any traces of coal been met with.

The Lillaki Riveb. — This river, like many others, takes its rise close to Hingir, and joins the Ebe, after a course of about twenty-five miles, near the village of Balput. Following it up from its junction, in the first two miles or so, metamorphic rocks only are seen, but bejmnd them Barakar sandstones are exposed, and appear at intervals up to Durlipali, where there is a seam of carbonaceous shale and coal, of which the following is the section.

descending :

Top denuded.

Ft.

Inc.

Slightly coaly blue and black shales

Black carbonaceous shale with flaky coal

Concretionary blue shales

Blue concretionary shale with coaly layers towards top and

bottom ...

Slaty carbonaceous shales, portions coaly

Ditto ditto the coaly portion confined to thin

layers of 1-3 inches thick

Blue concretionary shales

Blue concretionary shales

Base concealed.

Ball: Haig ark and Hingir Coal-field.

Coal from No. 4, brought to camp, burnt indifferently, leaving a considerable ash. From No. 9, the coal is much better ; a sarah full when roasted gave out a luminous flame 18 inches long (with a 1-incli diameter burner) which lasted for an hour. Most of the residue was par tially caked. Higher in the section there is a bed of tesselated ironstone which seems to he continuous at that horizon, being seen again at Choakani, five miles to the north, and also in the intervening country. North of Kodaloi there appears to be a second ironstone zone which includes a better quality of stone. This zone is also seen further south, one mile to the west of Rugonathdera. The rocks throughout this region are much concealed by latexite.

Two miles further up the stream, near Khairkoni, the top 2 feet of a coal seam are exposed. For four miles further, up to Chamri-mahal, the bed of the river discloses a much broken section of sandstones and car bonaceous shales, which in places roll slightly, but are otherwise horizontal. Beyond this the sandstones of the Hingir group are alone found.

Bagdia River. — About half a mile from Ailepur (Lakenpur) the top of a seam is seen „ in the river. Owing to water and shifting sand I could do no more

than prove the existence of at least a foot of fair coal which burns freely, leaving a flaky ash. What the total thickness of the seam may be it is impossible to say at present. In the country to the east there are some ridges of ferruginous sandstones which may, perhaps, be in part prolongations from the main area of upper sandstones, but I was unable to separate them from the underlying Barakars with any degree of certainty. Leav ing for the present the description of the strip of Barakars which extends from this neigh bourhood through Borkhol along the south of the field, that which occurs along the north eastern boundary may be most conveniently disposed of. Close to Ratakand, a small village on the Godadia, the Barakars, which further south are covered up by the sandstones of the Bilpahari range reappear, and form an irregular strip which is continuous up to the Baisunder, where the coal-measures, described in the previously published notice of this field, occur. On its eastern side, the Barakars occupying this strip rest naturally upon the metamorphic rocks, an arkose bed being not unfrequently found at the base. On the western side the irregular outline formed by the foot of the upper sandstone highlands of Hingir constitutes the limit of exposure. In the river at Dulunga, to the south-south-west of the geam village, there is a coal seam of which the following is a section

of the portion seen, descending : —

Ft. Inc.

1. Black and grey shales ... ... ... 10

2. Hard stony Coal ... ... ... ... 6

3. Flaky Coal ... ... ... ... 2

4. Grey and black shales ... ... ... ... 4

5. Flaky shales, coaly in parts ... ... ... 1 10

6. Blue and grey shales ... ... ... ... 1 0

7. Stony Coal and black shales ... ... ... 1 4

9. Stony Coal and black shale ... ... ... 7

10. Coal ... ... ... ... ... 7

11. Shale ... ... ... ... ... 1 4

Further down the stream some higher layers of carbonaceous and coaly shale belonging to the same seam are imperfectly exposed.

To the north of the village there is a seam seen, at the road crossing, which contains about six feet of coaly shale and coal, the dip being 5° to south. In the section of rocks below this, that is to say, further up the stream, the boundary is seen to he perfectly natural ; gneiss being exposed in the bed and sandstone in the overhanging banks. From this northwards the relations of the rocks are for the most part obscure and the western boundary is very intricate. In the Barakars to the south of Kiripsira, black shales and ironstones occur. On the Garganbal and Bagbura road, east of the boundary, in the first stream crossed, there is a bed of arkose which seems to be detached from the field. Beyond it for the next mile or so, the granitic gneiss rocks which occasionally appear are much covered by loose boulders which in their miscellaneous and foreign character resemble those found in the Talchirs. In all probability they were derived from a Talchir boulder bed of which no other trace is left now.

Southeen BorNTuliV, — Passing now again to the south boundary at Borkhol. In speaking of the Talchirs it has been pointed out that they disappear on the boundary at this point, being much overlapped, and havi ng probably been in part cut out by a fault which appears to have formed the present southern boundary and limit of the field. At Singapur the area occupied by the Barakars does not exceed about half a. mile in width, and as they rest nearly horizontally on Talchirs, the evidence of extensive overlap by the upper sandstones is complete. West from Borkhol, where the Talchirs are not found on the boundary, their apparently diminished thickness might be attributed to the fault having cut out lower beds, but here it is quite clear that, unless there has been great natural and original thinning out of the upper beds of the Barakars which are seen in the Ebe valley, their edges must be com pletely overlapped by the upper sandstones.

From Borkhol the faulted boundary runs in a steady north-westerly direction for nearly forty miles, and with it for thirty miles, a valley which presents a wonderful degree of uniformity throughout. On the one side, outside the fault, are ranges and some times low ridges of metamorphic or other old rocks, on the other the scarp of the sandstones forming the Hingir plateau. The bed of this valley being coincident, or nearly so, with the base of the upper sandstones, the Barakars, and sometimes the Talchirs, form the floor. Although many rivers and streams cross the valley at right angles, there is such an accumu lation of superficial deposits, that sections, showing the character and relations of the rocks are of extreme rarity. The bottom of the valley, almost throughout, may be described as one succession of paddy fields. The origin of this state of things is quite obvious. The valley, in the first instance, scooped out by lateral streams along the faulted j unction, has subsequent ly served as the repository of the solid substances brought down by the rivers, which, coming from the highlands of comparatively soft sandstones, find themselves suddenly arrested by the metamorphic rocks through which they have only been able to cut narrow gorges.

At Borkhol itself no rocks are exposed in the valley; but further west, south of the village of Durga, sandstones and gneiss are seen in close proximity to one another, though no actual contact is exposed. To the west of Kutrapali there are some ferruginous Barakar sandstones with ironstones, which also extend northwards up into a bay to the north of the village. Proceeding in the same direction the same rocks are mot up to Dibdorah, with the addition, at that place, of coal which crops out underneath the Sca™' waters of the Hingir river. An excavation which I had made in

this seam proved a thickness of at least 6 feet 6 inches down from the denuded surface. Of this thickness, all, except the lowest foot, consists of very fair-looking coal. So far as appearance goes, it is certainly the best which I met with in the field. The dip is about 5° to north-20°-east, or from the boundary. What the total thickness may be 1 had no means of ascertaining.

Ball: Italy ark and Hingir Coal-field.

Higher up the river, close to the foot of the falls over the upper sandstones which are described on a following page, the Dewan of Kodibuga pointed out to me some fragments of carbonaceous shale which he said had been there for several }rears. Whence they came I am quite uncertain. There may possibly he a seam at the foot of the falls covered up by water and fallen blocks. Certainly in its higher reaches the river does not cross any Barakar rocks, and I found no trace of carbonaceous matter in the stream above.

Between Jhargaon and Dibdorah, the sandstones, wherever seen near the boundary, as also the coal at the latter place, exhibit no trace of great disturbance at their edges, having, apparently, when faulted, gently subsided into their present position. Neither at Dibdorah nor Jogidhipa are junctions disclosed by the rivers. Between Dibdorah and Jogidhipa the Barakars are of the same character as those between the former and Jhargaon.

At Jogidhipa, the scarped hills, which further east marked the limits of the upper beds, locally die away, and physically it seems possible that the rocks exposed for some distance to the north might be Barakars, but lithologically they appear to belong to the upper group.

Continuing along the valley we find at Lipuspali, north of the village, dark colored sand stones which appear here to form the base of the upper series. No Barakars are seen, though they doubtless exist under the alluvium. Before reaching Manwapali, Takhirs are found to come in again, forming a narrow strip along the boundary and leaving but very little room for the Barakars to occupy.

In the Supnai west of Bhogra (Basunpali of map*), at the base of the section, there is a short thickness of sandstones, apparently Barakars, which dip from the boundary at an angle of 30 to north ; the overlying rocks, too, are also locally disturbed. Between Bhogra and Sumbulpuri the position of the Barakars is marked by ironstones, which are seen near the village of Badpali. At Sumbulpuri, if the coarse grits seen in the river section dipping at angles of from 30° to 45° from the boundary he not referable, as seems probable, to the Barakars, then that group must be here reduced to very narrow limits. At Danot the upper rocks come close to the north of the village, while Talchirs crop out on the south ; but there is room for a small thickness of Barakars. In the Kelli section between the gneiss on the one hand and brownish-red upper sandstones on the other, a concealed interval affords room for both Talchirs and Barakars. One short outcrop of Talchirs is. seen close to the road crossing.

Had I not known something of the upper reaches of the Kelli, the occurrence of frag ments of coal in the bed of the river, as it issues from the upper sandstone hills, would have been a puzzle involving much fruitless search. It is evident that these fragments have travelled from the seams which the Kelli traverses far to the north near Tamar and Jhargaon.

Between Laka and Cheripani, an interval of only about 150 yards exists between these upper sandstones and the Yindhyan quartzites. In this interval laterite and a recent conglomerate are the only rocks seen. Further west from this I did not meet with the slightest trace of Talchirs, and the lowest sandstones seon are not, I think, Barakars, so that both series are again most probably cut out by the fault which hence westwards runs between quartzites of Vindhyan age and the sandstones of the Hingir group.

Gaejait aeea. To the north, under the Garjan hill in Hingir, some carbonaceous rocks, probably Barakars, are exposed in the streams. This area has not been examined as yet in detail.

biOETHEEN Raigarh aeea. — This is an area of Barakar I'ocks of which upwards ot 200 square miles have been examined. It is situated in the north-eastern corner of

The names of all the villages in this part of the valley are misplaced on the map.— lAtlas Sheet).

110 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. VIIL

Eaigarh. On the east, south and west it is surrounded by hills formed of the upper sand stones, under which the coal measures pass.

To the north the limits have not yet been ascertained, hut from the sections which have been examined, and from the general physical structure of the country, it is probable that, with a few exceptions in the valleys, where contacts of the Barakars with the underlying metamorphics are exposed, the edges of the former are overlapped by the upper sandstones.

In this central area, the Barakar rocks, which from their position are probably the top measures of the group, differ materially from those met with in the Ebe valley to the east. Instead of coarse sandstones and conglomerates, there are fine sandstones with much carbonaceous shale and some coal. In all probability the coarser rocks occur below, and indeed to the north some of them are seen cropping out towards the boundary. In the Baisunder section, on the other hand, it would appear that the coarser rocks never were deposited, as only a small thickness of sandstone and arkose intervenes between the carbo naceous shales and gneiss.

In the western part of our area the Karket river collects the drainage and affords tolerable, though much interrupted, sections.

Karket Eiver Section. — That portion of the Karket which traverses the upper sand stones will be found described on a following page. In so far as the Barakars are concerned, it is only necessary to describe the descending section which is exposed between Baiamunda and Karamakel.

The highest rocks seen are some sandstones with three bands of carbonaceous shale, which measure respectively 2'., 3'. and 3'. 6.", the dip being 5° to south-west, which carries them under the horizontal upper sandstones. Some ironstones seen to the south of Baiamunda, but not exposed in the river section, not improbably constitute the top beds.

Not far from the mouth of the Katang stream the top of a coal seam is exposed which measures about one foot. For about half a mile north of the Katang there are massive sand stones, the relations of which to the more typical Barakars are somewhat obscure : at first it appeared probable that they might be upper beds resting in a flat synclinal, but subsequently seen cases of similarly situated and similar rocks, suggested that they were only locally inter polated beds.

Beyond these again there are thin bedded sandstones with shales more or less carbona ceous, having a low dip to south. Less than half a mile to the south of Suadera there is a coal seam which contains only eight inches of good coal with a dip of 5° south-west.

From this up to the mouth of the stream which rises in the Duldulla H. S., the only rocks seen are thin bedded sandstones and carbonaeeons shales, which vary a good deal in the direction of their dips on either side of south, but not much in the amount, never ranging above 10.° There is nothing that can be called coal exposed in this portion.

At the stream, however, there is a seam of which the following is a

section

Ft.

Inc.

Massive sandstone, about

Shale ...

?

Coal ...

Shaly parting ... ... ...

Coal...

Carbonaceous shale with coaly layers

Coal...

0 seen.

Base hidden ;

clip 3° S. f

t Records, Vol. IV, pt. 4, p. 105.

Ball: Raigarh and Hingir Coal-field .

The overlying bed of sandstone is seen lower down the river to break up into several smaller ones in consequence of the interpolation of carbonaceous shales ; thus bearing out the view taken above of the bed seen near the mouth of the Katang.

Further north from this I did not continue detailed examination, but fragments of coal are abundant from the higher reaches, and the Barakars extend at least as far north as the valley surrounding Kurmukel (sheet 59 a, old series).

In the Katang stream, from Kassia to its junction with the Karket, there are carbona ceous shales with sandstones, and the massive bed previously mentioned. Some fragments of coal were seen, but no exposed seam could be found.

Throughout the country between the Karket and Pazar the rocks are much covered, and there is nothing of particular interest to be noticed.

Pazae River Section. — At the junction of the Barakars and upper sandstones, where this river enters a gorge through the hills to the south-west of Kasdol, the former show signs of local disturbance, and the bed, which is a few feet from the junction, dips away from under the overlying horizontal sandstone in a manner which is suggestive of unconformity. There being no actual superposition, this section cannot perhaps be considered conclusive, and causes other than original unconformity may have produced the present appearance. Taken in conjunction, however, with other evidence of unconformity to be given further on, this section

assumes some importance. A short distance up the stream there

is

a seam of which the

following is a section : —

Ft.

Inc.

Sandstone

Shales ...

Coal

Black shale

Coal

Shales, portions coaly.

For the remainder of this section up to Pondripani there are fine sandstones and car bonaceous shales, the latter with occasional layers of coal, as at Putrapali (8") and at Pon dripani (2"). There is much false bedding and interpolation in this section. In the Digi stream the section is similar. A seam of 6" of coal is exposed at Deogur. The Kelu river section up to Tamnar also exposes the same kind of rocks with no coal of workable thick ness.

The Kelu section beyond this up to Khara was described in my previous report. Resum ing, therefore, at that place, we find that for nearly two miles hardly any rocks are seen, but beyond that there is a tolerably continuous section of sandstones and carbonaceous shales The first seam measures, descending, dip 5° south-west : —

Ft. Inc.

Coal ... ... ... ... 6 0

Shales ... ... ... ... 3 6

Coal ... ... ... ... 1 0

The cbal is probably of rather inferior quality, but in its weathered and water-logged condition it is not possible to form a conclusive opinion. The next seam of any importance measures about 17'. The coal is in thin layers of less than a foot, alternating with shale, dip south-south-west. Beyond this there appear to be some other seams ; but they are not well exposed. North-west of Pelma two flat seams are exposed. Their thicknesses seem to be about 6' and 4' respectively. The coal may be of fair quality. These seams are also seen in the broken ground east of the river, where the thickness may he somewhat more. For three miles further I followed this section (into Sheet 52), the Barakars continuing steadily

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

in the bed of the river, while the hills on either side were of the upper sandstones. Frag ments of coal were still to be seen at the furthest point reached ; but from the abundance of gneiss and jasper-conglomerate pebbles, the metamorphic rocks cannot be very far distant. The jasper may not very improbably be derived from Talckir beds.

The Pelma-Milupara valley is one of several along this frontier where denudation has removed the upper sandstones, thus forming avast amphitheatre in which Barakars form the floor. A considerable accumulation of alluvium occurs in this valley ; it is much cut up by ravines, and consequently difficult to traverse. As it was impossible to take the camp beyond Milupara, much time was wasted in going to and fro. To draw a satisfactory boundary at the foot of the bills would require close and very detailed examination.

Bendia Ritee Section. — In the portion of this river not previously examined,* between Kornkel and Jaujgbir, for the first three miles the rocks are much covered, after which there are coarse sandstones with a succession of seams containing coal in bands of from 2' to 3'. None of these seams are well exposed, as they are for the most part flat, and it is impossible to speak decidedly of their value. It is not, however, at all improbable that good coal in workable quantity may exist. At Janjghir the Barakars abut against gneiss, and are in places covered by upper sandstones which cross the boundary. In some cases the bottom beds resting on the gneiss in the Janjghir valley may be Barakars; but the cases are doubtful. To the west of the village a pebble conglomerate bed can be traced from off the metamorphics on to undoubted Barakars upon which it appears to rest unconformably, but the section is not quite clear. In one place in the river it is seen distinctly overlying a coal seam with associ ated Barakar sandstones. This seam measures —

Ft. Inc.

Coal, about ... ... ... 0 8

Parting ... ... ... ... 0 3

Coal ... ... ... ... 1 0

I think the conglomerate must be referred to the upper series.

In the bed of the stream on the hill side, at the head of this valley, I found some fragments of black shale, which appear to have come from the upper beds. As will be noticed further on, a similar case occurs to the east, in the valley of the Bendia.

From the preceding it will be seen that there are no data sufficient for forming an opinion as to the total thickness of the Barakars, but that there is strong evidence of great irregularity of deposit.

On the prospects of coal being found in useful amount, I shall speak in the section on economic resources.

IV. — TJppek Sandstones, oe Hingir Geoup.

Resting upon the Barakar rocks is a group of beds differing from them in their litholo gical characters, and containing certain fossil plants which have in no part of the country been found to occur in rocks of the Barakar horizon.

With rare, and perhaps even somewhat doubtful exceptions, this group does not include any carbonaceous deposits. In the fossil plants the carbon has been all removed and replaced by iron.

In some of the sections described on previous pages evidence is given of the extensive scale in which the Barakars have been overlapped by these younger rocks, At many places along the southern boundary of the field, as, for instance, at Singapur and Borkhol (vide p. 108) the area occupied by the Barakars is reduced to very narrow limits. Again, near the Kurket

Vide Records, 1871, pp. 105-6.

part 4.] Ball: Raigarh and Hingir Coal-field. 113

these upper rocks rest immediately on Talchirs, and along the northern boundary not unfrequently upon gneiss.

Although the junctions between those rocks and the Barakars often appear to be quite Unconformity. conformable, certain observations seem to indicate that some un

conformity between the two does exist. No actual section exhibiting unconformable superposition can be adduced, however. The nearest approach to it is perhaps the case above mentioned, where, close to Janjghir, a pebble conglomerate was traced off the gneiss on to Barakars upon which it appears to rest unconformably, but owing to some false bedding, the section is not quite clear, and should not, perhaps, be regarded as crucial. In the Pazar river section (page 111) there is the already noticed case of disturbed Barakars occurring close to the junction with the massive horizontal upper sandstones.

Passing from these individual cases, which afford evidence of only doubtful value, to the more general relations existing between the upper sandstones and the Barakars, we find that, taken as a whole, the latter exhibit an amount of rolling and disturbance of which the upper beds show no trace whatever.

The great amount of false bedding in the Barakars, noted both in this and the previous report, and the overlap, are quite sufficient to account for the fact that the beds of Barakars appearing from underneath the sandstones vary much in character in different parts of the field. At Lipuspali, for instance, there is a coal seam only a few feet below the red shales. Yet no sign of this coal seam appears in any other section. But when the facts observed in the tract of country indicated as the northern Raigarh area (p. 109) come to be examined, it is difficult to imagine any cause other than unconformity as being able to produce the relations which exist there. Denudation has in that part of the country cleared away the upper rocks and formed an extensive basin where upwards of 200 square miles of Barakars are exposed. Numerous more or less continuous sections of these rocks are afford ed by the rivers which run from north to south; but the best is that in the Kurket. In that river from south to north there is a steadily descending section, which is sometimes compli cated by local rolls, but which must represent several hundred feet in thickness. The crumpling and rolling and the dips,— the latter in places attaining as much as 10°— are incompatible with the idea that these beds are merely in their original position of deposit on a sloping surface. Several of the coal seams dip at angles of 5,° which, small though it be, can scarcely have existed at the time of deposit. From its very nature and generally accepted origin the coal must have been at first horizontal, or nearly so.

In the surrounding rocks which form the ranges limiting the basin, and in three inlying hills or groups of hills known as Gid, Duldulli, and Kolam, no evidence of similar roiling and crumpling is apparent, while the sections, so far as they go, induce the belief that these outliers rest on the edges of different portions of the Barakar succession. From the inter polation and false bedding, which, as has been alluded to, characterise these Barakar rocks, no actual conclusion could be drawn from observations on the difference in character of indi vidual beds which are immediately covered by the upper sandstones. Indeed, the overlap alone would be sufficient to account for such differences as have been observed. It is there fore necessary to confine the evidence for the unconformity to the more general characteristics of the two series, all small sections being, for the above given reasons, unreliable.

Examined closely, the upper sandstones exhibit no signs of disturbance and appear to be quite horizontal. On some of the scarped ranges where the view takes in several miles, a slight soutliernly trend can, however, be made out, but no rolling corresponding to that in the Barakars at the base. Whether the rolling and crumpling in the thin beds is in any degree due to the pressure of the great mass of hills— which would in that case have been produced

Record# of the Geological Survey of India.

subsequently to the denudation — may perhaps be a subject for speculation ; but even supposing that a certain amount of disturbance may have been due to this cause, the general steady suc cession of beds from south to north, and the fact that the sandstones rest upon different mem bers, of that succession in different places, must, I thinly, be regarded as indicating a period of disturbance and denudation between the deposition of the two series of rock. It may be added that whereas we find in the case of the Janjghir section, already alluded to, the upper sandstones passing from Barakars (at the base of the group) on to gneiss, the same rocks cover up the highest members of the Barakar succession which are exposed on the southern limits of the Barakar area between Bijana and Deogaon.

In their lithological characters these beds differ in a marked degree from the Barakars. The first thing which strikes one about them is that they almost invariably present a reddish aspect from the freely disseminated iron. Be they conglomerates, sandstones, or clay shale, the presence of iron is generally prominently apparent. The soil, too, which is derived from their decomposition, is nearly always red and sandy. Notwithstanding this, ironstones of good quality are very much less frequently met with in this group than in the Barakars.

I have been unable to see that the beds of different lithological characters occupy any definite succession. The red clay beds particularly seem to have a very capricious distribu tion. Though not always present, they are generally found among the bottom beds of the group. Towards the top, too, they not uufrequently occur. In the ceutre they appear seldom. Often where one would expect to see them, they do not show the slightest indication of their presence. Conglomerates and sandstones alternate with one another without showing any regular sequence so far as I was able to make out.

The conglomerates consist chiefly of small rounded quartz pebbles, bound together in a sandy ferruginous matrix with a varying amount of felspar. The pebbles rarely exceed 6 inches in their greatest diameter, and sometimes they are uniformly, throughout particular beds, not larger than small marbles. Occasionally the pebbles are of gneiss. This is, of course, most frequently the case when the underlying rocks belong to the metamorphic series.

The sandstones vary much in texture and color, but really fine-grained sandstones are rare, and white, or even grey looking, rocks are of unusual occurrence. Sometimes beds occur, both in the case of conglomerates and sandstones, which it is not easy to distinguish from Barakars. In such cases traces of associated carbonaceous beds are anxiously looked for as affording an almost infallible test of the age. The beds of sandstones, as may be seen in the scarped sides of the hills, occasionally attain very considerable thicknesses, narrow part ings of shale occurring at distances of from 20 to 40 feet. The most common form of sandstono is a rough brownish grit, which, even when under the constant action of running water, seldom shows a clean or smooth surface. Carbonate of lime is not often present in suffi cient quantity to give rise to any marked form of chemical weathering. Mechanically formed pot-holes are, for some reason which I cannot explain, less common than in the Barakars.

Shales or clays, generally red and sometimes passing into ironstones, include all the remaining forms of rock found in this group. In one direction these beds show a tendency to pass into sandstones, but as I have said, fine grained sandstones, properly so called, seldom occur. Mica occurs in abundance in certain layers. With the exception of some white beds which are occasionally met with, all are ferruginous, some highly so ; the latter are dense and heavy, but are seldom used as an ore of iron by the natives.

The only beds of this group which have so far proved fossiliferous are the shales which have just been mentioned, and they are by no means universally so. The place where I

Ball : Raigarh and Ilingir Coal-field.

found fossils most numerous as regards individuals was in the Garjan hill in Hingir. Here, too, the number of species was the greatest, hut it does not altogether exceed eight.

The following is a preliminary list by Dr. Feistmantel : —

Equisetaceas.

Schizoneura ? Damuda sp.

Vertebraria Indica, Bunb.

Filices.

Glossopteris Indica, .

„ Browniana, Brogn. Yar. Australasica.

„ Sp.?

Pecopteris Sp. Bunbury's drawing.

„ Lindleyana, Boyle.

The specimens of Vertebraria were met with at Girundla, Kodaloi, and on the Bilpahari.

The question of the correlation of these rocks with the groups elsewhere known in India is for the present reserved.

These sandstones cover by far the largest part of the area included in the field. Throughout the central portion no other rocks are met with, and to the north-east and south-west, only narrow strips of the older rocks are disclosed at the boundaries, and that for comparatively short distances. In the northern part of Raigarh there is a consi derable exposure of Barakars which is surrounded on all sides by these rocks, and so super ficially separated from the Barakars of the Ebe valley on the east, and of the Mand on the west.

The eastern boundaries of these sandstones follow an irregular outline, which is in general well marked, and is more or less coincident with the limits of the hilly plateau country of Hingir. Possibly there may be some small outliers within the limits of the area colored as Barakar, hut the often highly ferruginous characters of some of the pebbly beds presumably belonging to the latter, and the obscurity of the physical relations renders dis crimination almost impossible.

The group of hills of which Sitaram and Bilpahari are the culminating points is situa ted at the northern extremity of the eastern boundary ; the rocks seen there are sandstones and red shales, the latter containing Vertebraria. Some of the sandstones are highly ferru ginous, and contain layers and plates of hardened and dense character which weather out on the surface into relief, as is commonly seen in the Paehmari sandstones.

At Girundla and Bindiehua the same rocks prevail ; they are generally horizontal, but at one place in the Lillari, south of the latter village, some local disturbance has given rise to a southern dip. The Bindiehua G. T. hill station well illustrates the tendency of cer tain beds of sandstone to weather into curious and grotesque shapes.

The rocks about Onkilbira, Komghat, and Pikol are all of the same character and call for no particular notice. The same may be said of those forming the hills to the east and south of Lakenpur.

Close to Borkhol, the Koilar river debouches from the hills ; it is the first of a series which, rising in the highlands of Hingir, pursue a steady south course to tho Mahanadi. As the rocks which they traverse, except near the boundary, are horizontal, the sections do not throw much light upon the general characters of the series. Ordinarily these rivers run in deeply cut channels in beds of coarse brown or red sandstones. These being water-bear-

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

ing strata feed the rivers all along their course, and the moist faces of exposed rock are the favorite growing place of a species of Drosera ; all these rivers are perennial, and their con stant flow of water makes them contrast with the rivers of the gneiss and Talchir areas which soon dry up after the rains, leaving wide sandy channels.

The general characters of the valley which extends along the boundary in a northwesternly direction from Borkhol have been described on a previous page. With the rocks which bound it on the north only have we to do at present. North of Jhargaon the road to Raini ascends over the scarp of red shales and sandstones ; these are still better seen further west at Dibdorah, where there is a step in the Hingir river over which the waters fall, forming a most picturesque, and in the eyes of the natives sacred, cascade. Near the foot of this fall, as has already been mentioned, some pieces of carbonaceous shale were found, but none above.

At Jogidhipa the physical features are somewhat modified, as there is no distinct ridge or scarp on the Barakar boundary, but the relative position to the main boundary of the field appears to continue the same. From this westwards the red clays cease to occur asso ciated with the basal rocks of the upper sandstones.

In the Kur or Chota Kelu, between Berapali* and Beramunda, there are brown and yellowish sandstones which sometimes contain pebbles, but there is no trace of the red clays. Their absence may be due to overlap of that portion of the series in which they occur ; but I think more probably they were never deposited here. At Jamga* the Barakars are almost completely covered up by these upper rocks.

In the Supnai section from a point east of Jhargura to Bhogra* there are coarse ferru ginous sandstones which are at first slightly inclined to the south, but as the boundary is approached, they dip in the opposite direction, and the bottom beds, some of which seem to be Barakars, dip at an angle of 30° to north.

In the Somkara and Bilaijor rivers to the east and west of Sambulpuri there are similar sections ; in the latter the rocks close to the boundary dip away from it at as high an angle as 45°. Close to Badpali there are some traces of a local bed of red clay.

In the Kelu there is a long interval between coarse sandstones dipping at 20° north and the gneiss. Save for a small outcrop of Talohirs at the ghat there ia nothing to indicate the character of the intervening rocks. Further north, these sandstones fall to the horizontal and are deeply channelled by the river. I have on a previous page indicated the origin of the coal fragments which are seen in the bed of this river.

At Donot, the edges of the upper sandstones form a distinct and prominent ridge close to and north of the village.

In the vicinity of Cheraipani the Talchirs and Barakars are apparently finally overlapped by the sandstones on one side, and cut out by the fault on the other ; at least no certain sign of them is met with further west. They may exist, however, at the bottom of the narrow alluvial valley which is bounded by on either side quartzites and sandstones. At Delari (or Derali) sandstones dip at 30° to north-east. Just north of the village the lowest bed may possibly be Barakar, but I think not. To the south-east of the village these sandstones are seen within 200 yards of the quartzites.

From this westwards to the Kurket, and also to the north in the direction of Tumardi, the rocks which are exposed all belong to the upper series.

Kubket Rivek Section. — At Rabo there is an interval of perhaps 300 yards between the gneiss and some beds of sandstone, which dip at an angle of 30° to 30° north-of-east.

These names, as previously mentioned, are all misplaced on the Atlas Sheet.

Ball /finffir, Coal

Geological Survey Of India

Bc-co'd.y, Soy': 187 5

A at'a-baba

usaldas

Suit xu

Mfc'v

'Khwkhroiun

'Jatnpalt

I fj.14 ixtJtjiRva r

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RAIGARHand HINGIR

, Ctr a l

tHasbii'cv

( The Hill shading is omitted .)

*Bi ciJTULnd*!.-

. "JGuijga bqji a r j 'Bukcy i*n an. f//z t ) La \(XwA- .Ben no. C

't'ogttr

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Sumr,

Uhu'ia

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. Samar tun a

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taorv

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wiparia

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utfhilm u a'b

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k Jhargara. 'SatnbaZpari/ '-''Badp,uru J

Sukabutid

1 Bhogra /

/Coy Much da S' A

L itmC'hdb aha I

Bovan

Jcufanurrid. ;

Kairafjoii '

jokodibuca

ilfbda A i

Dadarnpar

Axniaiiuzra

mponga

.ghanderp.

MAHANADl A

Poridri

M$tam.orphic Senes

Vindhyan .

Talchir . ,! . . .

Barakar Group ..

a Saria

Lakanpoor

a Sonkera

BalM/aspi

Lorboi

iisalkjnda.

Sitmbulpoor

8c Strikes Fault lines .

Ball : Raigarh and TIingvr Coal-field.

What may intervene between these outcrops can only be conjectured, possibly Talchirs, but there is no trace of them to be seen. With regard to the sandstones, I think they must be referred to the upper series, though they are not unlike Barakars, which, indeed, I thought them to be when I saw them in 1871. The high dip is gradually lessened, until about a mile further north the beds become horizontal, and so continue with only local variations in dip for about five miles. In places the river runs in a deep cutting with walls twenty feet high. The sandstones are of the usual character, coarse ferruginous, sometimes with plates and layers of more highly ferruginous composition. They are often somewhat conglomeratic and not unfrequently pinkish in color. There is no sign of red clays in this section. From underneath these rocks at Baiamunda, as has already been mentioned, appear the Barakars.

To the west the boundary, leaving the river, passes along the foot of a range of hills which strikes north from Katangdi. At Nowagaon (Nowagud) these hills present a scarped face of coarse ferruginous sandstones with some red clay partings. Those rocks have a general, though slight, dip to the south. Detached from this range, towards its northern extremity, is the Duldula hill which is formed of the same rocks.

The eastern boundary on leaving the Kurket, passes south of Baiamunda and then bends southwards to Jiringol. Between Balumar and Samaruma the red shales were again met with near the base of the series.

The Gid hill appears to be an outlier of these rocks, the continuity being broken on the south, but this is not quite certain, as the rocks are much hidden in the broken raviuy ground. The principal rocks forming this hill are ferruginous sandstones and red shales, but at the base there is a considerable bed of white sandstone of doubtful affinities.

The character of the junction in the Kelu river section has been alluded to above ; the upper sandstones, away from the boundary, are horizontal, or have a gentle dip to the south.

From this eastward as far as the Ambo hill the boundary runs along the foot of the scarp; this is well seen at Deogaon and Pariga. In the Garjan hill, I found the principal part of the fossils mentioned on page 115. The further extension of these rocks to the east has been noticed in my previous report, and it therefore only remains to describe their occurrence to the north so far as they have been examined in that direction.

At Janjghir and the valleys on either side of it, we find Barakars abutting against gneiss, the boundaries being more or less overlapped by sandstones and conglomerates which form the surrounding hills. These sandstones and conglomerates are, I think, referable to the upper group, but at the heads of two of these valleys, from 150 to 200 feet above the level of the top of the Barakars seen outside, I met with fragments of coaly shale in the beds of the hill-side torrents. At first sight this suggested the probability of Barakars occurring at the higher level, but another case, presently to be mentioned, seems to make it probable that carbonaceous shales do sometimes occur in the upper beds.

A glance at the map* will show the difficult nature of the country where these observa tions were made. Until the whole of the hill tract there has been examined, it will be im possible to speak with any degree of certainty on the subject. As rendering it more probable tBat the carbonaceous shale is from the upper sandstones, it may be mentioned that the frag ments were much mixed with pieces of red shales which may, however, have come from a higher level.

The amphitheatrical appearance of the valley of the Kelu above Milupara has already been alluded .0. Owing to the jungle and superficial deposits, the boundaries are much obscured, but at Hingjhar there are exposed some ferruginous sandstones and red shales

On the one inch to a mile scale. In the accompanying Bketch map the hill shading has been omitted.

118 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vot,. viii.

resting upon ironstones, which latter are presumable Barakars. On the east of the valley, in the Sukti hill, there is a good section of these rocks.

Ascending from the village of Bajarmura, which is on red clays and sandstones, the path passes over whitish grey sandstones, which might pass lithologically for Barakars ; above them near a bear's cave* is a band of black shales ; this is at least 300 feet above the red shales of Bajarmura, and must therefore belong to the upper series.

Above this there were coarse ferruginous sandstones which continued up to the top of the hill. On the eastern side of the hill, at Khara, the Barakars extended up the side from 100 to 150 feet-

So far as they have been examined, these upper sandstones appear to constitute one group which is not susceptible of any natural sub-division.

V.— Laterite.

In the course of the preceding pages the occurrence of laterite resting upon the older rocks has been occasionally alluded to. It is more particularly abundant on the Talchirs, and, as noticed on a previous page, its limits are curiously concurrent with the Talchir — gneiss boundary in the eastern part of the field. To the north-east it is often found on gneiss, so that its occurrence in one locality in a limited way on the Talchirs only is the more remark able. It seems to be chiefly, if not entirely, confined to the lower levels, and I never found a trace of it on the higher hills, though in such positions it is commonly met with in Sirguja.

There is nowhere, so far as I know, a greater thickness of it than about sixty feet. In the eastern part of the field it forms wide spreads, which completely conceal the underlying rocks. In lithological characters this laterite resembles the laterite of Midnapore and else where.

VI. — Faults and Dykes.

The character of the south-western boundary having been described in the previous pages, little remains to be said, and recapitulation is, perhaps, unnecessary. Although no single section can be pointed to as absolutely establishing the faulted nature of this boundary, still the general tendency of the observations which have been made is to point in that direc tion, while the difference in the character and age of the beds which are successively brought into conjunction, and the remarkable straightness of the boundary, are strongly corroborative of the same view.

With this exception there is no evidence of any faulting throughout the area, and most of the boundaries have been distinctly seen to be natural.

Dykes. — But one case of trap also has been met with in the field ; this is at Ivirarama in the Barakar area, where a dyke is exposed for a few yards. A similar rock is seen at Kondaimunda, in the gneiss, and the two may be continuous. It must be noted that there is a possibility of this being only the peak of a trap-like metamorphic rock which strikes up through the Barakars. Its lithological characters quite favor this possibility.

VII. — Economic Besottbces.

The economic resources of this field are — Building materials, Coal and Iron.

Building materials. — As in other coal-fields containing Damuda rocks, many varieties of sandstones occur which would be applicable to building purposes. Hitherto the only

Note. — The cave is in a friable bed of slightly ferruginous sandstone, which I noticed was perforated in a peculiar manner. On examination each of these perforations, at least those which looked freshest, contained the nest, or rather den, of a small spider, while the older ones contained exuvias of spiders.

It was perfectly obvious that these perforations, which were mostly of an inch deep, had been made by the spiders by patiently removing the friable rock grain by grain.

Ball : Raigurh and Iling/r Coal-field,

rocks which have been used in this way are the Talchir sandstones of Sasun. These furnish a suitable material for copings and similar purposes in Sambalpur. Recently they have been employed in the manufacture of washing vats for lac works. The building stone which is chiefly used in Sambalpur is a schistose quartzite which is found in the station. Limestone of limited amount, hut good quality, occurs in the Talchir rocks to the south of Luponga (vide p. 105). Kankar is found in most of the alluvial tracts, but is not generally abundant. The Vindhyan rocks south of Padampur on the Mahanadi include an excellent limestone, which is the source of lime chiefly resorted to in the district.

Coal. — The seams which are exposed in the portion of the field at present under descrip, tion are neither very numerous nor individually of promising quality ; but it must be remem bered that the coal-measure rocks are not only, as a whole, very slightly disturbed from their original horizontal position, but are much covered by superficial deposits, and that there is a complete want of sections which might show the succession of beds constituting the group. The true, or even approximate, value of the field, therefore, can only he ascertained by borings. In the meantime it may safely he asserted that there is a fair prospect of this field proving to be of considerable value.

Of those seams which are at present exposed I should recommend that at Dibdorah as being the one which is most likely to reward exploitation. The advantages which this seam possesses are the following : — The coal is of fair quality, much better probably than might he supposed from the assay, the sample having been taken from under water ; the thickness is at least six and a half feet. The seam being at the surface, and having only a small dip, might be worked by simple undercut quarries.

Lastly, the locality is the nearest to the Mahanadi, being only about six miles distant from that means of carriage. The chief difficulty in working this seam, indeed the only one that I know of, will be caused by water which it may possibly be found not very easy to dispose of, especially during the rains. This, of course, would only be felt while the works were carried on on a small scale ; with extended operations suitable provision could no doubt be made, but the narrowness of the valley in which the seam is situated must always cause some trouble.

With this in view it would obviously be best to break ground first (provided, of course, that the seam is first proved to extend so far) at the watershed between Dibdorah and Jogidhipa ; this would involve somewhat longer carriage, but would secure an outlet on either side for the ejected water. The water would almost entirely be from surface sources, as the red clays which occur with the upper sandstones would, I think, prevent excessive percolation from the water-bearing rocks of the highlands.

The sections given above of the other seams in this part of the field (Ebe valley area) do not indicate any coal of workable thickness. According to the assays and my rough examination in the field, No. 9 of the Durlipali is the best coal, but of it there is only one foot. No. 4 of the same section is two feet six inches thick, but the quality is very inferior. It must be remembered, however, that the whole of this seam, as well as that of most of the others, is not exposed. As regards carriage, the Durlipali seam is much less favourably situated than that at Dibdorah ; the distance from Sambalpur as the crow flies is twenty-five miles. During the rains, however, the Ebe river, which is only six miles distant, might be used as a means of carriage. The Lukanpur seam, regarding which little is known at present, is situated in an enclosed valley difficult of access, the road to which from the Mahanadi would probably be from ten to twelve miles. The Dulunga seam is about sixteen miles from the Ebe. Of the large seams in the Baisunder I have spoken in my previous report ; the coal from them might, perhaps, to a small extent, be brought down that river to the Ebe also during the rains.

Records of the Geological Survey of India ,

Some of the seams in the Kelu valley may very possibly contain good coal, but they are difficult of access, being thirty-six miles, as the crow flies, from the Mahanadi. Carts, if they could get over the ground at all, would have to travel probably not less than sixty miles. To Sambalpur the distance by any possible route would not fall far short of 100 miles.

Still more unfavorably situated as regards roads are the seams in northern Hingir to the west. The Kurket river there, however, would afford a means of transport during the rains. I saw a large boat being built at Eabo on the Kurket, so that navigation is so far possible ; indeed, the river bed, thence to its junction with the Mahanadi, contains no serious obstructions of any kind.

So little is yet known of the coal of the Talchir field, that it would be impossible at present to institute a fair comparison* between the two. Unless the coal of our field is of better quality it could not compete successfully in Cuttack owing to the much greater dis tance it would have to travel. At the same time the Mahanadi is closer to the eastern end of the Baigarh and Hingir field than it is to any part of the Talchir field, and the Brahmini, owing to obstructions, is not much better as a means of transport than the Ebe or Kurket would be.

The prospects of the ultimate development of this coal-field depend altogether on the future extension of a line of railway into that part of the country. If the project for con necting Calcutta with Nagpur, by a direct line, be ever carried out, this field will attain considerable importance, should the borings, which must first be made, prove the existence of abundant and good coal, and of their doing so, there is, I think, a fair prospect.

Assays op CoAtsf-

Moisture.

Carbon.

Volatile.

Ash.

Durlipali No. 4 of Sec.

Durlipali No. 9 of „

Lakanpur

Dibdorah

Dulunga

Mograpali

Ikon. — Within the Barakar group there are, as has been indicated on a previous page, two and possibly three zones of ironstones. Assays have not been yet made, but some of the ores appear to be good. As to quantities, so far as superficial examination goes, I think at Kodaloi and some of the other localities on that horizon there is a large supply which could be easily worked. Of the abundance of ore in the hills at Bampur, east of the Ebe, I have already expressed my doubts, but on these points it is impossible, without some preliminary clearing of the ground, to speak with certainty.

The zone of ironstones which runs with the south-west boundary, at the top of the Barakars, seemed to bo thin and poor.

In the upper sandstone series ironstones also occur, but are seldom used by the native Lohars. In several instances I found that the Lohars of villages which, owing to wood being abundant, were situated within the upper sandstone area, procured their ore from the Barakars some miles distant. Except towards the frontiers of the Hingir highlands, there are few Lohars villages in that zemindari, but in no part of the country which I have visited are they so abundant as in Bampur. At many of the large villages there are furnaces, but the greater

Selected coal from the Talchir field has been found to answer fairly well in small steamers on the Cuttack canals. Its cost, owing to expensive carriage, was, however, too high, f By Mr. Tween.

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number are worked by colonies of Lobars wbo form temporary villages where timber is abun dant, passing to new localities when they have exhausted the supply in their vicinity. Although Sal (Shorea rob us to) is the wood most commonly used for making charcoal, I found the Bijasal ( Dipterocarpus marsupium) seemed to be preferred by some. Bamboo, though abundant, never seems to be used. The wood is cut into logs about 3§ feet long, or rather more, and is burnt in holes which are about 4 feet square and 18 inches deep. Small branches are not used. The furnaces are somewhat smaller thau the largest which are used in Bengal ; they are fur nished with a tray above, in which a quantity of mixed ore and charcoal is kept, which can be raked into the top of the furnace by the person working the bellows without other assistance. This, of course, is a great saving of labour as compared with the usual system which involves the presence of a second person to feed the furnace. Differing from the practice in Hazaribagh, the same individuals make the gin (bloom) and also work it up into iron for the market. The girls were much smaller than in Hazaribagh, in one case at J odiboga not exceeding 6 or 7 seers, generally, perhaps, they are about 10 seers. So far as I could make out, the Mahajans get from 15 to 20 seers of iron for a rupee from the Lohars, but owing to the advance system and the transactions being chiefly in kind, this cannot be accurately ascertained.

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Wissensckaften zu Leipzig, Vol. I— XV (1849-1874), 8vo., Leipzig.

London.— Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, .Vol. IV.,

Journal of the Linmean Society, Vol. I— XI, Zoology, and I- XIII., Botany (1857-73), Svo., London.

Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XIX, No. 4 (1875), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. XXIII, Nos. 160-161, (1875) 8vo., Loudon.

The Society.

Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. XXXI., pt. 2, No. 122 (1875), 8vo., London.

The Society.

Melbourne— Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, Vol. XI.

The Society.

Milano.— Atti della Societa Italiana di Scienze Naturali, Vols. I— II (1859-61), 8vo.,

Milano.

Memorie dell' Imperiate Regio Instituto del Regno Lombardo — Veneto, Vol. I — V. (1819-38), 4to., Milano.

Minneapolis.— Bulletin of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences lor 1874 (1874),

8vo., Minneapolis.

The Academy.

Moscou.— Bulletin de la Socidte Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Vol. XL VIII, No. 3,

The Society

Neuchatel.— Memoires de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel, Vol. I-IH,

pAEIS_ Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France, 3rd Ser., Vol. Ill, Nos. 3-4 (1875),

8vo., Paris.

The Society.

pKgx_ x Bakony deli reszenek foldtani Viszonyai Resz, II (1874), Svo., Pest.

Royal Geological Institute, Hungary.

A Magyar kiv Foldtani intezet Evkonve, Vol. Ill, No. 2, and Vol. IV, No. 1 Q874-75), 8vo., Post.

Ditto.

Mittheilungen aus. dem Jahrbuche der kon ungar. Geologischen Austalt., Band III, heft 1-2 (1874), 8vo., Pest.

Ditto.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Titles of DooJcs. Donors.

Philadelphia. — Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3rd Series, Yol. LXII, No. 1, Vol.

The Institute.

Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Parts 1-3 (1874), 8vo., Philadelphia.

The Academy.

Prag.— Lotos, Zeitschrift fur Naturwissenschaften, Nos. I-XXIV, (1851-1874), 8vo., Prag. Rome. — Bollettino R. Comitato Geologico d' Italia, Nos. 5-6 (1875), 8vo., Rome.

Geological Commission oe Italy. Saint Paul— Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. Second Annual Report

Minnesota Academy.

Salem, Mass.— Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. V, Nos. 1-12 (1874), 8vo., Essex.

The Institute.

Tobonto. — Canadian Journal of Science and Arts, New Series, Vol. XIV, Xo. 4 (1875). 8vo., Toronto.

Canadian Institute.

Vienna. — Verkandlungen der k. k. Zoologisck-botanischen Gessellsckaft in W ien., Band XXIV, 8vo., Wien.

The Society.

Washington.— Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institute for 1872 (1873), 8 vo., Washington.

The Institute.

Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, No. 4, Second Series (1875), 8vo., Washington.

F. V. Hayden, Esq.

Monthly Reports of the Department of Agriculture for 1873, 1873), 8vo., Washington.

Department of Agriculture. Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1872 and 1873 (1874), 8vo., Washington.

Commissioner of Agriculture. United States Geological Survey. Miscellaneous Publications, No. 1. Lists of Elevations principally to the west of the Mississippi (1875), 8vo., Washington.

F. V. Hayden, Esq.

United States Geological Survey. Vol. VI, Contributions to the Fossil Flora of the Western Territories, Part 1, Cretaceous Flora, by Leo Lesquereux, (1874), 8vo., Washington.

Ditto.

Warren. G. K. — An essay concerning important physical features exhibited in the valley of the Minnesota River and their signification (1874l, 8vo., Washington.

' The Author.

Yokohama. — Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Natur und Volkerkunde Ost Asiens, heft VII, June (1875), lsc., Yokohama.

The Society.

Geological Survey Office, 2 2nd October 1875.

Records

Of The

Geological Survey

Of

India.

Yol. Ix.

PUBLISHED BY OBDEB OB HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR GENEEAL OB INDIA IN COUNCIL.

Calcutta:

Pbinted Bob The Government Of India. London: Tbubneb And Co.

Contents.

Annual Report or the Geological Survey of India, and of the Geolo gical Museum, Calcutta, for the year 1875 On the Geology of Sind, by William T. Blanfoed, a. r. s. h., f. r. s., Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India The Retirement of Dr. Oldham

Notes on the age of some fossil floras in India, by Ottokar Feistmantel, m. d., Geological Survey of India Description of a cranium of Stegodon ganesa, with notes on the sub genus AND ALLIED FORMS, BY R. LYDEKKER, B A., (CANTAB), GEOLOGICAL

Survey of India ...

Note upon the Sub-Himalayan Series in the Jamu (Jummoo) Hills, by H. B. Medlicott, m.a., Geological Survey of India Notes on the age of some fossil floras in India, by Ottokar Feistmantel, m.d., Geological Survey of India Note on the geological age of certain groups comprised in the Gond-

Wana Series Of India, And On The Evidence They Afford Of Distinct

Zoological and Botanical Terrestrial Regions in ancient epochs, by W. T. Blanfoed, a. r.s. m., f. r. s., &c.. Geological Survey of India ... On the relations of the fossiliferous strata at Maleki and Kota, near Sironcha, Central Provinces, by Th. W. H. Hughes, a.e.s.m., f.g.s., Geological Survey of India

Notes on the Fossil Mammalian Faunae of India and Burma, by R. Lydekkek, b.a., Geological Survey of India Notes on the age of some fossil floras in India, by Ottokar Feistmantel, m.d., Geological Survey of India Notes on the Osteology of MerycopOtamus dissimilis, by R. Lydekker, b.a., Geological Survey of India

Addenda and Corrigenda to Paper on Tertiary Mammalia (ante p. 86), by R. Lydekker, b.a., Geological Survey of India Occurrence of Plesiosaurus in India, by R. Ly'dekker, b. a., Geological Survey of India ...

Notes on the Geology of the Pie Panjal and neighbouring Districts, by R. Lydekker, b.a., Geological Survey of India Donations to Museum... ... ... ... 22, 58, 106 if 162

Accessions to Library ... ... ... 22, 58, lU6 if 162

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Records

Of The

Geological Survey Oe India

Annual Repoet of the Geological Suevey of India and of the Geological Museum,

Calcutta, foe the year 1875.

The close of another year brings with it the duty of reporting briefly the progress made during the past twelve months. As must almost necessarily be the case in such a department as the Geological Survey of India, the full number of the officers in the establishment has never actually been at work during the year ; while oven of those present and actively engaged, some have had their time almost fully occupied with subjects, not immediately forming a part of the Survey operations, although intimately connected with them.

In this way, Mr. W. T. Blanford was very fully occupied in the examination and description of the zoological collections collected in Yarkand by the late Dr. Stoliczka, and in arranging for publication the geological notes of the same trip. Mr. F. R. Mallet was absent on three months' leave, Mr. llacket was absent on furlough till within a couple of months of the close of the year, and D r. W. W aage n, who had only returned from Europe at the beginning of the season, was obliged again to leave India, and, to our great regret, and the very serious loss of the Survey, felt compelled to resign all hopes of returning.

Mr. Medlicott's labours in the earlier part of the year were confined to the coal-fields in the Satpura hills. Full notes of his researches have been already published, so that it is unnecessary to enter into any detail here. One important fact may be noticed. Towards the close of the season, Mr. Medlicott was fortunate enough to notice the occurrence of rocks, which he considers as undoubtedly representative of the upper part of the series accompany ing the coal-bearing rocks elsewhere, at a point much further to the west than these had been known previously to occur. And he justly bases on the occurrence of these rocks a recom mendation for further detailed search in the district, and suggests the propriety, seeing the vast importance of a supply of coal in that neighbourhood, of borings to test the occurrence of any such deposits. It would he essential that such borings, if attempted, should be carried to a very considerable depth, before any definite reply to the question of the existence of coal could bo obtained. And in estimating the value of the chances, it will he essential to re member, as Mr. Medlicott himself remarks, that even if the coal deposits should be proved, it is impossible to make even a probable guess, as to the depth beneath the surface at which they are likely to lie, " 2,000 is as likely as 500 feet."

Unless coal should bo found in very considerable abundance, and most favorably placed as to dip, &c., I need scarcely say that mining it at a depth of 2,000 feet would be a matter

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

of sucli difficulty, danger and cost in this country, that it certainly would not pay for many years to come, if ever, while even on general considerations, some of which have been partially explained before now, and have been confirmed by everything since noticed, I am not at all sanguine that any favorable deposits of coal will ever be found in the area indicated.

The geological facts noticed by Mr. Medlicott are of the highest interest as regards the structure of the valley of the Nerbada, and his suggestions must not be lost sight of in future investigations.

Up to date, no very definite results have been obtained by the borings now in progress at Tooudnee and Khappa, but neither has any proof been obtained that the rods have reached beds below the coal-bearing rocks.

Mr. Medlicott, at the close of the season in the early part of the year, took advantage of an invitation to visit Khatmandu in Nepal, and a very interesting and suggestive notice of this visit is given by Mr. Medlicott in the lie cords ol the Geological Survey of India for November last. It must always be a source of great regret that the movements of Europeans are so jealously watched in Nepal, that it is impossible to do more than pay a hurried visit to the localities immediately round the capital, or the places actually on or adjoining the road there and back. Mr. Medlicott saw, perhaps, everything that he could have seen, that is, that he would have been permitted to see, but this was barely sufficient to suggest a few possibilities as to the structure of the adjoining country, the correctness or incorrectness of which could not be established by further research. The continuity of the zone of newer rocks which fringes the Himalayan range to the north-west has been established, and the occurrence of the newer tertiary groups also proved.

At the commencement of the present working season, M r. Medlicott, in conjunction with Mr. Theobald and Mr. Lydekker, commenced a revision of the tertiary rocks of theNorth- AVest and Punjab. The very important fact of a marked strati graphical separation of two distinct groups of rocks in the Naliun country, which had previously been all considered as a continuous series of beds, was first noticed by Mr. Medlicott himself. The locality where this marked unconformity was noticed unfortunately did not yield any fossils from the lower group of the rocks, so that the very important question as to whether this marked separation of the rocks physically was accompanied by any distinction in their organic contents was still un decided. To determine this, it became necessary to trace the same two groups further to the north-west, and to collect the fossils from each group separately. In doing this, it became evident that the very marked unconformity noticed in the Markunda river did not continue to the north-west. And the separation of the groups must obviously be based on other considerations. Apparent distinctness in the fossils also on moi'e careful examination disappeared, il not entirely, nearly so. It became, therefore, of the last importance that the separation of these groups should be more carefully investigated, and their relations one to the other established. And with this object in view, I requested Mr. Medlicott to go care fully over the entire ground again, giving him the aid of Mr. Theobald, who knew the fossil localities tolerably well, and had already brought together a very valuable collection from these rocks, and also the help of Mr. Lydekker, who had been all the previous part of the year engaged in a careful and earnest examination of tne fossils, ou which ho had been able to throw much light. And I confidently hope that before the season closes, the boundaries of these tertiary groups may he demarcated and their relations established.

The vast importance, considered with reference to a study of the tertiary rocks of India, of a knowledge of the structure of Sind has long been patent. It has been more

Annual. Report for 1875.

than once intended to take up the examination of that province. In 1869, arrangements were made for doing so, but other and more pressing demands caused this to be laid aside. Again in 1871, the same thing occurred, to our great regret. The sections in Sind were known to be unusually clear and well exposed ; many of the rocks were richly fossiliferous, and while a very large number of species had been already collected and described, it had become evident that they had been erroneously referred all to the same series. It was also highly probable, if not certain, that we should in Sind find a connecting link between the tertiaries of Cutcli and of the Sub-Himalayas. It was therefore with great satisfaction that we were able at last to depute M r. B 1 a n l'o r d, with the aid of M r. F e d e n, to take up Sind in 1874. Before the close of the working season of 1874-75, they had completed a fair sketch of the geology of the province, and have again this year resumed their labours there, M r. JB la n f o r d also purposing to accomplish a traverse of the desert to Jessulmir and Jodhpur, and so probably back again by a different route to Sind. M r. Fe d d en also has been able to bring together a very good collection of fossils, some of them very beautifully preserved.

During the summer, Mr. B 1 a n f o r d was, as already stated, chiefly occupied in working out the collections of Dr. Stoliczka from Yarkand preparatory to publication, but continued to superintend M r. F e d d e n while he was carefully comparing the numerous collections brought from Sind, he himself taking up the Echinoderms, while Mr. Fedden confined his labours to the Mollusca. There was no time to investigate the Corals. A full sketch of the geological results is given in the present number of the Records of the Geological Survey of India, so that it is only necessary to mention briefly, here, that Mr. Blanford seems to have established the existence, in addition to the more recent and subrecent deposits, of rocks of pliocene, miocene, and eocene age, all of which had previously been roughly grouped into old tertiary. While in places there are still lower beds, the exact geological age of which is not fixed, but which are, in part at least, probably cretaceous.

M r. Fe dden has worked very earnestly and intelligently, and to Mr. Blanford's satisfaction, and by his careful study of the fossils collected last season, has acquired a knowledge of their forms and distribution, which will prove of very essential advantage to him during the present season in examining the continuation of the same rocks.

Mr. Willson has very steadily continued his work in the Bundelcund and Rewah country, and has mapped in several sheets of the new topographical survey, during the progress of which rvork, some important geological facts have been established.

Mr. Hacket only returned from leave of absence in Europe in time to take the field a little later in the season than usual in Rajpootana. Since then he has been actively engaged in Ulwar, and it is hoped that by the close of the working season, he will have completed a general geological sketch of that district.

During the entire season, Mr. Hughes was engaged in finishing up the geological maps of the Chanda country, with more especial view to the coal-fields of the Wardah valley. A report on these has since been completed, after most unlooked for delay, and is nowgone to press. Mr. Hughes, during the present season, has taken up the continuation of same geological area to the south, and will, it is hoped, be able to join on his work to that of Mr. King, who is extending his examination from the south up the valley of the Godavery.

Mr. Ball completed the examination of the Raigarh and Hingir coal-field, on which he had been engaged during the previous season. Of this field, an interesting sketch is

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

given by Mr. Ball, and published in the Records. During the present working season, Mr. Ball has been engaged in a revision of the Talchir coal-field, and in an examination of the Atgurh sandstones.

Dr. Feistmantel, who joined the Survey at the commencement of the year, has been most earnest and zealous in working out the fossil plants of the several groups of rocks in India, and has already accumulated much valuable matter. He has commenced the prepara tion of a history of the fossil flora of Kachh, which, taken in connection with the already pub lished descriptions of some of the fossils from the associated beds, will prove of great inter est and value. There is little doubt that the fuller and more careful investigation of the several floras from the successive groups of rocks will throw much light on the relation of the different members of what it has become a fashion to style the plant-bearing series.

In Madras Presidency, Mr. King completed the examination of the Kajahmundry country before leaving the field. I regret to have to report that exposure to the first burst of the monsoon before reaching station resulted in a very severe attack of inflammation of the eyes, which for some time assumed a very serious form. Fortunately this was conquered, and Mr. King's sight saved, although his recovery was tedious. Taking the field again at the commencement of the season he has visited the several fields near the lower valley of the Godavery, and closed up that part of the area, and 1ms since proceeded northwards along the Godavery valley, with a view to joining Mr. Hughes, who has been carrying out the examin ation of the same valley proceeding southwards.

Mr. Poote succeeded in mapping in a good area of the country along the coast in the Nellore and Ongole country, and was fortunate also in finding some very beautifully preserved and interesting fossils of .Rajmahal age. And in the present season he continues the same work northwards, with a view to join on to the Godavery and Rajakmundry areas. During the recess, Mr. Foote completed a valuable report on the Southern Mahratta Country, which is now in hands preparatory to going to press.

Publications . — Of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. XI, Pt. 2, containing a detailed description of the salt-producing country in the Ivoliat district, Trans-Indus, was issued. The illustrations required for this part occupied some time, and the absence in Europe of the writer, Mr. Wynne, also involved some delay in reference in a few points.

Of the Records of the Survey, the regular quarterly issue was punctually maintained, and the volume for the year will bo found to contain several very valuable papers on the o-eoloo-ical structure of various parts of India. " The paper on the Attain Artush, from a geological point of view," by the late Dr. F. Stoliczka, completed the series of short papers bearing on his trip to Yarkand, which he had left ready for publication. Among other descriptive papers, we have a note on the geology of Nepal by M r. M edlicott, on the Ivhareean Hills in the Punjab by Mr. Wynne, a sketch of the geology of Scindia's territories by Mr. Medlicott, and a full sketch of the Shapur coal-fields, with notices on the explora tions in progress in the Nerbada valley for coal: also an account of the Raigarh and Hingir coal-field by Mr. Ball, while the practical bearings of geological research are illustrated by Mr. W. Blanford's paper on the water-bearing strata of Surat, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Medlicott on fire bricks, Mr. Mallet on coal near Moflong, Ac.

Of the PaljEONTOLogia Indica, the publication of the Jurassic Cephalopoda from Kachh has been continued. The whole series is now completed and issued, although the

Annual Report for 1875.

difficulties caused by the preparation of such a large number of plates delayed this com pletion beyond the actual close of the past year. This series contains 60 plates, of which six are double, and 250 pages of letter press, with explanations of plates, &c., and is unquestionably one of the most valuable contributions to the fossil history of the Upper Jurassic Cephalopoda ever yet issued. This was all completed, though not printed off, when Dr. W. Waagen felt compelled to resign his connection with the Geological Survey of India. A great source of delay in the completion of the plates has arisen from the transfer of our offices to the New Museum, and the time, unavoidably lost, in moving and re-setting up the lithographic presses.

Good progress has also been made in the preparation of plates for the next issue of the Pala;ontologia Indica which will be devoted to the fossil flora of Kachh. It was hoped that we should have been able to continue the same detailed illustrations of the fossil mollusca in the other groups, as have now been published of the Cephalopoda. But the loss of our Palseontologist has for the present deprived us of the means of accomplish ing this.

It will be seen that there have been issued during the year no less than 55 plates, equivalent, from double ones, to Cl of the regular quarto size, the annual number promised being only 48 (originally 24).

Library. — During the twelve months of 1875, 881 volumes or parts of volumes have been added to the Library of the Geological Survey. Of this number, 437 have been received from Societies and other Institutions in exchange for the publications of the Survey, or as donations, and 444 have been purchased. Quarterly lists of these additions have been regularly published as usual in the Becords, and a nominal list of Societies and Institutions from which presentations or exchanges have been received is appended.

The removal of so large and valuable a series of books to the new offices of the Survey was a task of some risk and trouble, especially during the rains, but it was effected with but little injury. The greater space we have now at disposal has already admitted of a fuller and more detailed classificatory arrangement of the books than was previously possi ble. The completion of this arrangement will, however, necessarily occupy some time, and cannot be altogether satisfactorily accomplished until after the completion of the proposed gallery and another series of cases.

The Library continues to be a great resource to students, who can obtain access here to books, many of which do not exist in any other collection in Calcutta, or indeed in India.

Museum.— The removal of all the collections from the former offices of the Geological Survey to the new Museum was a task of no small trouble and labour, as well as risk. It could not have been expected that such a series could be moved without some injury to the more delicate fossils, and to the numerous casts of unique animals which our collection contains, nor was this danger diminished by the fact that the greater part of the removal was effected during the rains. It has consequently taken some time to restore all these things to their proper condition. With regard to the rearrangements of the full collections, inasmuch as no additional cases have as yet been provided for exhibition, we have been compelled for the present to content ourselves with merely grouping the collections and thus rendering them more easily accessible for the final arrangement when cases are available. Orders have been given for a considerable number already, and it is hoped that some will soon be ready.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The want of any ont-offices has also compelled us to interfere seriously with the proper arrangement of the Museum by necessitating the storing away of tents, boxes with speci mens, and other stores in the galleries of the Museum.

The collections are all in good order and preservation.

Calcutta, February 1876.

T. Oldham,

Supdt., Geological Survey of India,

and Director of Geological Museum.

List of Societies and other Institutions from which publications have been received in donation or exchange for the Library of the Geological. Survey of India during the year 1875.

Batavia. — Royal Society of Batavia.

Berlin. — German Geological Society.

„ Prussian Academy of Sciences.

„ Gesellschaft fur Erd Kunde.

Bombay.— Bombay Branch of Royal Asiatic Society.

Bonn . — N aturh istorisches Y reins .

Boston. —Museum of Comparative Zoology.

„ Boston Society of Natural History.

Breslau. — Silesian Society of Natural History.

Bristol. — Naturalists' Society of —

Brussels. — Royal Academy of Sciences.

Buffalo. — Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.

Calcutta. — Asiatic Society of Bengal.

„ Agricultural and Horticultural Society.

Cambridge, Mass., U. S., A. — United States Coast Survey.

Christiania. — Royal University of Norway.

Copenhagen. — Royal Danish Academy.

Dijon. — Academy of Sciences, Dijon.

Dresden. — The Isis Society.

„ The Leopoldino Carolino Academy of Naturalists.

„ The Royal Museum.

Dublin. — The Royal Irish Academy.

,, Royal Geological Society of Ireland.

Edinburgh. — Geological Society of Edinburgh.

„ — Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Geneva. — Physical and Natural History Society of Geneva.

Glasgow.- — Philosophical Society of Glasgow.

„ Geological Society of Glasgow.

Gottingen. — Royal Society of Science.

Lausanne. — Vandois Society of Natural Scionce.

Liege. — Geological Society of Belgium.

Liverpool.— Literary and Philosophical Society.

„ Geological Society.

Annual Report for 1875.

Manchester. Melbourne. -

Minnesota.-

Moscow.- Munich.- Neuchatel.- New Haven- New Zealand.

Paris. — '

Pesth. Philadelphia.- Plymouth.- Rome. Roorkee.- Salem, Mass., IT. S., A.-

London. — East Indian Association.

„ Royal Geographical Society.

„ Royal Society.

„ Geological Society of London.

„ Anthropological Institute.

„ Royal Institution.

„ British Museum.

„ Liunaean Society.

-Geological Society.

-Geological Survey of Victoria.

Mining Department, Victoria.

Royal Society of Victoria.

-Academy of Science.

Geological Survey of Minnesota.

-Imperial Society of Naturalists.

Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

-Society of Natural Science at Neuchatel.

-American Journal of Science.

Colonial Museum and Laboratory.

Wellington. New Zealand Institute.

L 'administration des Mines.

Geological Society of France.

Royal Hungarian Geological Institute.

-Franklin Institute.

-Devonshire Association.

Geological Commission of Italy.

-Civil Engineering College.

-American Association for the advancement of Science.

„ Essex Institute.

Stockholm. — Bureau de la recherche Geologique du Suede.

St. Petersburg-.— Imperial Academy of Sciences.

Sydney. — Royal Society of New South Wales.

Toronto. — Canadian Institute.

Vienna. — Imperial Academy of Sciences.

„ K. K. Geologische Reichs-an stalt.

„ Zoologico-Botanical Society.

Washington. -Smithsonian Institute.

Yokohama. — German Naturalists' Society.

Zurich. — Swiss Palaeontological Society.

„ Swiss Natural History Society.

Governments of India, Madras, North-Western Provinces, Punjab, and Bombay, Chief Com missioners of British Burmah, Central Provinces, Surveyor General of India, Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, and the Superintendent of the Thomason College, Roorkee.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

On the Geology of Sind. By William T. Blanford, a.e.s.m., f.r.s., Deputy Super intendent, Geological Survey of India.

Introduction. — It lias been for many years past an object of the last importance in making out the relations of the tertiary rocks of India to ex nine the geology of the pro vince of Sind, and, but for the pressure of other work, the examination of that country would have been undertaken before. I was directed by the Superintendent of the Geological Survey on two previous occasions, in 1869 and 1871, to commence the survey of Sind, but other and more pressing work in each case interfered. During the working season 1874-75, a general examination of the province was made by my colleague, Mr. Fedden, and myself, the principal results of which are given in the following pages. The area of which a preli minary survey and sketch map were made exceeds 9,000 square miles, exclusive of the alluvial area. The survey is still in progress, and all recent observations tend to confirm the classification proposed.

A very large share of the work both in the field, and subsequently in the determination of the fossils, was done by Mr. Fedden, and the knowledge gained of the geology is quite as much due to his observations as to my own.

The importance of a thorough geological examination of Sind is due to two circum stances. First , it has long been known that there is in that province a fine series of tertiary rocks abounding in fossils. Secondly, the magnificent figures and descriptions of the Indian nummulitic fossils by Messrs. D'Archiac and Haime in their " Description des Animaux fossiles du groupe Nummulitique de l'lnde" published in 1853, probably the most important single contribution to Indian Geology ever issued in Europe, lose half their value from the circumstance that the exact position in the series of the beds from which the different fossils described were obtained was unknown. The majority of the fossils had been procured in Sind, hut the exact localities were not recorded.

Physical geography. — The province of Sind consists geographically of the Indus valley and of the hill ranges to the west of the river, from the neighbourhood of Kashmor and Jacobabad, or the latitude of about 28° 30', to the sea.

The whole province is generally divided into Upper and Lower Sind. Upper Sind con sists of a broad alluvial plain extending for mauy miles on both banks of the river, but interrupted near Sakhar (Sukkur) and Roliri by a range of limestone hills, isolated in the alluvium and running nearly north and south. These hills are intersected close to their northern extremity by the river which runs at this spot from north-east to south-west, and they extend about fifty miles south of it. Beyond the flat alluvial tract east of the river is au extensive region of sandy desert. To the west of the river the alluvial plain extends to the mountains which form the frontier of the province, and which, under the name of the Khirthar range,* extend from the Bohui pass to considerably south of Sehwau. Theie is only one break in this range, that formed bjr the Gaj river, and the gorge of the stream is quite impassable ; everywhere else the range rises to heights varying from about 3,000 to over 7,000 feet.

In Lower Sind the alluvial plain is almost confined to the left or east bank of the river, and between the Indus and the western frontier of the province the country is billy. On

In all old maps tliis and some other i*anges were united under the name of the Hala range, hut no such name is recognised in the province. By Vieary the term II, ila-range was applied loosely to several distinct ranges, which, misled by the maps of the perio'd, he evidently supposed to be portions of the same, and the name has thus come to be used commonly in works referring to the Geology of Sind. The result, as regards all attempts to identify the original fossil localities, is most confusing.

the east of the river there is an isolated low range of limestone hills near Hyderabad, and another near Tatta. The country west of the river consists partly of an undulating plain, partly of ranges of hills formed of limestone, and having a general north and south strike. The highest of these ridges are met with south and south-west of Sehwan : towards Kotri, Tatta and Karachi only low hills or undulating plains are found.

Geological formations. — Within the area of Sind no rocks have as yet been detected containing fossils of older date than Eocene, hut the lowest rocks hitherto found in the province are unfossiliferous, or contain only a few vegetable remains which are not well pre served. From Dr. Cook's researches in Ivelat, we know that mesozoic rocks with Ammo nites are found in that direction, and at no great distance from our frontier ; whilst from the Kkirthar range close to the Gaj river, I saw lower beds cropping out from below the eocene limestone.

The result of the researches of the past year is that the following formations, in descend ing sequence, have been detected in Sind

Name of group.

Approximate age.

Character of rocks.

Superficial beds, alluvium, &c. ...

Subrecent and recent

Blown sand. Alluvium of the Indus, both of the river plain and the delta. Slopes and deposits of gravel, often consolidated.

Manchhar or Sevalik

Pliocene

(a) Massive conglomerate on the edge of the alluvial plain ; (6) clays, 'sandstones, and conglo merates, usually unfossiliferous, but some times containing bones.

Gaj or Sapra-nummulitie

Miocene

Highly fossiliferous marine limestones, clays and sandstones, usually in thin beds j no nummulites.

4. Nari or Upper Nummulitic ...

Lower miocene or upper eocene

(a) Sandstones, very massive and of great thickness, sometimes variegated; nnfossiliferous, but interstrati Bed towards the base with ( b ) yellow and brown limestones with Nmnmu - lites gttran&enrft, N. sublmvigatus, and Orhitoides papyracea.

3. Khirthar or Lower Nummulitic

Eocene

(a) Massive, white and grey limestones with many species of Numnulite s, AUeolina* &c.

( b ) Highly fossiliferous yellow limestone with Operculina canalifera, See. (local).

(c) Green clays of Jtohri and Hyderabad.

2. Nanikot or Infra-nummulitic

P Lower eocene

Shales and sandstones, in part variegated and richly colored, thinly bedded, containing only vegetable remains.

?

Basalt.

The new names proposed are all taken from well known localities in Sind. Manchhar is from the Manchhar Lake, on the southern and south-western banks of which the Siud representatives of the Sevaliks are well seen. Gaj is the name of a river which traverses the frontier range north-west of Sehwan, and exposes a superb section of the middle tertiary deposits. The name applied to the Upper Nummulitics is taken from the Nari Nai, a stream which drains the hills a little way south of the Gaj, and the upper course of which lies almost entirely amongst the formations named from it ; whilst the Khirthar range, dividing the whole of Upper Sind from Kelat, gives its name to the great mass of Lower Nummulitic limestone, of which its higher ranges are entirely composed. The term pro posed for the Infra-nummulitic group is taken from the stronghold of tho Sind Amirs in the range north-west of Kotri. It appears to me better in every case to apply a local

Records of the Geological Survey of India .

name than to use exclusively terms derived from European Geology, which may subsequently have to be abandoned, or to adopt names from other areas in India the rocks of which have not been distinctly correlated with those of Sind. There is, for instance, but little reason to doubt that the Manchhar group of Sind represents generally the Sevalik and Nab an beds of the Punjab ; but still there is a question as to whether it corresponds only to one of those groups, or whether both are represented.* §

It should not be forgotten that Messrs. D'Arcbiac and Ilaime liad actually foretoldt from their examination of the fossils the division of the Sind Nummulitics into two groups, an upper division with Nummulites garansensis , and a lower with N- Ramondi , N Leymeriei , N. granulosa , N, exp mens, Alveolina ovoid ea, &c., and they also correctly indicated the existence of a third sub-division without Nummulites. But here the clue afforded by the Foraminifera failed them, for there are beds without nummulites at the extreme base of the series, and others at the top, and it was, of course, impossible for them to tell from which part of the series their fossils had been derived, except so far as the alliance to European forms guided them.

Subsequently it was shown by Professor Martin Duncan (Annals and Magazine, Natural History, Ser. 3rd, Volume XIII, p. 295), and by Mr. Jenkins (Quarterly Journal Geological Society, Lond., Vol. XX, p. 45), that many of the Sind fossils, and especially some corals which had not been described by Messrs. D'Archiac and Haime, were unmistakably of miocene age.

The rocks of Captain Vicary's classification, J to which allusion has so often been made in geological works, are the following, with their equivalents in the now proposed : —

B.

Groups of Captain Vicary.

Groups now proposed. '

Conglomerate § ...

Clays and sandstone

Upper bone bed ... ... t..

Coarse, arenaceous, calcareous rock with Cy there a exoleta, and exarata, Spatangi: no Nummulites

Pale arenaceous limestone with Hypponices, Nummulites, and Charoidece

Nummulitic limestone of the Hala Range ...

Black slates: thickness unknown

J

J-Gaj (Miocene). j-Nari (Upper Nummulitic). Khirthar, Lower Nummulitic.

Durintr the past recess season, owing to a number of other demands upon my time, it has been impossible for me to investigate the relations of the Sind tertiary fauna as I could have wished, whilst, owing to the sad events which have deprived the Survey of its two Palaeontologists successively, I have not had the advantage of aid from those better qualified than myself to determine palaeontological questions. Under these circumstances, Mr. Fedden undertook the examination of the fossils collected, with such aid as I could give him ; and although I believe that most of the identifications mentioned in the subsequent pages are trustworthy, I do not venture to hope that they arc free from error. The Nchinodermata and Foraminifera were examined chiefly by myself, the Mollusca by Mr. Fedden. Time did not permit of the corals being examined.

t Descr. An. Foss, du Groupe Num. de l'lnde, p. 359,

X Quarterly Journal Geological Society, Volume III, p. 334.

§ This is the coarse conglomerate at the top of the series.

Captain Vicary's fossil names have never been clearly identified. His Spatangi may have been JBreynia carinata, Echinolampas J acquemontii, ife, ; his Hypponices l have been unable to trace. It is just possible they may have been Lunuhtes,

Blanford : Geology of Sind .

Volcanic Rocks.

At the base of the section exposed at Ranikot, where the lowest beds found in the pro vince are seen, and again in a similar position, as I learn from Mr. Fedden, north of Ranikot, basalt is seen. The exposure in each case occupies only a few square feet, and is very obscure. Nothing of importance with reference to this rock has been added during the past season to the observations made in 1863* and it is still uncertain whether the basalt is intrusive or not, and, in the latter case, whether it belongs to the Deccan group of traps. Its relation to the overlying beds in the latter case is remarkably similar to what it is in Kachh.f

2. Ranikot Gkoup ok Infra-nummulitic.

These beds have already been described in the Memoirs.J They consist of sandstones, shales and clays, with gypsum, and are frequently remarkable for their bright and variegated colors. In some places the shales are carbonaceous, and irregular deposits of lignite occur in them, and they frequently contain pyrites and yield alum.

About 1,300 feet of these beds are exposed in Ranikot, between the base of the nummulitic limestone and the small hummock of basalt which forms the lowest of the rockg seen in the section.

The only organic remains observed in the beds themselves arc vegetable, being dicotyle donous leaves, stems, Ac. But north of Ranikot, Mr. Fedden found some bands of cal careous shale and limestone some distance below the base of the white Nummulitic (Khirthar) limestone and interstratified with sandstones and shales which may belong to the Ranikot group. These bands contain Cardita Seaumonti, Nautilus Forbesi, N. Labechei, and a few other fossils. Those above named have Cretaceous affinities. Further examination of the locality is desirable in order to ascertain the extent to which the two groups can be con sidered as interstratified. It should bo noticed that neither Cardita Seaumonti nor the species of Nautilus have hitherto been obtained by Mr. Fedden or myself at any higher horizon than the extreme base of the Khirthar group.

The Ranikot group is but sparingly exposed in Sind. It is seen at Ranikot itself, and extends for some distance to the north, fiualty appearing on the outer scarp of the hills. It is also exposed within the range about four miles west of Ranikot, where it occupies a valley about five miles long by a mile broad, and there is a small tract composed of it around Lainyan south-east of Ranikot and north-west of Kotri. Here, however, the ground is greatly concealed by surface gravels, and much of the area to the westward is occupied by the grey sandstones of the Mauchhar (Sevalik) group, which in places so closely resemble some of the sandstones of Ranikot that they cannot easily be distinguished.

3. Khiethae ok Lowee Nemmulitic Geoue.

This is by far the most important and characteristic group of rocks in Sind, and all the higher hills of the province are composed of it. As usually developed, it consists of an immense thickness of massive grey and white limestone, abounding in Nummulites and other Foraminifera and unbroken by a single band of any other rock. Such is its character from the northern frontier of Sind to Kotri, but to the southward I am informed by Mr. Fedden that the group shows a tendency to break up into distinct beds, the typical hard limestone being interstratified with bands of softer limestones, sandstones, and shales, and in adjoining areas, in Kachh and Baluchistan, the massive white or grey limestone forms but a subordinate portion of the group.

Mem. Geological Survey of India, Vol. VI, p. 5. t Mem. Geological Survey of India, Vol. IX, p. 75. t Mem. Geological Survey of India, Vol. VI, p. 4.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

At the base of the Nummulitic limestone, fossiliferous beds occur in parts of the province. These beds it appears best for the present to associate with the Khirthar group, although they may ultimately prove worthy of distinction, or it may, as above suggested, prove necessary to class them with the Infra-nummulitic beds of Ranikot.

The most northern locality at which the basement beds of the Nummulitic group appear to be exposed in Sind is on the west side of the hills south of Rohri. Here beds of palegreen gypseous clays are seen, interstratified with a few bands of impure dark limestone and calcareous shale. These beds are fossiliferous, but the only species that has been recognised in them is Natica longispira, which appears to have a wide range in time, being found, accord ing to D'Arehiac, in the upper eocene beds with Nummulites garansensis. Species of lucina, Cardium, Leda, Pinna, Cerithium, and Rostellaria also occur.

Similar green clay was observed by Mr. Fedden near Hyderabad, birt no good section was found, nor were any fossils detected in it. In neither case was the base of the green clays seen, so that it is impossible to be certain whether they are not a band locally inter calated in the limestones. The latter appears most probable at Hyderabad.

At the base of the thick Nummulitic limestone in the Yero plain north-west of Kotri, and in similar beds on the same horizon near Jhirk (Jerruck) and Tatta, some very fossili ferous yellowish-brown limestone is found, in which the following fossils have been identified : —

Foraminifera.

Operculina canalifera (very abundant). Nummulites Leymeriei.

OP Tattaensis, Carter. N. irregularis.

Fchinodermata,

Eurhodia Morrisi.

Hemiaster digonus,

Terebratula sp.

Famellibranchiata.

Spiondylus Rouaulti.

Gasteropoda.

Terebellum plicatum.

T. subbelemnitoideum.

Rostellaria angistoma.

R. Prestwichi.

E. fusoides.

Cephalopoda.

Nautilus subfleuriausianus. N. Labechei.

N. Deluci. N. Eorbesi.

Cardita Beaumonti.

Turritella angulata.

T. assimilis.

Nerita Sohmedeliana. Natica longispira. Terebellum distortum.

Cidaris Halaensis ? Porocidaris (spines). Temnopleurus Yalenciennesi.

In this and other lists D'Arehiac and Haime's names are used. Their genera often differ from those em ployed by more modem writers, and their specific determinations may, in many cases, require revision ; some of their species, for instance, being probably identical with well known living forms.

The Molluscs are only mentioned, as a rule, when they have been determined specifically. All the Eehinodermata found are included in the lists, whether they have been identified specifically or not.

Blanford: Geology of Sind.

The massive Nummulitic limestone itself abounds in fossils, especially Foraminifera, but owing to the nature of the rocks and their mode of weathering, their organic contents usually only appear in section on the weathered surface. Corals, Echinodermata and Mollusca abound, but the latter, as a rule, weather out as casts. The following are some of the most characteristic fossils identified : —

Foraminifera.

Orbitolites sp. Nummulites obtusa, Ramondi, Biarit-

Orbitoides dispansus. zensis, Beaumonti, Vicaryi, exponens,

Patellina Cooki. granulosa, spira, and Levmeriei.

Alveolina ovoidea and A. spheroidea.

Echinodermata.

Echinolampas discoideus. E. Sindensis.

Eurhodia Calderi. Conoclypeus pulvinatus ? Amblypygus sp.

Eibularia sp.

Eupatagus avellana. Schizaster sp. Brissopsis Sowerbyi P B. scutiformis.

B. sp.

Lamellibranchiata.

Ostrea vesicularis (0. globosa, Sow.) Vulsella legumen.

Pholadomya halaensis.

Gasteropoda.

Nerita Schmedeliana (very abundant). Ovulum Murchisoni and other species.

Crustacea.

Arges Murchisoni (Galenopsis Murchi- Ranina sp. soni).

Amongst the above the most common and characteristic forms are Orbitoides (dispansus, Sow.), Nummulites of various species, Alveolina, and Nerita Schmedeliana. Of the age of this group it is unnecessary to say anything, as it is, of course, the same as that of the Nummulitic limestone of Southern Europe, vis., typically eocene.

The thickness of the Khirthar group lias not keen determined, but, where fully developed in the Khirthar range, it cannot be less than 3,000 feet, and it may be twice as much. To the south, however, the thickness must diminish greatly, and near Jhirk and Tatta it, probably, docs not exceed a few hundred feet.

The Nummulitie limestone forms the whole higher portion of the Khirthar range from the northern frontier of Sind to the termination of the range within the province about fifty miles south-by-west of Sehwan. It also composes the range which under various names, Lakki, Eri, Daphro, &c., runs south from Sehwan to beyond Bula Khan's Thana, and the several ridges to the westward near the Habh, the southernmost of which terminates at Cape Monze, It, moreover, occupies a considerable tract of country near Kotri and Jhirk (Jerruck), and forms the isolated hills of Salchar (Sukkur), Rohri, Hyderabad, and Tatta.

4. Naei or Upper Nummulitic Group.

The upper sub-division of the nummulitics of Sind is, where best developed, very nearly, if not quite, equal in thickness to the lower, but its composition is very different. At the base it contains a variable thickness of brown and yellow limestone abounding in Nummulites garansensis, N. subl&vigata, and Orbitoides Fortisi O. papyracea, Boubee), interstratified with sandstone and shale. These beds arc in places five hundred feet thick, but usually

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

much less. All the upper portion of the group consists of massive sandstone beds, which are generally quite unfossiliferous, but occasionally contain bands of clay and shale with fragmentary plant remains. Towards the base of the sandstone, beds of limestone with the characteristic Nummulites are occasionally interstratified, sometimes five hundred feet, or even more, above the principal limestone beds at the base of the group ; thus clearly showing that the limestones with Nummulites garansensis, &c., belong to the same sub-division of the tertiary series as the sandstones.

In many places, especially towards the base, very ferruginous hands are interstratified with the sandstones ; and south of 'Sehwan, on the west side of the Bhagotoro range, where the thickness of the whole group is much less than in the Khirthar range, the upper portion consists of ironstone, ferruginous sandstones, and brightly coloured clays, purple, brown, and white. On the Khirthar range, however, almost the whole group, except at the base, is composed of massive beds of brown sandstone. Throughout the area examined, the upper nummulities rest conformably upon the lower, but there is a complete break in mineral character, and the fossils are different, the two characteristic species of Nummulite, for instance, being distinct from any hitherto found in the Khirthar group.

The whole thickness of the Nari group on the Khirthar range can scarcely be less than five thousand feet.

In some places the limestones at the base of the Nari group contain a large number of Mollusca and Echinodermata. The following have been identified ; a large proportion are from Bhagotoro, south of Sehwan

Nnmnmlites garansensis.

N. sublsevigata.

Foraminifera.

Orbitoides Fortisi.*

Fchinodermata.

Cidaris Verneuili.

Coelopleurus Forbesi. Echinanthus profundus ? Echiuolampas, sp. nov.

Eupatagus rostratus.

Schizaster Beloutchistanensis.

S. Newboldi ?

Corhula harpa.

Venus granosa.

Cardium triforme.

Pecten Labadyei.

Ostrea flabellula.

Natica. patula.

N. sigaretiua.

N. decipiens.

Siliquaria Granti.

Solarium affine, 2 vars. Trochus cumulans.

Phasianella Oweni.

Turritella Deshayesi.

T. angulata, var.

Gasteropoda.

T. Eenevicri.

Triton Davidsoni.

Voluta jugosa.

V. dentata.

Cyprtca nasula and other species. Terebellum obtusum.

The most common forms being the Fora minifera and Fecten Labadyei.

O. papyracea (BoubSe) : see Geological Magazine, November 1S75, p. 535. As before remarked, for conveni ence sake, D'Arehiac and Haime's specific names are preserved throughout this paper. I believe this rhizopod to be correctly identified, but at the same time it appears to me to be the species identified by Dr. Carter with O. Mantelli.— Journal, Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society, vi, pp. 79, 82, &c, &c.

Blanford : Geology of Sind.

Although the relations of the fossils named above appear, on the whole, to be Eocene rather than Miocene, there being a predominance of species such as Natica patula, N. sigaretina, OstreaJlabeUula, Valuta jugosa, <fcc., found, or represented by closely allied forms, in Eocene beds in Europe, there is a considerable admixture of species with Miocene affinities, such as Siliquaria Grant i, Solarium affine, and Echinantlus ( Glypeaster ). Of the two characteristic species of Nummulites also, one, N. sublcevigata. is peculiar, being unknown out of India, whilst the other, N. garansensis, is met with in the lower Miocene beds of France.*

It should not be forgotten that the fossiliferous beds are at the base of the Nan group, and if, as appears probable, these are high Eocene, the upper portion of the division may, very possibly, be of Miocene age.

The rocks of the Nari group extend nearly throughout the Khirthar range, forming a belt of lower hills along the western base of the main ridge. This belt varies greatly in breadth, but is rarely less than from two to three miles across, except in the extreme north, close to the frontier, where these beds are cut out apparently by a fault, or squeezed into a narrow belt, a few feet in width, and in the extreme south, where they appear, in places, to have been removed by denudation. On the Gaj river, the tract of country occupied by upper Nuinmulitic rocks is about three and a half miles wide ; on the Nari Nai, from which its name is taken, it expands greatly and is six miles broad. The same rocks occupy the broad valley of the Angai stream south of the Nari, and, sweeping round the northern termination of the Bhit range, form the greater portion of the valley to the eastward Their area in this direction has, however, yet to he ascertained. They are largely developed in the broad valley of Chorlo and Malirri running south from the Manchhar Lake, and they are met with again about Tatta, but they do not appear to be found east of the Laki Kara and Eri range between Sohwan and Kotri. They, however-, occupy a large tract of country near Jungshahi, and are represented in many parts of Kohistan. Their area towards Karachi remains to be determined.

5. Gaj oe Supei-nummuxitic Gboup.

Above the sandstones of the Upper Nummnlitics there is found a group of highly fossiliferous limestones, sandstones, and shales, distinguished by a very different fauna, from which Nummulites are entirely absent. This group is easily recognised by beinocomposed of several thin bands of hard limestone, usually of a brown colour, hut occasion ally white, with sandstones and shales iirterstratified, in bands of small thickness. The limestone weathers into ridges which may frequently be traced for miles amongst the outer hills of the Khirthar range.

The most characteristic hands of limestone are about the middle of the formation. They contain Eehinodermala (especially Breynia carinata) in considerable quantities, and they frequently abound in corals. The EeMnodermata appear, as a rule, to be confined to one bed, but further examination is necessary : all that can he positively asserted is, that a hand of limestone, abounding in fossil sea-urchins, occurs throughout a large area at about the same horizon. Towards the base of the group shales and sandstones prevail, but the latter may, as a rule, be easily distinguished from similar rocks in the underlying Nari group by being comparatively thin, each bed rarely exceeding eight or ten feet in thickness, and by their being interstratified with shales or limestone, often fossiliferous. The upper portion of the Gaj group consists usually of calcareous sandstone and hard marls, with shales and clay, and the uppermost beds frequently abound in Turritella angulata and other allied species of the same genus. In some localities, as on the Maki Nai, and again

D'Arch. and Uaime, An. Foss. Num. de 1'Inde, p. 101.

16 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. xi.

on the Klienji Nai, the highest beds of the group are clays with gypsum, containing, besides Turritella angulata, the following fossils : —

Corbula trigonalis. Tellina subdonacialis.

These beds may, very probably, be estuarine, for Area granosa, the living Indian repre sentative oE Area Larkanensis, is one of the most typical of estuarine mollusks, and the Tellina, Corbula, and Diplodonta* all have allies living in estuaries. These supposed estuarine beds are quite conformable to the overlying Manchhar (Sevalik) group and appear to pass into it.

The Gaj group, where best developed, as on the Gaj river, is at least one thousand feet thick. As a rule, throughout the Kliirthar range, it is conformable to the Upper Nummulitics, but west of the Manchhar Lake, near Tandra Eabim Khan, it rests unconformably upon all the older beds, for its outcrop extends in a nearly straight line across the Angai valley, which is formed by a synclinal of the Nari or Upper Nummulitic group. Further south, in the country south-west of Hula Khan's Thana, the Gaj beds are nearly horizontal over a large area, whilst the nummulitic beds, both Khirthar and Nari, where they rise to the eastward from beneath the newer formation, exhibit much greater disturbance. In one spot near Bula Khan's Thana Gaj beds were found resting directly on Lower Nummulitics.

The following is a list of the principal fossils identified from the Gaj group. Foraminifera are not very common, and hitherto in Sind, as has been already mentioned, no species of Nummuliles has been observed in these rocks : —

Foraminifera. Operculina canalifera ?

Fchinodermata.

Ccelopleurus Forbesi, var.

Echinus Stracheyi ?

Echinanthus profundus.

E. lialaensis P var.

E. sp.

Ecliinodiscus sp. (near the recent E. auri tus, but with closed lunules).

Eehinolampas Jacquemonti.

E. splicroidalis ?

Breynia carinata.

Maretia sp. (undistinguishable from the recent M. planulata).

Schizaster sp.

Lamellibrancliiata.

( ? Kuphus) rectust (Serpula recta, Sow). Corbula trigonalis.

Astarte hyderabadensis.

Venus gvanosa.

V. cancellata.

V. (Dosinia) pseudoargus 1). exasperala, Chemnitz, recent).

Cardium anomale.

Area Larkhanaensis.

A. Peethensis.

A. Ivurrachiensis. Pectunculus pecten. Peeten corneus.

P. Bouei.

P. Favrei.

Spondylus Tallavignesi. Ostrea multicostata.

Mr. G. Nevill has done me the favour of comparing the Diplodonta and some other species, and I learn from him that a living species common in the Indian seas, which neither of us can distinguish from the fossil Diplodonta, is unnamed. I am not acquainted with the precise habitat of the living form, hut either the same or a closely allied species occurs with estuarine Mollusca at Bombay. The Tellina belongs to the subgenus Macoma, and is very close to T. (Macoma) my m for mis, Sow., a common recent estuarine species.

t A form undistinguishable from this is found also in the Khirthar group. In both cases the tube is certainly that of a mollusc, not of an annelid.

Blanford: Geology of Sind.

Gasteropoda.

Turritclla angulata. Buccinum Cautleyi.

Bucoinum Yiearyi.

Crustacea.

Balanus sublsevis. Palneocarpilius rugifer.*

The most characteristic fossils of the formation are Breynia carinata and Ostrea multi* costata. Species of Clyip easier JEcftinanthus apud D'Arehiac and Haime), Echinolampas Jacquemonti, Kuplius (?) rectus , Venus granosa, Area larhhanaensis, A. Peethensis, A. KurracMensis, Pecten Favrei, Turritella angulata, aud Balanus sublavis are also

common.

That the above fauna is later than Eocene is self evident, the genera of Echinodermata alone being amply sufficient to prove the later tertiary age of the rocks. I feel some doubt as to whether the group is as old as the Miocene of Europe. It must be borne in mind that one important characteristic of the European Miocene is the presence of genera now confined to tropical or subtropical seas, and consequently a similar fauna in subtropical Indian rocks may indicate a later geological age. The definite test of the age of Indian later tertiary rocks must be the same as that applied by Lyell and others in Europe — the com parison of the fossils with the fauna now living in neighbouring seas — and until this can be made, only a provisional age should, I think, be assigned to the beds. Whilst, therefore, the Gaj group may for the present he called Miocene, as forming the middle tertiary group of Sind, 1 think it jmssible that it may ultimately prove Pliocene, and that the Nari beds are in part at least, the equivalents of lire European Miocene. Bearing in mind that the fossiliferous beds at the base of the Nari group have unmistakable miocene affinities, it is impossi ble to consider the Gaj beds older than Upper Miocene.

The Gaj group is found throughout the Khirthar range, and usually forms the first well marked ridge west of the lower hills of soft Sevalik (or Manchhar) sandstones. South of the Nari Nai, this belt of middle tertiary beds turns to the south-east, and finally more to the eastward, and it forms a range of hills of small elevation about four miles south-west of the Manchhar Lalto. To the south-west of the lake, the group appears to be entirely wanting, and the Sevaliks rest, apparently conformably, upon the Upper Nnmmulities (Nari). The Gaj beds are also absent east of the range running south from Sefcwan/f They, however, appear in places in the valleys to the west of that range, near Bula Khan's Tirana ; and south-west of that place and of Tong they occupy a very large tract of country, hitherto imperfectly examined, extending south-east towards Jungsliahi, and west towards the Habb river, along which they stretch to the neighbourhood of Karachi. Their relations with the overlying rocks in this country require further examination.

6. Manchhab ok Sevalik Geoup.

The highest group of the Sind tertiary series has hitherto received but little attention. It is unfossiliferous as a general rule, and there can be but little doubt of its representing formations better exhibited and more fossiliferous in the Sub-Himalayan region, aud already widely explored. It is far from impossible that further study of the Sind bods may show that they are separable into two or more sub-groups. In one instance at least there was observed evidence of probable unconformity between different portions of them.

Stoliczka, Pal. Indica.

+ A bed only two or three feet thick has just been found representing them unestoue, and contains Otlrea multicostatu, Pecten Favrei, fyc.

near Vero. It rests on Khirthar

Records of the Geological Survey of Lidia.

The Sevalik beds in Sind consist of clays, sandstones, and conglomerates. The clays are usually buff or rod in colour, the sandstones reddish-brown or grey. One very characteristic bed is a rather fine greenish-grey sandstone composed of fragments of quartz, felspar, and bornblcnd. This sandstone is often quarried for platters used to bake bread upon. In the reddish-brown sandstone the bornbleud is absent.

The conglomerates vary much in character. As a general rule, and especially towards the base of the group, they contain rolled fragments of argillaceous sandstone and clay, closely resembling the associated beds in the same group. As a rule, too, except in the upper conglomerate at the top of the group, pebbles of the older tertiary formations are wanting ; but in a few instances they have been found. This is the case in one bed on the Khenji Nai, and conglomeratic bands containing Nummulitic limestone and Gaj (Miocene) limestones are seen on the road between Shah Hassan on the Manehhar Lake and Pir Gaji.

On the top of the Manehhar or Sevalik and on the edge of the alluvium there is found, in most parts of the Khirthar range, a very thick bed of coarse conglomerate composed of large pebbles of nummulitic limestone and other rocks, amongst which fragments of a quartzite are abundant. This conglomerate bed in places, as at the outlet of the Gaj, cannot be less than two or three hundred feet thick. It is disturbed and inclined like the Manehhar beds beneath it, and it appeal's conformable to them. It has, however, an appearance of passing upwards into the gravels of the slope outside the range, but such appearances are sometimes fallacious. At the same time it is far from improbable that the conformity of this conglomerate to the Manehhar beds may be only apparent.

The thickness of the Manehhar group in Sind has not been ascertained with any certainty, but it can scarcely be less in places than five thousand feet.

Except near Karachi, where some oysters were found by Mr. Pedden in beds apparently belonging to this group,* no marine fossils have hitherto been obtained in it, and the principal recognizable remains of vertebrata hitherto collected by the Survey are some bones and teeth of Rhinoceros and Crocodile. Captain Vicary and some other explorers appear, how ever, to have found bones in larger numbers.

From the circumstance that the Manehhar group rests unconformably on the Gaj beds, which are at the oldest Upper Miocene, it is manifest that the Manehhar group itself cannot be older thau Pliocene. This result is extremely important, if, as appears almost certain, the Manehhar beds of Sind are the equivalents, in part or wholly, of the Sevalik and Bakun beds of the Punjab, since the latter have generally been referred by all writers to a Miocene epoch.f The Makran group, the possible equivalent of the Manehhar in Baluchistan, is newer Pliocene or Pleistocene.

It appears to me that the Sind beds cannot be of marine origin. With one or two local exceptions, they are entirely destitute of mollusca or other forms of marine animal life, whilst similar beds in the Giij group just below are full of fossils. The coarse conglomerate at the top of the group is chiefly composed of pebbles which appear to have been rolled in streams, their form being too oblate for them to have been formed on a sea beach. I am strongly disposed to suspect that the Manehhar group, despite its enormous thickness, is

Within the last few days, some more oysters have been found, also by Mr. Fedden, at Vero, west of Kotri. They are accompanied by two kinds of Balanus.

f I have, for a long time past, doubted whether the Sevalik rocks were correctly referred to so early a date as the Miocene, and I expressed my doubts, mainly founded on the great proportion of remains of ruminants to those of other orders, to Dr. Falconer himself as long ago as 1862.

Blavfurd : Geology of Sind.

of subaerial origin, the clays having, probably, been formed in an alluvial plain, and the conglomerates and sandstones deposited by streams and the wash of rain from hills.

The Manchhar group is uuconformable to the Gaj group. This is proved by the oc currence of fragments of the Gaj limestones in places in the Manchhar conglomerates, and also by the newer group in places near Sehwan and Kotri overlapping the older and resting un conformably upon the upper or lower Nummulitic beds. But, as a rule, through out the Khirthar range, the Manchhar beds rest conformably on those of the Gaj group.

The Sind Sevaliks form a belt of low hills on the flanks of the Khirthar range as much as fourteen miles in breadth near Ghaibi Dero, west of Larkana, but usually not more than four or five miles wide. South and west of the Manchhar Lake the same rocks occupy a consid erable tract of undulating country. They are found on the west side of the Laid hills, south-west of the Manchhar-, and they cover much of the ground between the Indus and the continuation of the same range to the southward. They are also met with locally about Bula Khan's Thana aud in some of the other valleys of Kohistan. Their extent near the coast is obscure, for they appear to change in character in this direction, aud they may be repre sented by the Makran group but this point has not been determined as yet.

The Manchhar beds were evidently deposited before the elevation of the Khirthar range, since they are tilted up with the beds of which the higher hills are formed. They thus mark the close of the tertiary period in Sind, and a break exists between them and the undis turbed formations of more recent date.

7. Recent and Sub-Recent Deposits.

Although these cover the greater portion of Sind, they possess but little geological importance by themselves. They are merely local forms of wide spread formations, and, from their simplicity, demand but brief notice.

The alluvium of the Indus plain is rather sandy, perhaps in consequence of the great extent to which sand is carried over the country by wind. Otherwise the alluvium presents no peculiarities, or at least none have been observed.

Along the base of the Khirthar and other ranges are slopes of gravels similar to those found in Persia and the dry regions of Central Asia, but on a much smaller scale. These deposits are evidently due to the wash of rain aud small streams, and similar slopes occur in all countries, but they are peculiarly conspicuous in the desert regions, in consequence of the absence of vegetation.

Large accumulations of gravel and sand are found in many of the valleys between the ranges in Lower Sind and amongst the lower hills of the Khirthar. These gravels are often cemented into a conglomerate by carbonate of lime.

Blown sand is frequently found in parts of the Indus plain covering the surface and forming low hillocks. To the east of the Indus it covers a large tract of desert country, separating Sind from Rajputana.

On the correlation of the Sind tertiaries ivith those in neighbouring countries. — The importance of a knowledge of the rocks of Sind, for the purpose of affording a clue to the tertiary geology of other parts of India, has already been noticed. Much additional study of the lossils is necessary before anything like accurate correlation is practicable, and it is possible that the distribution of organic remains in the tertiary rocks of other parts of India may differ slightly from that found in Sind.

Records, Geological Survey, India, 187 vol. v, p. 41.,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The tertianes of Kachh, south-west of Sind, were described by Captain Grant in 1837, and have since been mapped and classified by Messrs. Wynne and Fedden (Mem. Geol.

Surv. India, Yol. IX). The following groups against each its probable equivalent in Sind : — Kachh.

F. Upper Tertiary.

E. Argillaceous group.

D. Arenaceous group.

C. Nnmmulitic group.

B. Gypseous shales.

A. Sub-Nummulitie. S

were distinguished by the latter. I place Sind.

Manchhar or Sevalik.

Gaj or Supra-Nummulitic.

Nari or Upper Nummulitie.

Khirthar or Lower Nummulitie.

? Ranikot or Infra-Nummulitic.

At the same time it is only just to state that these identifications are chiefly based upon fossil evidence contained in the detailed descriptions,* § and that this evidence does not always coincide with the distribution of organic remains found in Sind. For instance, Nnmmulites are said to have been found in the argillaceous group of Kachh, f whilst none have hitherto been met with in the corresponding Sind formation. Mr. Fedden tells me that it is probable that the mapping of portions of the Kachh tertianes, which are frequently very ill-exposed, may require alteration. Some of the identifications of fossils, too, were made with imperfect means of comparison. Unfortunately it is not specified in the Memoir which of the identi fications are by Dr. Stoliczka, who compared most of the forms enumerated in the detailed descriptions.

Of Kathiawad we only know as yet that a tertiary series is found, near the base of which Nummulitie limestone occurs. Above this Mr. Theobald, in his manuscript report, enumerates in ascending order (a) Venus granosa beds, which are probably, in part at least, the representatives of the Gaj group of Sind; (/3) Perini beds, approximately of Sevalik age, and, therefore, corresponding to the Manchhar group of Sind, and (y) Milliolite beds, which are, possibly, the equivalents of part of the Makran group, gnd are not, so far as we know, represented by marine beds in Sind at all.

In Eastern Gujrat,J in the districts of Surat and Broach, the tertiary formations above the volcanic series of the Deccan traps are very ill-exposed. Near their base limestone is found with numerous fossils, Bevei'al of which are characteristic of the Sind Khirthar group (Eocene), whilst higher in the series sandstones, clays, and gravels with Balanus and other fossils occur. These may, possibly, represent the Gaj group of Sind.

Turning northwards from Sind, the first place (with the exception of the hills north of the modern Jacobabad, briefly described by Captain Vicary) of which we have any definite information is the portion of the Sullman range, recently examined by Mr. Ball,§ west of Dera Ghazi Khan. Mr. Ball describes beds, which he considers of Sevalik age, i-esting upon sandstones with clays ; the latter beds are, probably, the representatives of the Sind Manchhar group, and Mr. Ball's Sevaliks may correspond to the massive conglomerate found in Sind at the top of the tertiary series.

Of course, considering that Mr. Ball made only a flying visit to the hills at the most unfavourable season of the year, he may have easily overlooked some groups, aud representatives of the Gaj and Nari beds of Sind could scarcely have been detected without a careful survey. Still the absence of the massive sandstones of the former group is important.

t pp. 253, 280.

t Memoirs Geological Survey or India, VI, pp. 61-65, 208, &o.

§ Records Geological Survey of India, VII, p. 145.

Blanforcl : Geology of Sind.

But the lower portion of Mr. Ball's section corresponds well with what is known of Sind. He found Nummulitic limestone, evidently of Khirthar age, resting upon a great group of alum shales and sandstone with coal, apparently representing the Eanikot beds of Sind.

So little has as yet been ascertained definitely about the Punjab tertiary rocks, that it is best to defer all attempts at identifying them until more is known of their organic remains. With the Sub-Himalayan rocks described by Mr. Medlieott* § the following are possible identifications, but the absence of marine fossils in the two upper sub-divisions of the Sirmur group renders comparison difficult : —

Sub-Himalaya near Ganges. Sind.

Sevalik

Nalian

r Kasaoli . . .

f Manchhar

?

Sirmur .

. Dagshai . . .

1 Sabathii ...

?

The most striking point is that, so far as the examination has hitherto proceeded, no marine representative of the Gaj Miocene group has been found north of Sind, unless the occurrence of a single valve of Lucina (Diplodonta) incerta in the Salt range be evidence of its existence. Mr. Medlicott notes the existence of Ostrea multicostata in the Sabathii group, J but it is far from clear that this species, although it is so common in the Gaj group as to be a characteristic fossil, is confined to that horizon even in India. In Europe it'is an Eocene form. Whether the Kasaoli or Dagshai beds represent the Nari group of Sind remains to be determined.

Lastly, west of Sind, in Makran, there is found a thick group of marine beds of very late age, certainly not older than Pliocene. This group, which is greatly developed near the coast, I have proposed to call the Makran group.§ It rests with apparent local conformity on an immense thickness of sandstones and shales, in which occasionally beds of Nnmmulitic limestone occur. All this lower portion of the series, in the only country in which I was able to examine it, is greatly disturbed and altered, all the beds, as a rule, being vertical or nearly so, and it was impossible to classify the rocks below the Makran group.

This Makran group is certainly unrepresented in Sind by any marine beds hitherto examined : (it must he borne in mind that the neighbourhood of the coast requires further attention:) most of the included fossils are recent species, and not a single characteristic Gaj (Miocene) form has been detected in Makran except Area (Parallelopipedum) tortuosa, which may prove undistinguishable from Area Kurrachiensis.

The natural suggestion arises that the Makran group may represent the Manchhar formation of Sind : but this remains to be proved. The one formation is exclusively marine, the other freshwater, and until the intervening area has been examined, it would be premature to speculate upon the relations of the two to each other.

P.S. December 23 rd, 1875. Since the above sketch of Sind geology was written, the rocks beneath the Khirthar group have received further examination, and the result shows that the fossiliferous brown limestones of Tatta, Jhirk, and the country north-west of Kotri must be classed with the Eanikot or Infra-Nummulitic, and not with the Khirthar

Memoirs, Geological Survey of India, III, pt. 2, pp. 17, &c.

t D Arch, and Haime, An. Foss. Num. de l'Inde, p. 240.

t 1. c. p. 100.

§ Records, Geological Survey of India, 1872, Vol. V, . 41.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

group. A list of some of the principal fossils obtained from these brown limestones was given above (p. 12). It has also been ascertained that the Khirthar group rests unconformably, in places at least, on the Ranikot group, the unconformity being clearly seen at Hothian pass, ten miles south of Ranikot. This unconformity explains the absence of the fossiliferous brown limestones, which are the highest known members of the group, at Ranikot itself,

Basalt, precisely similar to that seen at the base of the Ranikot section, has been traced in several places along the range north of Ranikot, and proves to be a lava flow 30 to 40 feet in thickness, distinctly interstratified with the sedimentary beds of the Ranikot group. A second flow has been found at a lower horizon. The bed containing Cardita Beaumonti is inferior to the upper basaltic stratum.

Beneath the shales and sandstones exposed at Ranikot, and below the Cardita Beaumonti bed, there is a great thickness of brown, reddish, and white sandstones and conglome rates and some dark-coloured gritty limestone, and at the base of these beds white limestones appear, in which no nummulites have been detected and which may prove cretaceous. Unfor tunately, the south of Sehwan aud Lakki Range, in which the sections are exposed, is difficult of access. It is hoped that a fuller account of these interesting beds may be given hereafter.

Donations To Museum.

October 1875.— Specimen of gold (wg. 39 grs.) from Katanga mines, Central Africa, received from Zanzibar. Presented by Government of India.

December 1875. — A piece of the meteorite, which fell at Jhang in the Punjab, (wg. 2 lbs.

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„ Abhandlungen der K. Iv. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Band VIII, heft 1, 1875, 4to., Wien.

Ditto.

„ Verhandlungen der Iv. Iv. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, 1875, Nos. 1 — 10, 1875, 8vo., Wien.

Ditto.

Records

Of The

Geological Survey Of India.

The Retirement oe Dr. Oldham.

This number of our Records would be sadly wanting without a word of grateful farewell to the man who has conducted the labours of the Geological Survey of India from their beginning until now. When Mr. Oldham came to India in 1851, the Geological Survey cannot be said to have existed. Some coal-viewers and improvised geologists had made occasional reports to Government, but there was nothing that could be called an institution, either as to staff or abiding-place. Professor Oldham conferred at once upon his post the influence of a well-known name, and the experience he had for years acquired as Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland. With those guarantees, by personal address and energy, he quickly acquired the confidence of Government, and by its liberal support he was able rapidly to bring together an efficient body of working geologists, with and through whom he soon began to throw light upon the rocks of India. Of the value of his services, as exhibited in the publications of the Survey, Dr. Oldham has repeatedly received very high testimony from the scientific world. To appreciate fully what he has effected, one should have experience of the position, where every means, material and personal, had to be formed or imported ; and further, one should see what is only known to those present, the very valuable library and the extensive collections brought together by his care. Due honour paid to the intelligent liberality of the Government of India, it is to Dr. Oldham, whether as Superintendent of the Geological Survey, or as President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, more than to any other man, that Calcutta owes the magnificent museum-building it can now boast of. All this he now leaves to his colleagues and successors. Failing health compels him to retire from the service, and leave the country before he could give form and unity to his labours. Those who reap where he has sown should ever remember the great debt they owe to Dr. Oldham.

28 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. ix.

Notes on the age of some fossil floras of India, by Ottokar Feistmantel, m.d.,

Geological Survey of India.

I And Ii.

While preparing detailed descriptions and investigations of tire several fossil floras of India, with drawings of all the most important specimens for the Palreontologia Indica, I think it best to give brief outlines in this place of the results I have obtained from the study. Though persuaded of their interest, both general and special, I must not presume that every naturalist can and will take the time and trouble to study those detailed investi gations. All may, however, easily master the results if offered to them in this short form.

It is necessary to preface these papers with a notice of the formations to which they refer. The best known, because almost the only fossiliferous, rock-series in the peninsular area of India, is that usually spoken of collectively as the plant-bearing series. This is an awkward designation ; and I will at once adopt instead the name Gondwana series or system, to be understood in the same wide sense as when we speak of the Jurassic or Silurian series or system. The name was proposed some years ago by Mr. Medlicott, and has since been more or less current on the survey ; it has been once used in print by Mr. H. F. Blanford in his little work on the Physical Geology of India. We have in India important coal-bearing strata of cretaceous and nummulitie age, quite distinct from the Gondwana series, to the flora of which we will first call attention in those papers as of more pressing interest.

From Raniganj, on the western edge of the Delta of the Ganges, these formations stretch in detached basins up the valley of the Damuda, between the crystalline masses of Chutia Nagpur and Hazaribagh. Smaller patches also occur on the northern portion of the latter area, in some of the valleys, and along the border of the gneiss towards the plains of the Ganges. The Raj m ah a l area belongs to this position. From the head of the Damuda they stretch into the valley of the Sone, spreading out there into the wide basin of South . A narrow band of the topmost group, passing by Jabalpur, connects this area, across the gneissic mass forming the watershed of the peninsula, with the large basin in the Satpura range, on the west side of which, along the Moran river, the stratified series passes in force beneath the trap rocks of the Deccan. Some few inliers have been detected beneath the trap further to the west in the Narbada valley, as about Barwai. Throughout the entire course along the Sone and Narbada valleys, the boundary of the Gondwana series runs close to the great Vindhyan plateau, from the scarp of which it is everywhere separated by a varying belt of gneissic or schistose rocks.

Far removed to the west, but still within the rock-area of the Indian peninsula, plant bearing beds of the Gondwana age have long been known to occur in Ivach.

This northern region of the Gondwana deposits, stretching obliquely across India from cast-north-cast to west-south-west, has two extensions to the south. The South Rewah basin is continuous across the watershed of the Sone and Mahanadi rivers, through Sirgujah into Raigarh and Hingir, towards the Talchir coal-field and the Atgarh area below Katak. On the west, in the Satpuras, the Gondwana rocks occupy the watershed between the Nar bada and the basin of tbe Godavari. It is doubtful whether they were ever continuous in this direction, but they here at least come into proximity to the deposits of the same age at Nagpur, and extending from here down the valleys of the Wardah and Godavari to Rajamandri. From the Delta of the Godavari there occur detached patches of these rocks along the coast of the Karnatik to Trichinopoli, fringing the great expanse of gneissic rocks forming the high land of the interior.

There is only one extra-peninsular region in India where rocks of this age have been identified — along the base of the Eastern Himalaya, in Sikhirn and Upper Assam.

Feistmantel : Fossil Floras of India.

The following table exhibits the various groups into which the Gondwana series is at present tentatively divided in the several regions : —

Bengal.

South Rewah.

Satpura.

Godavari,

Karnatik.

Kach.

E. Himalaya.

Rajmahal.

Jabalpur.

Jabalpur.

Rajmahal.

Rajmahal.

Kach.

Maliadeva,

Panchet.

Almod.

A

f Raniganj.

Pali.

Bijori.

Kamthi.

&

a

j Ironstone shales.

Motur.

p

LBarakar.

Barakar.

Barakar.

Barakar.

Damuda

Talchir.

Talchir.

Talchir.

Talchir.

Gneiss.

Gneiss.

Gneiss.

Vindhyans and gneiss.

Gneiss.

Most of these strata contain only plant remains. Some widely separated localities have also yielded a few vertebrate fossils of fish and reptiles, for which various ages have been assigned — paleozoic, triassic, and liassic. It is only in Kach and on the east coast of the peninsula that the upper members of the series are found associated with beds containing a well-marked marine molluscan fauna ; and these have been taken to give the horizon of these groups. The plant beds of Kach alternate with and overlie strata having an upper jurassic fauna; and a similar association of the Raj mail al group has been found near Rajamandri and in parts of the Karnatik. While, at Tricliinopoli, plant beds of about the same horizon underlie the well-known upper cretaceous rocks of that region. The evidence of the plants will be seen to indicate a much lower homotaxeous position for these strata ; thus establishing a marked palseontological discordance between the marine and terrestrial organisms of this geological epoch in this region. In such cases we must only say, the flora ol this or that locality (or stratum) is of such an age, and was still growing on the coast, when already a younger fauna (but of the same epoch) was living in the sea. This is the only way to explain these so-called paleontological contradictions between the fauna and flora of the same strata.

My examination of the collections has so far indicated the existence of five distinctive floras in the following horizons of the Gondwana system : —

4. -Damuda (in different places), including the Raniganj (Kamthi), Iron-Shale,

and Barakar groups.

o. — Talchir.

It is, of course, possible that further research may necessitate modifications or additions to this classification. The present papers contain my observations on the flora of the Kach beds, in Kach, and of the Rajmahal group in the Rajmahal Hills, and at Kolapilli in the Godavari district.

The flora of Kach, in comparison with the animal remains from the same formations, is rather poor, especially in the number of genera and species. There are, however, enough characteristic genera and species for determination of the age of the flora as a whole, though it is not quite so easy to determine the age at each locality with the same accuracy.

so

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

For my purpose it will be sufficient and most useful to represent the flora first in a general systematical review, and then may follow the localities with their characteristic species and their probable correlation.

A.— Acottledones Cryptogam.®.

I. — Algce.

Of this family I have not met with any specimen, hut Mr. Morris, in Captain Grant's Geology of Kach, describes a Fucoides diclwtomus, Morr. Although I am quite unable to form an opinion as to whether Mr. Morris is right or not (because I have not seen the original specimen), I may remark that there is no objection to take it so, as from the same strata of other places (England) Algce are mentioned. I would only add that if it is an Alga, it is a Chondrites, with the same specific name.

Locality not indicated.

II. — Filices.

Perns are not very frequent, but some most characteristic genera and species occur. Already in the representatives of this family, we can see the character of the strata. At least we must, on the first view, say that they are Mesozoic, the species may then determine nearer.

As we will also find in the Rajmahal group, this order is abundantly developed, but represented by some different species. This is the first difference we may notice between these two floras.

In the division of this order, I follow the newest by Mr. Schimper —

a. — Tceniopteris, Bgt., mostly Palmozoic.

h. — Angiopteridium, Schimp. Mesozoic.

c. — Oleandridium, Schimp. Mesozoic.

d. — Macrotceniopteris, Schimp. Mesozoic.

e. — Danaeopsis, Heer,

f. — JDanaiies, .

Our species are —

a. — Oleandridium vittatum, Schimp. {Tceniopteris vittata Bgt.) Some specimens agreeing quite with Brongniart's drawings and those of Bindley and Hutton, also with those of Young and Bird, Phillips, &c., from the English Oolite (Scarborough), are known from Kukurbit, in a grey sand)' clay. It is an important species.

b. — Tceniopteris densinervis, . The fragment from which this species is made I take to be a real Tceniopteris, Bgt.

Locality : Kukurbit.

Some fragments occur ; a few of them are of considerable importance,

a. — Alethopteris, Whitbyensis, Gopp. Pecopteris Whitbyensis, L. and H., Tab. 134 (Foss. flor. of Great Britain.)

Some fragments of a true Alethopteris, Goppt. (leaflets attached by the whole base and connected together), I could only identify with this species, which occurs mostly in the English Oolite, although it has been also found in the Liassic strata. This species is often mentioned in books under the most different synonyms. In my detailed descriptions I have brought them all into the relation I think most correct.

Locality : Doodaee, in a reddish-grey soft clay.

Feislmantel : Fossil Floras of India.

J). — Pecopteris ( cyatheides ) tenera, . A small fragment of a pinna I place here, but it is of no special importance.

Locality : the same.

It is with Mr. Schimper that I agree in placing the following genus and species in this order, while by other authors it has been assigned to a quite different order. To discuss this point here would be out of place. The genus is Pachypteris, Bgt., which I take in Brongniart's sense, and unite with it some Sphenopteris and Neuropteris of Phillips, Dichopteris of Zigno, and Scleropteris, ex. p. Saporta. It is of Jurassic age.

a. — Pachypteris specified, . There is no doubt that the specimen I have so named belongs to the same genus as Brongniart described. It is very near Brongniart s species of Pachypteris, also to Dichopteris visianica, Zigno.

These species, with which ours agree, are lower Oolitic (Scarborough and Italy).

Locality Bhoojooree, in a soft reddish clay.

h. — Pachypteris hr crip in uo.tct. This form, which I believe to be the same genus, I so name on account of its shorter pinnae. Locality. — Kukurbit.

Genus, ActinopAeris.

Some peculiar, orbicular, and radially striated forms from Bayreuth M. Goppert, described first as Cyclopt. peltata, Gopp., and we find this locality mentioned as Keuper. But later, from the researches of M. Schenk, these localities near Bayreuth (Culmbacb, Yeithlahm) are determined as belonging to the interposed strata (between Keuper and Lias) called Ithcet ic. This species, too, was independently changed into Actinopteris peltata, Schenk. I have now found this form in the Kaeh series. There are three specimens quite agreeing with all the drawings ; so I am, no doubt, correct in the identification, although I am still quite unable to say anything distinct about the nature of these fossils. Prof. Schimper regards them as pseudo-fossils, formed by infiltration ; but on this supposition their constant form and limited occurrence in the Juro-triassic epoch, most near the division boundary, would be inexplicable.

Locality : Near Gooneri ; in gray, sandy clay, as at Kukurbit. If I do not accept this locality to be Rhce tic, I must at least accept this fossil as an indication of a lower horizon than has as yet been assigned to these plant beds.

B. — CoTYLEDONES PHANEROGAMS.

I. — Cycadece.

This family, which was in India generally very abundant in the floras of Jurassic times, has the most representatives also in the Kach series, We will, however, see that the representation here is in a different manner than in the Rajmahal beds; and this is another point of difference between these series, which were formerly thought identical.

I take this name of Morris, and not the later Palwozamia, Endl., because our genus is indeed quite different from all others, and therefore also from Palceozamia, as Schimper and Saporta have also lately shown.

This Ptilophyllum is a truly Indian type, forming the only link between some Indian local floras ; and we can ascertain independently that the Ptilophyllum (Pal&ozamia) bearing beds are all of Jurassic (lower) age.*

It may be well to note that 1 use the classification making the Jurassic to include Lias.

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

a. — Ptilophylhttn Culchense, Morr. (Palceozamia Cutchensis, Morr. and Oldh.) This is the predominant form, with shorter and more obtuse leaflets. I distinguish several varieties which I need not enumerate here. Locality : Kukurbit and Bhoojooree.

1. — Ptilophyllum acutifolium, Morr. Mr. Morris, in Captain Grant's Geology (Trans actions, Geolog. Soc., 1840, Vol. V, 2 Ser., p. xxi, f. 123), figures several specimens, but I have observed only one. Locality: Bhoojooree.

c. — Otozamites contiguus, . Some fern-like forms have been formerly placed as Otoptcris ; but I believe it is best to take them all still as Otozamites, Braun ; it will at least avoid confusion.

The above species is one of those with short pinnules. Locality : Kukurbit.

cl. — Otozamites imbricatus, . A species with longer pinnules, which are so inserted on the rhacliis that they are imbricated. Locality. — Loharia ; in ferruginous fine-grained sandstone.

e. — Otozamites cf. Goldiaei, Bgt. This is one of the groups with long pinnules ; and I consider our specimen closely allied to Brongniart's species from the English Oolite ; and so a species of more importance than the others. Locality. — Kukurbit.

f. — Cycadites Cutchensis, . A very delicate species, with the distinct midrib of Cycadites. Very close to Cycadites zamioides, Leckcnb., differing only by the insertion of the leaflets on the base. This latter is also an Oolitic species from England (Scar borough). Locality : Kukurbit.

There are three species of a fossil from Kukurbit, brought by Mr. W. T. Bhmford, which I place in the genus Williamsonia, Carr., from the English Oolite (Linn. Transact., Yol. XXVI, p. 680. Phillip's Yorkshire, iii edit., 1875, p. 227, PI. XXIV, f. 5), and which I will describe as Williams. Blanfordi, .

Of less importance is Cycadolepis, Sap., which occurs also near Bhoojooree in one specimen, and to which I give the specific name Gycadol. pilosa, .

II. — Coniferce.

Among the remains of this class are again some very important species for the determination of age, as they in general are very characteristic of the strata in which they occur.

From three localities we have got coniferous branches, which I place without hesitation in this genus, because they have its peculiar characters.

a— Palissya Bhojoorensis, . This species I think different by some marks from Palissya Brauni, Endl., and from that occurring in the Rajmahal series, P. Oldhami, . ; so I name it as above. Locality: Bhoojooree; in reddish soft clay.

b— Palissya sp. like that from the Rajmahal series, and also from the Jabalpur group, wbicb is probably of the same horizon.

part 2.] Feislmantel : Fossil Floras of India. 33

This specimen is from Thrombow, and I think perhaps this locality is lower in age than the others. This species signifies again that we should take for the Kach series a lower age than has lately been given to it. The other species of ferns and the other conferee suggest the separation of the Kach from the Rajmahal series.

Two other hranchlets occur, which I would consider also as Palissya, Endl. They resemble very much Phillips' Taxites laxus, Phil, which, however, seems also to be a Palissya : and I would designate it as Palissya laxa, Phil, sp.

a, Pachyphyllum divaricatum, . — A coniferous branch, agreeing quite with

Cryptomerites divaricatus, Bunb., from Scarborough; but I believe this fossil more correctly placed in the genus Pachyphyllum, Schimp., as I have also placed our specimen.

Locality: Kukurhit.

a. — Eehinostrobus expansus, Schimp. The most frequent, and also quite characteristic coniferous plant, is a form with thin and dichotomous branches, having the general aspect of a Thuya or Cupressus, and which also at first was described as Thuytes expansus, . (Phillips). It is now placed by Schimper in his new genus Eehinostrobus, Schimp. This species also is thus identical with a species from the English Oolite.

Locality : Kukurhit, frequent.

Very remarkable also are some rather frequent fossils, which on the first view must he recognized as scales of fossil cones. If we look after analogies in existing literature, we find some quite the same in Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire, and recently in Mr. Carrutkers' paper on some undescribed coniferous fruits from secondary rocks of Britain (Geo. Mag., 1869). Phillips mentioned this fossil as " winged seed" ; while Mr. Carruthers described them with Araucarites as scales of cones of this genus. Our fossils are of the same kind.

Locality : Pretty frequent at Kukurhit.

This may, therefore, be the general view of fossil plant remains from Kach :— Generally considered, the flora declares itself at once as Jurassic. The particular horizon must be determined by the most characteristic fossils. These ar e—Oleandridium (Tmiiopteris) vittatum, Schimp. Alethopteris Whitbyensis, Gopp. ; Gen. Pachypteris, Bgt.; Otosamites cf. GoHitei, Bgt. ; Cycadites Eachensis, . (Palissya, Endl.) ; Pachyphyllum divari tatum, . ; Eehinostrobus expansus, Schimp. Scales.

All these fossils occur in the English Oolite of Scarborough and Whitby: and the same plants from Jurassic strata in Kach may he placed generally in the same age. While some localities seem to indicate a lower horizon, we can say that the J urassic strata of Kach generally are of an Oolitic age; and it is of a lower Oolitic horizon, corre sponding to the strata seen on the Yorkshire coast at Scarborough and Whitby, with which our flora has about ten genera and species in common. With the Oolitic flora of Italy and France there are only some genera in common ; as is also the case between those floras

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

ami the English Oolitic flora. Witli the Raj malial series, as we will see, the Each beds have only about three or four species in common, while, moreover, there is a great difference in the most characteristic forms.

The localities here mentioned are (taking the supposed oldest first) : —

1. — Near Gooneri, with Actinopteris (Sehenk)-like forms ; gray sandy clay.

2. — Thrombow, with Palissya , like the same from the Eajmahal series and the Jabalpur group; in the same gray sandy clay.

These two indicate a lower age, and perhaps represent the Eajmahal series in Kach.

3. — Kukurbit, with most of the characteristic types : Oleandridium, Otozamites, Cycadites, Palissya, Pachyphyttum, Pchinostrobus (Thuytes), fossil scales, all with oolitic species ; in gray sandy clay.

4. — Bhoojooree, with Pachypteris specified; in a reddish soft clay.

5. — Doodaee, with Alethopteris Whitlyensis, Gopp. ; in a reddish-gray soft clay.

These three, it can scarcely be doubted, are of lower oolitic age.

6. Loharia, with Otozamites imbrioatus, . ; in a ferruginous sandstone.

All of these can be determined with more or less accuracy as lower Oolitic, excepting Loharia, which is not so distinct. But generally a lower oolitic age must be taken for them ; only the two localities, Gooneri and Thrombow, indicate a lower horizon.

As I have already mentioned, there seems to be a " palceontological contradiction ' between the evidence from the animal and from the plant remains. The latter occur in the upper groups of the local Jurassic series as described by Mr. Wynne, the marine fauna occurring in the lower groups. According to Dr. Waagen's researches on the Ammonite fauna, this is not older than Bathonian; and yet the plants, which are from a higher horizon, indicate generally an age as old as the Bathonian or Bath -oolite, and some of them a still older horizon.

Such are the palaeontological facts regarding which we can only say that plants of lower oolitic age still flourished in this region after that animals of younger strata had been living in the adjoining sea. It would seem, moreover, from the fact that Ptilopltyllum, Morr., and other species occur also in the Eajmahal series, that the flora of Kach, though generally oolitic, had an earlier existence in India than in the strata of England.

II- — Eloka of the Eajmahal Seeies (in the Eajmahal Hills and Godaveei Disteict).

The flora of the Eajmahal series in general, and especially that of these strata as typically seen in the Eajmahal hills, is more abundant than the Kach flora, both as regards the number of specimens as well as of genera and species. I will therefore first discuss shortly the flora as exhibited in this region, and having established the typical forms here, we can recognize them in other places.

The fossil plant-remains of the Eajmahal series in the Eajmahal hills have formed already the object of a valuable work begun by Mr, Oldham and Prof. Morris, but of

Feistmantel : Fossil Floras of India.

which only six fasciculi appeared, with 35 plates and 52 pages text.* The following is a systematic abstract of the collections up to date : —

A. Cryptogams Acotyledones.

I. — Equisetacece.

Perhaps in all formations characteristic forms of this order occurred. We have from here Equisetum, called Equisetum Itajm a halense, Schimp, (Oldh., Moit. PI. II, f. 2-3. PI. XXXV, f. 3-4), which is near to some liassic and rhcetic forms. In Kach, as we saw, no Equise tacece were observed.

II. — Filices.

These are pretty frequent in the Rajmahal hills, with some most characteristic forms.

a. — Sphenopteris, Bgt. : by Sphenopt. Hislopi, Oldh. and Morr. PL XXXI ; Sphenopt. membranosa, . and Sphenopt. arguta, L. and II. ; PI. XXXII (0. and M.) ; this is an Oolitic species in England.

b. — Dicksonia: by Dicks. Bindrabunensis, . PI. XXXVII, f. 2-2a ; this is a Sphenopterislike fossil with a fructification by which it must be placed as Diclcsoma.

c. — Hymenophyllites, Bgt., by HymenophylUtes Bunburyanus, . ( Sphenopt . Bunburyana, Oldh. and Morr. PI. XXXII f. 5-6.)

a. — Cyclopteris, Bgt. On Plate XXXVI (Oldh. and Mor.) (not yet published) are drawn two fragments of a Cyclop ferM-li ke leaf not well defined. Later I got two others, one of them quite distinct, with the characters of a Cyclopteris, which, therefore, may bn called Cyclopteris Oldhumi, ., PI. XXXVII, f. 5-6.

b. Thinnfeldia, Ettgh. A very interesting genus already known by A. Braun (1840), but described as Kirchneria Br., and later by still other names. The systematical position is, following Mr. Schimper, with the Neuropteridece, in which I must agree with him. The geological horizons for this genus are Lias and Ilhcetic. We possess from Buskoghat a specimen of a plant which I took at once to be a Thinnfeldia ; and this has been confirmed by the discovery of another well marked specimen near Burio, so that I will describe this plant as Thinnfeldia indica, . PI. XXXIX f. 1-la, PI. XLVI f. l-2-2a.

There are some quite distinctive forms for the Rajmahal series, and also for the charac ters belonging to this family.

a. — Pecopteris gleichenoides, Oldh. and Morr., PL XXV, XXVI; placed by Schimper as Gleichenites, and called Gl. Bindrabunensis, Schimp. ; is very frequent and typical for these strata. Schimper may be right. Mr. Oldham also placed this species as Gleichenites.

b. — Pecopteris (Alethopt.) indica, Oldh. and Morr., PI. XXVII, is indeed an Aletlwp . teris with the same specific name. It is allied to Asplenites BSsserti, Schenk, from the Rhmtic (Bavaria), and to some other species of Alethopteris ; important. Pecopt. salicifolia, Morr., is also to he placed here.

The figures which M.M. Oldham ancl Morris have already given in their work I will mark, "Oldh., Morr., PI. , fig. " ; those to be drawn in my continuation of that work are here marked as " ., PI. fig.

f Besides the plant remains I am going to describe, there are also fossil silieiiied woods pretty abundant, which, however, X am unable to mention here, as they want more examination, i will describe them later together with others of the same kind.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

c. — Pecopteris ( Asplenites ) macrocarpa, Oldh. and Morr., PI. XXVIII, is an Asplenites very near to Asplenites Ottonis, Schimp., also from the R h 03 1 i c (Bavaria) ; important.

d. — Pecopteris lobata, Oldh. and Morr. PL XXIX, XXX, pretty frequent ; it may retain this name ; it seems an Indian type.

This family gives one of the chief characters of the Rajmahal series, especially in the Rajmahal hills; there are very frequent large and interesting forms which are very important for the determination of the age.

a. — MaeroUmiopteris (Tmniopteris) lata , Schimp., (Oldh. and Morr.) PI. I, II, IV, Tceniopteris musesfolia (Oldh.) Schimp., which are not really different, represent the character of this family, being very near to Tceniopt. ( Macrotceniopt .) gigantea, Schimp., from the R k re t i c.

b. — Tceniopt. ( Angiopteridium ) MeClellandi, Oldh. and Morr., PI. VI, (Tceniopt. spatlmlata, MoClell.), being near to Angiopteridium {Tceniopt.) Munsteri, Schimp., from the R hoe tie, these two fossils indicate a lower age for this series than that hitherto supposed.

p. — Tceniopt. ova/a, Schimp., described as Tceniopt. ovalis (Oldh. and Morr.), hut different, as I find by the denticulation of the margin. 0. M. PI. Ill ; . PI. XXXVII, f. 1.

d. — Macrotceniopt. Morrisi, Oldh., is also a separate species. 0. M. PI. Ill, IV.

c. — Tanaopsis Rajmahalensis, . PI. XXXVIII. 4. The essential characters of this very interesting genus are, I believe, exhibited in this species.

In the Cryptogamae we may, therefore, note as important JSquisetum Sajmahalense, Schimp., ThimfelJia irulica, ., Alethopteris indica, Oldh. and Morr., Alethopt. macrocarpa, Oldh. and Morr., Macrotceniopteris lata, Oldh., and Angiopteridium MeClellandi, Oldh. and Morr.

B. — Phanerogam.®— Cotyledohes.

In this class we find another marked character of the Rajmahal series, by which again this flora differs quite distinctly from that of the Ivach series.

a- — Pterophyllum, Bgt. The most devekqicd genus, with a great variety of forms, of which the most characteristic are Pterophyllum carterianum, Oldh., Pterophyll. Morrisianum, Oldh., Pterophyllum princeps, Oldh. and Morr. (which is quite near to PteropK. Braunsi, Schenk, from the Rhcetic), Pterophyll. Rajmahalense, Morr. &c., as they have been described and figured by Oldham and Morris. PL X, XVII 1.

b- Ptilophyllum, Morr. About this I have already said that I take this name instead of Palcsozamia, ., observing it as an Indian type, and therefore as a distinct genus ; this genus is known both in the Each and the Rajmahal series ; and also the same species occur in both ; but while Ptiloph. Qutnhense, Morr., prevails in Each, Ptiloph. aeutifohum, Morr., is the most abundant in the Rajmahal series. Ptilophyll. rigidum, Schimp., I take to be identical with this latter, and think Ptilophyll. {Palcsozamia.) affine, n. sp., not very far from Ptilophyll. Cutchense, Schimp. As varieties I distinguish here also Ptiloph. acutifoliuni yar maximum and Ptiloph. Cutchense var minimum; this genus constitutes a connective form between these two rock-series, belonging to the same great geological epoch; it is Jurassic.

Feislmantel: Fossil Fit r as of India.

c. — Otozamites Braun. In this genus I put some species, which in the first description of the Rajmahal series by MM. Oldham and Morris were also described as Palceozamia Endl., 0. M. PI. XIX. Their Otopleris-XxVa habitus is so distinct, especially in the disposition of their veins, that at first I thought it right to place them with Otopteris, Schenk. It seems best, however, following MM. de Zigno and Saporta, to abandon this old genus, and to take all Otopteris forms as Otozamites, because they have more characters of tho Zamiece ; so these Olopteris-Ylke fossils from the Rajmahal hills (which stood formerly as Palceozamia) must be put to Otozamites, Braun. The species are Otozamites abbreviatus, . ( Palce ozamia bengalensis, Oldh. and Morr.), Otozamites bepgalensis, Sehimp. ; it is near Palceozamia brevifolia, Braun, or Otopteris Buelclandi, Sehimp., but Mr. Schimper considers it different by its more obtuse leaflets, and names it as above.

d. — Zamites, Bgt. Of this genus, we have two specimens, pretty well preserved. I call the species Zamites proxhnus, ., as it is very near to a living Zamia. . PI. XLI. f. 1-2.

e. — Piety ozaniites, Oldham. Quite a peculiar genus in general, and a marked Indian type ; we ouly know it in the Rajmahal series. It was at first described and characterized as a Pictyopteris, Gutb., and as Pictyopt. falcata, Morr., and Piety opt. falcata, var. obt.usifolia, Morr., by Mr. Morris in the original description of Rajmahal plants in the Palseontologia Indica, 1862, PI. XXIV. Although at first of the same view (Memoirs Geologi cal Survey of India, II, p. 320), Mr. Oldham, in the description of the Rajmahal plants, p. 40, developed another and more correct opinion about this fossil, taking it as belonging to the Cycadeacece (Zamiece) near Otozamites, Braun, and proposed a new generic name, Piety ozaniites, with its diagnosis, which I fully adopt. I propose the specific name Pictyozamites indicus, ., taking both varieties as the same. It was originally known only from Amrapara ; lately I found it also near Murrero. Outside of the Rajmahal hills we know it also in some other places.

a. — Cyeadites, . The occurrence of true Cycadece is also of importance for the determination of age, because they indicate always a lower horizon in the Jurassic series. Fossils of this genus are very abundant in the Rajmahal series. MM. Oldham and Morris have described three species ; but I believe there are only two, Cyeadites Rajniahalensis, Oldh., and Cyeadites covfertus, Morr., putting the third, Cyeadites Blanfor dianus, Oldh., with this latter, 0. M. PI. VII, IX.

Some fruit-like fossils I recognize as belonging to the genus Wittiamsonia, Carr. ; they are very similar to those in Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire, 3rd Ed., 1875, PI. XXIV,

f. 2, 3, 4, 5, from the lower sandstones (lower portion of lower Oolite) of Whitby.

Besides these, there are also some cycadeous stems and fructifications, which, however, need no further mention.

In this family we find some well marked forms, serving to indicate the age of tho Raj mahal series, and also as characteristic of that formation.

Two species occur, one pretty frequently typical of the Rajmahal series.

Palissya Oldhami, ., 0. M. XXXIII, is a form like Palissya Brauni, Endl., from Rhretic strata; it is the same form as mentioned already in the Kach series from Thrombow.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Another form I call Palissya peclinea, ., . XLY. which is very frequent ; it has lately been found also in other places, which I take to belong to the Rajmahal series. MM. Oldham and Morris have figured the first as Toxodites indicus, and the second as Cunninghamites confertus.

Some very tender-leaved branchlets, first described as Araucarites gracilis, n. sp., 0. M. PI. XXXIII, XXXY. and which have a Lycopodites-VAse aspect, must, I believe, be placed in this genus. I name them Cheirolepis indica, . I may at once mention that no Lyeopodites is known higher than in the Permian ; all lycopodites-like plants in the newer strata being coniferous plants.

I have already said in the preceding note on the Each flora, that some species of the genus Thuytes, Ung. (which have been sometimes also called Arthrotaxites, Ung. and others), have been shown by Prof. Schimper to be Fehinostrolus, Schimp. In the Rajmahal series there occur some branches which must he so placed.

JEchinostrobus Rajmahalensis, . 0. M. PI. XXXII. 8. . XLV. : I call by this name some branches resembling the now disused species, Baliostichus ornatus, ., Arthrotaxites Baliostichus, Ung., and Arthrotaxites Frischmanum, Ung., hut which three form, as 1 think, only .one species. Our Rajmahal specimens are, however, a little different.

Such is the flora of the Rajmahal series in the original area, so far as now determined. I estimate the whole number of good species as about fifty. The description of the flora of this series, as the continuation and conclusion of the valuable work of MM. Oldham and Morris, illustrated by eleven additional plates, will, I hope, he published as soon as possible after the Flora of Each, now in the press.

In taking a general view of the Flm-a of the Rajmahal series in the Rajmahal hills, we may point out the following plants as the most important forms

ls£. — As characteristic of tiro formation : —

a. — Alethopteris indica, Oldh. and Morr.

b. — Asplenites macrocarpus, Oldh. and Morr.

c. — Gleichenites ( Cyatheides ) Bindralmnensis, Schimp.

d. Some species of Taniopteris, Bgt..

e. — The frequent occurrence of the genus Pterophyllum, Bgt.

f. —Dictyozamites indicus, .

g. — Palissya pectinea, .

2 nd. — For determination of the age : —

a. — Fquisetum Bajmahalense, Schimp.

b. — Alethopteris indica, Oldh. and Morr.

c. — Asplenites macrocarpus, Oldh. and Morr.

d. — Thinnfeldia indica, .

e. — Macro tmniopteris lata, Schimp.

f — Angiopteridium Mcclellandi, Schimp.

.'/—The frequent occurrence of Pterophyllum, especially Pt. princeps, Oldh.

h. —.Otozamites brevifolius, Br. (Otoz. Bengalensis, Schimp).

i. — The true Cycadites, Bgt., and Palissya Oldhami, . (near Palissya

Feistmantel : Fossil Floras of India.

All the plants enumerated in this 2nd list are of such a facies that they indicate at once a lower zone of the Jurassic period, and 1 have no hesitation in assigning to them a Liassic age. At first, these plants wore considered as oolitic. M. deZigno, in a written consideration, which is in my hands, dated 1861, and later in a paper, Sopra i deposit! di piante fossili dell' America settentrionalle, delle Inde e del Australia, etc, Padova, 1865 (of which there is a Report in Leonhard and Geinitz n. Jahrh. 1866, p. 381), regards them rather as Liassic. In the Vienna Jahrb, der Geolog. Reichsanst., 1861-62, Verhandl., p. 80, we find the Rajmahal fossils mentioned as agreeing with the Austrian Reaper plants. Mr. Ettingshausen, in his " Farrenkrauter der Jetztwelt," p. 22, re marks of Tceniopt. lata and Taen. Morrisi quite distinctly : " In formation Lias dicta

ad Bindrahun Bengali®." We may therefore adopt, as the result of our special study confirming the opinions of the several authors, that these Rajmahal strata are to be taken as Liassic.

Mr. Schimper, however, in Vol. Ill of his Palcontolog. veget., has put the greatest number of our Rajmahal fossils in the oolitic period ; while one of the same, Equisetum Eajmahalense, Schimp., occurring in the same strata with the others, he puts as Rhoetic, which, of course, is contradictory. This is still more remarkable when we find Mr. Schimper placing also the Glossopteris and Phyllotheca of the Damuda series in the Oolitic period.

It remains now only to enumerate the localities of the fossil plants I have examined, or where they are said to occur. There are twelve localities known, in an alphabetical order, as below : —

1, Amrapura ; 2, Bindrabun ; 3, Burio ; 4, Busko Ghat ; 5, Ghutiari ; 6, Jamkoondih ; 7, Murero ; 8, Muchwa Pass; 9, Onthea ; 10, Salempoor ; 11, Shahabad ; 12, Sooroojbera.

The total number of species being taken as fifty, the number known from the several localities is as follows : —

The greatest proportion is in No. 2, Bindrabun, with thirty-two species ; the next is No. 3, Burio, with nine.

Note on the age of the flora of some places in the Godavari District, especially of the

sandstones of Kolapilli.

In the Records of the Geological Survey, 1871 and 1872, Mr. W. T. Blanford has published a paper in t wo parts on some plant-bearing sandstones of the Godavari valley, and descriptions of others in the same district (Records, Vol. IV, p. 107, Vo). V, p. 23, Vol. IV, p. 49)

All the places Mr. Blanford mentions, and from which he has got fossil plants, he has recognized as belonging to the Damuda series and to the Kamthi group (upper portion of Pamudas in general) on account of the occurrence of Glossopteris and Vertebraria in the characteristic forms for those beds. This is indeed so ; and our Museum contains several sets of fossil plants, from localities in the Godavari District (from the lower part of the river valley) which are at once to be recognized as plants of the Kamthi or Raniganj group.

But we have got also from another locality, Kolapilli, near Ellore, discovered by Mr. King, a set of plants which certainly belong to another group and another age.

The plants irom this locality are preserved in a very fine sandstone of a yellow-brown colour (ferruginous). They are pretty numerous, but do not l'present many species ; suffi cient, however, to determine the age of the flora. The following systematical enumeration will enable us to compare these fossils with others already described and determined.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

I. — Fquisetace ee.

Wanting.

II. — Filices.

1. — Alethopteris indioa, Oldli. and Morr. : some very characteristic specimens quite like the Rajmahal form, and also like Asplenites Rosserti, Schenk.

2. — Asplenites macrocarpus, Oldh. and Morr. : frequent, very closely allied to Asplenites Ottonis, Sehimp.

3. — Gleichenites Rindralunensis, Sehimp., ( Pecopteris gleichenites), Oldh. and Morr.: a fragmentary specimen.

4. — Tceniopteris ( Angiopteridium ) spathulata, McCl. : a fragment of a Tceniopteris, agreeing well with fig. 7 on PI. VI, Oldh. and Morr., Rajmahal Flora.

5. — Tceniopteris ( Angiopteridium ) ensis, Oldh. and Morr. Two specimens I believe belong to this species of the Rajmahal Hills.

III. — Cycadece.

1. — Pferophyllum Morrisianum, Oldh., one or two specimens, one pretty large.

2 . —Pterophyllum carterianum, Oldh. A very frequent species.

3. — Pterophyllum comp, distans, Morr. ( Hislopianum , Oldh.) The specimen recalls also the Pteroph. Braunianum, Gopp.

4. — Plilophylliim ( Palceosamia ) acutifolium, Morr. The common form. Pretty frequent.

5. — Ptilopliyllum cutchense, Morr. This species is also represented by some specimens.

G.—Di.ctyozamiles indies, ., formerly Dictyopteru falcata, Morr. Of this very interesting and curious fossil, the systematic position of which, however, has not yet been quite determined, but is provisionally taken as a Cycadece. near Otozamites Braun, there occur some specimens near Kolapilli, hut on account of the more sandy stone, the reticula tion of the veins is not so distinct as in the same species from the Rajmahal hills or from near Madras. But the identity is proved.

7. A fruit of a cycadeous plant belonging to the genus Williamsonia, Carr; it is pretty large, as in the Rajmahal series ; in Ivach we found some smaller specimens.

IV. — ConifercB.

Palissya pectinea, . This quite characteristic coniferous species occurs pretty frequently.

2- Palissya Oldhami also is represented in one specimen.

3- Fchinostrobus sp. Two specimens, somewhat indistinct, but from the rami fication and disposition of the leaves they can be placed only in this genus ; the species I have not yet determined.

4. — Scales of coniferous plants of a very large size, belonging most probably to Arancarites, occur in some specimens.

This general view of the plants from Kolapilli exhibits at once some of the most fre quent and most characteristic species from the Rajmahal series in the Rajmahal hills, so that we may safely take them to be on the same horizon and age.

part 2.] Feistmantel : Fossil Floras of India. 41

General table showing the relations of the now discussed series and tlieir floras.

Upper horizon.

Rajmahal Hills.

Kolapilli.

Loliaria, ; not quite dis tinct.

Doodaee, Bkoojooree, Kukurbit ; these 3 ivith Oolitic forms, as en umerated above.

Thrombow with a Palis- $ya, like that from the Jinjmnhat series and Narbada valley ? per haps representing here the Rajmahal series , Near Gooneri, contain ing the Actinopterislike forms.

Abundant large Teeniopteris , Pterophyllvm ; true Cycadites ; some Otozamites , PalUsya (re minding ? Jirauni , Endl.) etc., offering a Hassle view of the plants.

Some AUthopteris, and a cons tant Paliesy a. etc., Lias (of Aus tria ?); common plant with t he upper horizon of Kach, Pt.ilophyUum, Morr.; with Thrombow the Palis*)/ a species, called by me Pal. OUlhami ,

Containing abundant Pterophyllum, besides all the characteristic plants for the " Rajmahal series" of the Rajmahal hills (which must be taken as typical).

Lias sic.

Common with Thrombow , the Pa Ussy a species called by me Pal. OUlhami. . With the upper horizon the conife rous scales (but much larger).

There are two species of the genus Ftilophyllum Morr., common to both series ; they are Ft. cutchense (prevailing in Ivach) and Ft. acutifoliim, Morr., prevailing in the Bajmahal series-

I would here give a list of the several works I have referred to bearing on our plant bearing strata, their flora and age. AVe have Captain Sherwill (Journ. Asiat. Soc., 1851, p. 577,) on the Bajmahal hills, with a map. — Mr. Th. Oldham (in Journ. Asiat. Soc., Bengal) 1851, p. 263,) On the geology of the Bajmahal Hills. — Th. Oldham and Morris, " On the flora of Bajmahal series, Bajmahal hills," Paheont. Tndica, 1 SG2. — Mr. Th. Oldham, Mem. Geol. Survey of India, 1860, II Vol., " On the geolog. age of the rocks in Central India, Baj mahal hills, etc." — Captain Grant, " Geology-of Each." Transactions of tlie Geolog. Soc., Vol. I, see. series, with description of the plants by Prof. Morris. — Me Cldland : Beport of the Geological Survey of India, 1 848-49, with plates, Calcutta, 1850. — IF. T. Stanford , Memoirs of the Geolog. Surv. of India, Vol. VI, "On the geology of a portion of Ivach," p. 17.— Mr. Wynne: Mem., Geolog. Surv. of India, Vol. IX, "Geology of Ivach". — Dr. IF. Waagen : Becords of the Geological Survey of India, "Abstracts of results of examin ation of the ammonite fauna of Kach," etc., Vol. IV, 1871, No. 4, p. 89. — Dr. Waagen : "Jurassic fauna of Kach," Palaeontologia Indica, 1875.

De Zigno .- Some observations on the flora of the Oolite : Quarterly Geolog. Journal,

1860, p. 110. — Zigno: Soprai deposite dl piante fossili dell America settentrionule, cleUe Inde e dell Australia, etc., Padova, 1863. — De Zigno .- Observations sur les Planches de l'Ouvrage de Mr. Oldham: " Sur les Plantes fossiles des Bajmahal hills" (manuscript,

1861, in our Library). — De Zigno . Flora fossilis fonnationis Oolithicae, Vol. I, 1856-68, pag. VI, etc. — Bunhury : General remarks and postcript in his Fossil plants of Nagpur: Quarterly Journal Geolog. Soc., XVII, (1861), p. 34, 1. f. — Ilislop : "Nagpur Sandstone" etc.: Quarterly Journal, Geolog. Soc. XVII. (1861), p. 349. Bajmahal Hills. — IF. JIaidivger Verhandlungen der lc. k. Geolog. Beichsanstalt, Wien : Pflanzenfossilien aus den Bajmahal Hiigln, 1861-62, Beriolit. vom, 31 Juli, p. 80.

I may also mention some works in which special mention is made of our fossils. There is Mr. Schenk's " Flora der Grenzschichten zwischen Keeper und Lias", 1867, where especi ally the systematical position of some of our Bajmahal species is discussed, and where Equisdum Rajmahalense, Oldh., is considered as a 1 ias si c form. Mr. Ettingshausen. in his "Die Farrenkriiutor der Jetztwelt" I860, mentions especially the Teeniopteris lata, Oldh., Tceniopt., Morris, Oldh., placing it with the living Acrostichum (which, however, is of no use in the question of the ago) ; as to the localities he states : " In formation Lias dicta ad

Bindrabun Bengaliss."

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Mr. Sapovta, in his " Vdgetaux fossiles du Terrain jurassique," in the Paleontologie Frangaise, 1872-1875 (Nos. 1-18), mentions in several places our fossil plants from the Kajmahal hills. Of Mr. Schiniper's Paleontologie Vegdtale, 1867-1874, I have already said was necessary, and repeat only that our Rajmahal fossils, and also those of the Damuda, must be eliminated from his list of the fossil plants of the Oolitic period, and be put in their proper places.

In 1875 we have again a note by Mr. Zigno on the Rajmahal Flora in Verhandl. d. k. k. geolog. Reiclisaust. No. 17, where he again approves the Lias sic age of the Rajmahal Flora.

I must finally mention a paper by Mr. H. F. Blanford, published in the Quarterly Journal, Geolog. Society, 1875, November, with the title, " On the age and correlations of the plant-bearing series of India, and the former existence of an Indo-Oeeanic Continent", in which, however, regarding the flora all is repeated from the former publications of the Survey, and therefore requires the same corrections. I will only mention that all the lists of fossil plants given by Mr. Oldham were only provisional ; and that many of the genera were subsequently determined to be different ; which, of course, also changed the conclusions to be made from them.

It is thus obvious that I do not agree in identifying the horizon of the Ivach with that of the Rajmahal series in the Rajmahal hills, on the Godavari and near Madras. Nor is it at all probable that the Damuda series are Permian; as the Schizoneura, which is so very frequent in the upper Damudas, is not known anywhere in Permian strata, but in Trias. I may also mention the recent discovery in the Baralcar group of a Voltzia and of a very distinct single-pinnate Neuropteris, Bgt., which till now is nowhere known in the Palaeozoic (viz., Permian) strata, but only in the Triassic (vis., Bun tsandstein— gres bigarre) rocks* ; proving, besides other evidence, that the lower Damudas also are of mesozoic age, as I will show more fully in a later paper. From these facts one will be also able to make further conclusions on the age of the Australian plants, as being identical with our Damuda plants.

Description of a cranium of Stegodon ganesa, with notes on the -genus and

allied forms, by R. Lydekher, B. A. (Cantab), Geological Survey of India.

The cranium described in the present paper is a remarkably fine and nearly perfect specimen belonging to Stegodon ganesa (Falconer). It was discovered by Mr. Theobald in the grey sandstone beds of Maili, belonging to the middle Siwalik series. In describing this specimen 1 have of necessity been led to examine the other allied species, and in the present paper intend giving a few notes on the sub-genus.

The sub-genus or genus (P) Stegodon as originally founded by the late Dr. Falconer, comprised four species, viz., S. insignia, S. bombifrons, and S. ganesa, from the Siwaliks, and S. cliftii, from the tertiary beds of the Irawadi: subsequently. Professor Jour., Geol. Soc., Lon., 18/0, p. 417) added two other species to this list, viz., S. orientalis and S. siren sis, founded on fragments ol molar teeth brought from China. In spite of the reputation of the founder oi these last two species, I cannot help doubting their validity as being based on the characters of tlie teeth alone, as these are so very similar in all the species ; at the same time, I should be by no means surprised that, if at any time the crania of the Chinese species should bo discovered, it (or they) would he found to differ from the Indian species.

Schimper and Hougeot ; Monographic des plantes fossiles du gres bigarrd dcs Vosges, 1847, 40 plates.

Li/dckJier : Slegodon Ganexa .

The sub-genus was founded on the peculiar character of the molar teeth, the grinding Surface of which is divided into a series of transverse hills and valleys, the enamel passing over the surfaces of both, and not penetrating into the substance of the crown : these ridges are capped by a number of small eminences, generally known as cusps ; there is never any distinct antero-posterior valley running across the ridges, by which negative character the sub-genus is at once easily distinguished from the allied genus Mastodon.

Of the four Indian species of the sub-genus, Stegodon cliflii has the smallest number of ridges, which sufficiently distinguishes the molars of this species. Of the other three species we find the ridge-formula to bo exactly the same in all ; the molars, indeed, of 8. insignis and S. ganesa, Dr. Falconer says, (Pal. Mem., vol. I, p. 80). are so alike, that the " differences are practically insufficient for the discrimination of the two species." The molars of & bombfrons are distinguished from those of the other two species by having the ridges " broader and less elevated, with more open hollows;" the distinction is, however, very slight indeed. Prof. Owen, in his paper cited above, lays great stress on the number of cusps on the ridges, as affording a valuable distinction between the molars of the different species of Stegodon ; this appears to me to be a somewhat insufficient character, and one which would be extremely likely to vary in different individuals, and I do not find that it holds good for the molars of the crania of the different species in the collections of the Im perial Museum.

I therefore consider the molars of Stegodon ganesa and Stegodon insignis as indistin guishable one from the other; the skulls arc, however, easily' recognized, that of S. insignis "being singularly modified, so as to bear an analogy to the cranium of Deinntherium, while the head of S. ganesa does not differ much from the ordinary type of the elephant" (Pal. Mem., vol. I, p. 81). In spite, however, of this striking difference in the two crania, Dr. Falconer, subsequently to writing the above passage, had reason to doubt the specific distinct ness of S. ganesa : he did not state, however, on what grounds, or with which species lie pro posed to amalgamate it ; the distinctness, however, of the molars of Stegodon bombifrons shows that it must have been with S. insignis. If any certain distinction could bo drawn between the molars of S. insignis and S. ganesa, it would be of itself sufficient to confirm the distinctness of the latter; as it is, we are driven to depend on the character of the crania alone.

At first sight the huge tusks and alveoli, the largo size of the inter-alveolar fossa and of the nasal fossa, together with the high and vaulted frontals, appear alone quite sufficient to distinguish the cranium of S. ganesa from the small-tusked S. insignis, with the small nasal fossa, and the peculiar flattening and ridging of the frontals ; if, however, we turn to the figures of the crania of /S', insignis in the " Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis," we shall find that the peculiar shape of the frontals of the adult of S. insignis is not present in those of the young animal : (the peculiarity in the adult arising from a partial development of the intertabular fossa;). From this fact, in accordance with Falconer's doubts, I have thought it might be possible that S. ganesa is only a lmge-tusked male form, of which S. insignis is the female ; in the former, in correlation with the great development of the lower part of the skull to carry the large tusks, the frontal sinuses are also developed in like manner, and not aborted as in the female ( S . insignis).

The size of the crania of S. ganesa in the British Museum is, however, much larger in proportion to those of S. insignis than occurs in the living species of elephants ; and I cannot but think it expedient to continue to consider the two as distinct species, as the crania are so widely different. The present cranium has smaller tusks than any described specimen of S. ganesa, although they are still much larger than those of S. insignis. I think it, therefore, not improbable that this may he a female form, which supposition would

Records of the. Geological Survey of India.

at once do away with the above hypothesis ; there appears to be a difference in the number of cusps in the molars of this specimen from typical forms, which, according to Prof. Owen, might be grounds for specific distinction.

Apparently, from the specimens in Falconer's collections in the typical Sivvalilc strata of the districts adjoining the Jamna, which include the highest beds of the series, the skulls and molars of the highly specialized suh-genus Euelephas, as exemplified by E. hysndricus, were equally common with either of the species of Stegodon ; passing, however, more to the westward, towards the Satlej and the Beas districts, we find that most of the fossils obtained by Mr. Theobald (which form the chief part of the Siwalik collec tion of the Geological Survey) are obtained either from the middle grey sandstones, or the lower red clays, —both older than the Markanda river beds; among these fossils the pro portionate number of Stegodon molars to those of Euelephas is about 30 to 1 ; or in the pro portion of 10 to 1 (allowing for the three species of Stegodon). In the newer deposits of the Narbada valley, we find Euelephas JVamadicus the dominant species, while Stegodon is only represented by a few specimens of S. insignis ; in the present Indian Fauna, Euelephas alone survives, Stegodon having died out ; the latter genus is confined to the tertiary beds of India, Burma and China ; we find, therefore, as might have been predicated on anatomical grounds, that the simple form, Stegodon, appears to have been gradually dying out since Siwalik times (how long before that it originated we are unable at present to say), and to have been replaced by the more highly specialized forms of Loxodon and Eueleplias, of which the latter is the most highly specialized. The pedigree of the Prohoscidia is probably some thing of this sort, as shown in the diagram ; Tapirus connecting it with other Ungvlata.

Euelephas

Namadicus Hysndricus -

Loxodon

Planifrons . Africanus

Bombifrons

Indicus

Primigenius

Antiques

Oriental is ? Sinensis ?

Insignis '

Perimensis

Sioalensis

De1Nother1Um

Cliftii

Latidens

Mastodon

European and American species

Tapirus

Common Ancestor

Until geological explorations have been carried out to a greater extent in the countries between India and England, it is impossible to say in which direction the migration of elephants took place ; it would not, however, ho unreasonable, from the number of species and genera found in the Siwaliks and other Indian strata, to suggest that India was the original home of the family ( Elephas , Mastodon, Deinotherium, and Tapirus are all found fossil in India), and that the migration took place from thence, all the sub-genera having taken origin

Lydehher : Stegoclon Ganesa.

in that country, probably long before Siwalik times ; thus Loxodon planifrons, or an unknown allied species, might have travelled westward and given rise to Loxodon meridionalis of the English " Forest Beds," and subsequently to the living Loxodon africctnus. In the same way, Euelep/ias may first have given rise to the Siwalik species, from which again sprung the Narbada species and the living Euelephas indicus, and on the other hand, to another branch which travelled over Asiatic Russia, and thence to Europe, producing the Mammoth E. primigenius and the other European species.

Mastodon, as having the widest distribution— Europe, Asia, and America — as well as from being the most generalized type of the family, may well be considered as the most ancient form of the group ; its earliest occurrence in India is in the supra-nuramulitic beds of Sind and Kach, and its latest existence was probably in the marshes of the Ohio, where it not unlikely lived down to the human period ; it is the only American representative of the family, and its migration may well have taken place from India westward to America. Mastodon was the first of the elephants to die out in India, it being unknown after the Siwalik period.

The present specimen of Stegodon ganesa exhibits the whole of the cranium in very perfect aud complete condition ; the chief injuries are the absence of the zygomatic arches, which have been broken off close to their respective origins ; and the absence of the greater portions of the tusks, the incisive sheaths having been broken off near their base ; the bones composing the wall of the left temporal fossa have been much crushed and comminuted, but have been subsequently roughly recemented together by a calcareous infiltration.

In its original state the cranium was almost completely embedded in a mass of the com mon Siwalik grey sandstone, which, though generally soft, became almost as hard as granite as it approached the bone. The mass of stone in which the specimen was embedded was, as is so commonly the case with Siwalik fossils, a detached boulder, which had undergone a considerable amount of rolling and weathering : the fractured extremities of the tusks had evidently been exposed for a considerable time to the action of the weather, being much decomposed, and easily separating into a series of concentric rings. The bone had lost its animal matter, adhering very strongly to the tongue, and absorbing a great quantity of the glue with which it was treated.

The general outline of the facial and frontal portions of the cranium correspond nearly with that of Colonel Baker's large cranium of this species in the British Museum ; this is noticeable in the comparatively large size of the incisive sheaths, the large and deep fossa between them, and in the continuity of the fronto-incisive planes ; when examined in detail, however, certain smaller points of difference exhibit themselves.

The frontal plane of Colonel Baker's specimen of this species is remarkable for its broad and smooth expanse, scarcely roughened by any ridge or protuberance ; in this speci men a bold rounded ridge is continued upwards and backwards along the mesial line of the frontals from the nasals, and terminates in a rounded boss, some eight inches above the naso-frontal suture; on either side of this ridge there is a marked depression, broadest above the nasals, and gradually narrowing as it passes upwards : externally to this depression a sharp trihedral ridge is continued upwards from the post-orbital process of the frontal, im perceptibly losing itself in the flat surface of the parietais. There is no resemblance to the flattened upper frontals and supra-nasal ridge of the cranium of Stegodon insignia.

The large dimensions of the nasal bones (see table of measurements) differ from those of typical specimens of the species, and still more widely from those of all other species, especially S. insignia, in which they are remarkably small ; they are more than double the size of the corresponding bones in Colonel Baker's cranium, and four times that of the nasals

Records of the Geological Surrey of Lidia ,

of S. insignis. The nasals form a downward prolongation of tho mesial frontal ridge; they are of great thickness, being composed of a mass of finely cancellated bony tissue, project i'ar over the nasal fossa, and have a somewhat quadrate free termination. The lower border of the frontals, forming the upper boundary of the nasal fossa, sweeps upwards in a bold arch on either side of the nasals: in Colonel Baker's cranium this line of tho frontals is much straighter and is scarcely interrupted by the small nasals. The lower border of the nasal fossa slopes away evenly from either side to the median line ; at this line a deep trian gular notch, on either side of which are the posterior processes of the premaxillro, connects the nasal and incisive fossil; below this notch the incisive fossa becomes suddenly very deep; in Colonel Baker's cranium the inter -premaxillary notch is much shallower, and the processes blunter : in S. insignis the notch is almost absent, and the incisive fossa becomes gradually, not suddenly, deep.

The incisive fossa is of great size and depth, its outer walls are nearly perpendicular to the base, and parallel to each other ; in Colonel Baker's cranium the inner walls of the incisive sheaths are curved, the concavity looking inwards : in S. insignis the incisive sheaths are very slender and diverge rapidly outwards, in a manner very different from either of the above.

In a side view of the cranium, the upper boundary of the large temporal fossa is of an elongated ear-shape, just as in Colonel Baker's specimen ; the cranial wall of this fossa runs in a plane nearly at right angles to the roof of the cranium, as far down as a line connect ing the post-orbital pi'oeess of the frontal with the lower border of the posterior zygomatic root; along the line of the nervous foramina, there is an abrupt fall inwards from this vertical plane, to join the plane of the molar alveolus. In Colonel Baker's specimen the wall of the temporal fossa begins to curve inwards very rapidly, which curve is continued without any break at the nervous foramina, to join the plane of the molar alveolus. In Stegodon insignis the temporal fossa is curved autero-posteriorlv, as well as from above down wards, differing very markedly from either of the above forms.

The walls of the temporal fossa, in this and in all other specimens of Stegodon ganesa that I have seen, are straight antero-posteriorly, and are placed nearly at right angles to the plane of the face ; there is never any wedge-shaped indentation of the fossa towards the median line in the middle of the frontals, which renders the greater part of the walls of the fossa visible from the front of the skull, as always occurs iu the crania of Stegodon insignis, and which gives it its characteristic form.

In the crania of all other elephants that I have seen, the course of the optic nerve, after emerging from its foramen, is continued outwards across the orbit, in a deep channel, which grooves the inferior surface of the post-orbital process of the frontal ; in the present specimen this channel is absent, the surface of the bone being perfectly smooth ; this feature is probably only an individual variety.

In a front view of tile cranium, as stated above, only a very small portion of the tem poral fossa of either side comes into the field of view ; the external outline of the lower portion of the cranium differs in several respects from Colonel Baker's specimen, probably owing to the smaller size of the tusks. The anterior zygomatic root stands out from the outer border of tlie incisive sheath almost at a right angle, throwing the infra-orbital fora men entirely out of the line of the incisive fossa, while the forameu itself looks nearly directly forwards. In Colonel Baker's specimen the anterior zygomatic root slopes away very gradually from the outer wall of the incisive sheath at an obtuse angle of nearly 120°, the infra-orbital foramen occupies a notch in the outer border of the incisive sheath, and looks considerably outwards as well as forwards. The position and form of the anterior zygo matic root and foramen in the present specimen resemble the position of the corresponding

Ljdekher : Stegodon Ganesa.

portions in the cranium of Stegodon insignis , and might, therefore, he taken as evidence foi the specific identity of the two forms : I rather regard this position, however, as due only to the smaller size of the tusks ; while the greater size of the present cranium, and the form of the frontals and temporal fossae, serve to show that a smaller tusked form of Stegodon ganesa exists, without making any approach in the form of the upper cranium to the cranium of Stegodon ensign is, so peculiarly modified in the upper regions.

The occipital surface is much flattened, having an irregular hexagonal outline, of which the parietals form the longer superior border, and the condyles the shorter inferior border ; on its outer side, this surface slopes away rapidly to form the posterior boundary of the temporal fossa ; the hollow for the insertion of the ligamentum nuchae commences about five inches above the foramen magnum, and is continued vertically upwards for a distance of eleven inches, averaging an inch and a half in width, and rather less in depth.

The following measurements of this cranium are compared below with those of Colonel Baker's specimen, figured in plate XXI of the Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis, and described at page 33 of the description of the plates to the above : —

Measurement in inches of crania.

Width of incisives at infra-orbital foramen "Width of ditto below ditto

Length of cranium from occipital condyles to anterior border of molar alveolus

Vertical height from condyles to sinciput ...

Lateral diameter across occipital condyles Ai item -posterior diameter of left condyle ...

Transverse diameter of ditto Ditto ditto of foramen magnum ...

A ii tero-posterior diameter ditto Diameter of widest part of supra-occipitai Ditto nasoprannaxillary fossa Interval between nasal fossa and post-orbital margin of frontal ...

Extreme width of frontals ...

Depth of zygomatic fossa

Estimated width of cranium between centre of temporal fossa ...

Height from lower margin of meatus auditorium ext emus to sinciput Ditto posterior margin of molar alveolus to sinciput Length from upper border of foramen magnum to posterior margin of molar alveolus

Vertical height of orbit ...

Transverse diameter of middle of left incisive slieath Vertical diameter of left incisive sheath ...

Ditto of infra-orbital foramen Transverse ditto ditto

Interval between distal ends of second molar Interval between proximal ditto ditto Length of right second molar Width of ditto ditto ditto at second ridge

Ditto ditto ditto ditto at penultimate ditto

Vertical height from posterior extremity of outer border of second molar alveolus to post-orbital process of frontal Distance between outer surfaces of second molars at fifth ridge ...

A nero-posterior diameter of meatus auditorium externus Transverse ditto ditto ditto ...

Length from upper border of foramen magnum to tip of nasals ...

From tip of nasals to jn*sem axillary protuberance

Height from lower border of anterior zygomatic root to crown-surface of second molar ...

Width of nasals at base Length of ditto

Long diameter of posterior nares Transverse ditto ditto

Present

specimen.

Col. Baker's S, ganesa.

4*o5

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

From tlie above table of measurements we find the general measurements of the two crania not varying more than might be expected in two different individuals; but the respective dimensions of the tuslcs and their alveoli are very different. Thus it will be seen that, in the present specimen, the transverse diameter of the incisive sheath above and below the intra-orbital foramen is the same ; while in Colonel Baker's cranium the sheaths are constricted at the foramen, and suddenly expand below this point. The transverse diameters of the incisive sheaths of the two crania below the infra-orbital foramina are in the proportion of 8 to 11 '5, and the antero-posterior diameters in the proportion of 7 to 10. The circumferences of the respective incisive sheaths are 20 and 30 inches ; the length of the tusks of Colonel Baker's specimen, from the distal extremity of the incisive sheath to their tip, is 9 feet 8 inches; if the length of the tusks in the present speci men bears the same proportion to their diameter, as it does in Colonel Baker's specimen, this would uot have exceeded 6 feet 9 inches, making a difference of 2 feet 9 inches in the length of the tusks in the two individuals ; very probably the difference may have been still greater.

The next most noticeable difference in the measurements of the two skulls occurs in the palate ; the palate of the present specimen is wider than that of Colonel Baker's specimen, in the proportion of 4 to 2'7 at one end and o'2 to 3'2 at the other. The nasals of the present specimen are nearly twice as large as those of Colonel Baker s specimen ; the trans verse measurements being 5'5 and 3'0, and the antero-posterior measurements 3'8 and T6 inches.

The vertical height of the present specimen is one inch greater than that of Colonel Baker's specimen ; and the width of the frontals is 1 j inch greater.

If now we turn to the figures of the crania of Stegodon insignis given in plates 16 and 17 of the ''Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis" with their accompanying measurements, we find that the specimen figured in plate 17, fig. 1, has a diameter of only 25'5 inches across the occiput, 3 inches less than in the present specimen ; while its vertical height is 4'5 inches less ; the whole cranium, in fact, being greatly smaller than the present, and differing by the peculiar form of the forehead so greatly as to have very little general resemblance.

From the above facts I conclude that the present specimen proves the existence of a small-tusked variety of Stegodon ganesa, of which the cranium is at least as large as in the big-tusked variety, and which, moreover, shows no approach to the peculiarly modified cranium of Stegodon insignis, of which the tusks are still smaller ; the present specimen might well be a female of Stegodon ganesa, while Stegodon insignis will still stand as a distinct, though closely-allied, smaller species (in the modern acceptation of the term) dis tinguished by its peculiar frontals and temporal fossa); the teeth of the two species being in distinguishable from each, and indicating a very close affinity -

Continuiug our description of the present specimen, we find that two pairs of molars are protruded from their alveoli ; the first pair have been in wear for a considerable period, and are much worn away in front, the number of ridges remaining being only seven. In the second molar of the left side, eight ridges may be counted, together with an anterior talon ridge : between the first and second ridge there is a small conical tubercle on the outer side. This molar is only partially protruded from its alveolus ; from the width of the last visible ridge, there must be two or three more ridges still concealed in the alveolus : this would make the tooth the last of the permanent molar series, in which the number of ridges should he either ten or eleven; the penultimate molar never has more than eight ridges; the fact of this tooth being the last of the series proves the animal to have been fully adult, and that the tusks had attained their full size and development.

MedUcoit : Sub- Himalayan Series in Jamil.

The unworn ridges on the last molar are remarkably clear and sharp, displaying in great perfection the cusps on their summits; as in the typical specimen, they have the usual transverse bowed form, with clean transverse valleys, without any trace of a median, foreand-aft cleft ; the outer side of the worn ridges is lower than the inner side.

The first ridge of the ultimate molar is unusually thick and massive; it has an imperfectly-divided talon on its anterior side: its longer or transverse diameter is 4 inches, and the shorter or autero-posterior diameter 2 inches ; the interval between the summits of the second and third ridges is T2 inches, and that between the seventh and eighth ridges 1'6 inches. The depth of the valley between the sixth and seventh ridges is 1'5 inches ; transverse diameter of the fifth ridge is 4'2 inches. On the fifth ridge there are no less than thirteen sharply-pointed cusps visible : the sixth cusp, counting from the inner side, on this, and the immediately adjacent ridges is some what larger than the rest, and its hollow on the outer side somewhat deeper. This sixth cusp and valley will probably indicate the lino homologous with the medial fissure of the molars of Mastodon.

The great number of cusps on the ridges of the last molar is an unusual character among the Siwalik Stegodons ; a character to which, however, as stated above, I do not attach much value : the thirteen cusps on the fifth ridge do not probably represent the total number, as the whole of the ridge is not protruded from its alveolus ; there are, no doubt, at least two still concealed ; this would bring up the whole number to fifteen.

The greatest number of cusps contained in a single ridge of any of the molars of Stegodon ganesa figured in the "Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis " is eight ; in S. insignis ten ; and in S. bombifrons nine. In Stegodon orientalis, Prof. Owen says, the cusps are "about a dozen in number"; and in S. sinensis he infers them to be twelve or thirteen, If the number of cusps be any criterion of specific identity, as Prof. Owen thinks it is, the pre sent cranium would belong to a fifth Siwalik species, which would be most nearly related to the Chinese species. The close resemblance of the cranium, however, to the typical Stegodon ganesa at once forbids this supposition; and I should be therefore inclined to doubt the validity of Prof. Owen's new species, founded mainly on this character.

As an instance of the variability of this character, I may cite a specimen of a right mandible of S. insignis in the collection of the Imperial Museum (No. 63 S.) ; the specimen contains the third milk-molar just protruded from its alveolus ; this tooth shows seven ridges; the fifth of these carries eleven cusps, a greater number than I have seen on even a last molar of this species. 1 think, therefore, that this character, as of specific value, must be abandoned; if so, Prof. Owen's Chinese specimens must also be abandoned, as they are founded chiefly on this character and some slight variation in the enamel.

Note upon the Sub-Himalayan Sebies in the Jamu (Jummoo) Hills, by II. B.

Medlicott, m. a., Geological Survey of India.

The 'Jamu Hills' may conveniently be taken to designate the several ranges, of steadily decreasing elevation, between the flanks of the Pir Panjal and the plains of the Panjab, from the Ravi to the Jhelam. At the E;ivi they are the direct continuation of the ranges in the Kangra district. For many years this ground has been a missing link in our study of the great Sub-IIimalayan series of tertiary rocks. So long as those territories could boast of a geologist of their own, we refrained from trespassing upon his rights ; but soon after the departure of Mr. Drew, steps were taken towards closing this gap in our wor . Every facility has been granted to us by His Highness the Maharajah and his ministers.

Records of the Geological Survey of Lidia.

Vol. Ix.

The special point to bo cleared up was, the discrepancy between tho sections of these rocks as described by me in 1862 (Mem. Geol. Surv., Ind., Vol. Ill) in the region of the Ganges and the Satlej, and those observed by Mr. Wynne in the country west of the Jhelam. I had made out two very marked breaks in the series. One was where the topmost beds of the great mammaliferous deposits rested against and upon an inner belt of older rocks. As tin; former wero conspicuously the home of the famous Siwalik fossils, I restricted this name to that younger group of i-ocks, giving the name of Nahan to the older beds upon which they rested unconformably. It was certainly rash of me thus to tamper with a well-known name. Although the fauna of tho Nahan rocks is still unknown to us, it presumably will include mammalian remains, having more or less of affinity to those known as Siwalik ; and it may bo paleontologically desirable to make the same name cover all. This, of cours% can still be done, if required, substituting some local name in the application I gave to Siwalik.

The second break in the eastern section occurs where tho Nahan rocks abut against the old slaty rocks of the higher mountains, high upon which there rests an extensive rem nant of still older tertiary deposits, including at their base the nummulitic beds of Subathu, transitionally overlaid by red clays and grey sandstones in distinguishable zones, to which I gave the names Dagshai and Tvasaoli. 1 subsequently denoted these three older bands collect ively as the Sirmur group, it being desirable to restrict the name Subathu to the nummulitic zone proper. There was little direct evidence as to bow far the boundary between the Nahan and Sirmur groups might also he an aboriginal unconformity, or altogether due to flexure and faulting; but the fact that in tho lowest outcrops of the Nahan baud over a very large area no symptom conld be detected of tho very characteristic Subathu zone, nor any specific representative of the Ivasaoli beds, which in the contiguous area are repeatedly marked by peculiar plant layers, gave strong presumptive evidence for the supposition of aboriginal un conformity.

No trace of these very marked stratigraphical features of the Simla region could be detected by Mr. Wynne in the country west of the Jhelam ; although several of the zones could be identified with great certainty. The Subathu nummulitics arc very characteristically represented west-of Mari (Murree), and over them, at Mari itself, the rocks exactly resemble the Dagshai beds ; while at the upper end of tbe series tlie Siwaliks are in great force, with their characteristic fossils.

As an unknown quantity between those two contrasting sections there was the remark able fact that the axes of flexure in the rocks west of tho Jhelam have a direction at right angles to that of the contiguous Himalayan ranges ; the change taking place abruptly along the course of the river. It is the junction or confluence, the knee, as it has been termed, between tbe lines of the Himalaya proper and those of the Hindu Kush. There seemed a possibility that the total disappearance westward of tho boundaries so strongly marked at the base of the Himalaya east of the Satlej might be closely connected with this striking transverse feature of tlio mountain structure. Such, however, is not the case. These two systems of flexure arc continuous and eotemporaneous.

The difficulty of establishing divisions in the immense series of tertiary strata which has so hampered Mr. Wynne in his examination of the trans-Jhelam country, had already strongly declared itself to me in the hills between the Satlej and the Itii-vi. On the map published with my memoir, it will bo seen that the Nahan-Siwalik boundary and the Nahan zone itself is stopped abruptly and arbitrarily at tbe Satlej. I found that the abutting, overlapping junction of topmost Siwaliks against low Nahftus had gradually changed into vertical parallelism; the ridge of Nahan rocks here taking the form of an anticlinal, sinking to the north-west-, round tho point of which the Siwaliks turn over into the inner valley. Finding that the several broad duns (flat longitudinal valleys) of the Ivangra district were occupied by rocks of Siwalik type, and uot having time to work out their approximate separation from the core of Nahan beds in some of the dividing ridges, I coloured tie

Medlicott: Sal -Himalayan Series in Jamu.

whole area as Siwalik, giving due notice of this on the map itself and in the descriptive test. Thus already in the Kangra district the Nahan-Siwalik boundary was extremely difficult to fix.

The other great boundary-feature of the Simla region, that between the Nahan and Sirmur groups, also undergoes much change immediately west of the Satlej ; and in a similar manner to that described for the Nahan zone ; the whole Sirmur group becomes lowered along the strike to the north-west, so that the Subathu zone is altogether suppressed. On this account, and because this structure would probably bring in higher beds, the north-western extension of the Sirmur band was coloured as Nahan in my map of 1862. It is for this zone the beginning of the compromise that must be adopted to reconcile the different distri bution of the strata in the separate sections of the mountain region. The actual boundary of this innermost tertiary zone is still as clear as ever, because there is a corresponding change in the outer contact rocks ; Siwalik conglomerates abutting against it all along the Kangra Dun.

There is still a leading feature of contrast between the two regions separated by the Jamu hills. In the Simla region the Subathu beds rest on a deeply denuded surface of the next oldest strata, supposed to be of lower secondary age ; whereas beyond the Jhelam no such unconformity has been observed. This, it is evident, is a difference of precisely the same character as those already noticed within the tertiary series ; and it is very noteworthy that these changes coincide in position with the most remarkable bend in contour of the boundary of the higher mountains, formed of old rocks, where for a length of nearly eighty miles it runs north and south, making an angle of 45° with the general course of the range. The direct continuity of the outermost base of the hills bounding the plains is maintained, past this bend of the higher mountains, by a greatly increased width of the fringing belt of the tertiary rocks.

These leading features of the two regions, as partially sketched in the preceding para graphs, have been for some time more or less fixed ; and the interpretation I have put upon them is simply that the disturbances marking the Himalayan system, as displayed in the centre of its area, are of earlier date than those affecting the terminal portion 'and the Hindu Kush ; that in early or middle secondary times a general elevation occurred of the south Himalayan area, along the border of which the Sirmfir deposits subsequently took place ; that the eocene period was closed by the more special disturbance with crushing which constituted, perhaps, the principal phase of the mountain formation ; that after a period of denudation the Nahan deposits set in ; that a similar interruption produced the break between the Nahan and Siwalik groups ; while during all that time little or no elevation took place in the region of the Jhelam. Our observations in the Jamu hills have not disturbed these conjectures.

During the past cold season I had the advantage of going over part of my old ground, from the Satlej to the Ravi, through the Jamu country, and over a part of the trans- Jhelam districts, in company with Mr. Theobald and Mr. Lydekher. The snow prevented us follow ing the innermost tertiary boundary along the flanks of the Pir west of the Chenab ; hut this was not our principal object, and Mr. Lydekher is now engaged in examining that ground. We satisfied ourselves that on the Satlej there is no assignable break, faulted or otherwise, in the sequence from the Nahan to the Siwalik strata, although a very approxi mate position (that given in my map) can bo made out for the change from the harder, deeper-coloured clays and sandstones of the former, to the paler or brighter and softer rocks of the fossiliferous upper group. This distinction is more or less discernible throughout the whole range to the north-west. It may be very well seen on both sides of the Bakrala ridge between Jhelam and Rawalpindi.

As might be expected from its much greater magnitude, the middle tertiary break — that appearing in the Cis-Satlej region as a Nahan-Sirmur contact, and in the Kangra district

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

marked on my map as a Siwalik-Nahan "boundary — is clearly defined for a much greater distance westward than the Nahan-Siwalik break of the Simla region. On the Ravi, as all through the Kangra district, the Siwalik conglomerates are in great force along it ; but west of the river an oblique strike brings in lower beds, which are less distinguishable ; still, the feature as a structural break is easily followed to near Udampur, where the fault dies out in the irregular flexures of the region of the Choti-Tawi. Here one must trust to aboriginal characters of the strata in any attempt to separate the lower as well as the upper zones of tertiary rocks.

In examining the extension of the inner belt of tertiaries this year, I hit upon two outcrops bearing on this point. Where this zone runs north and south along the left bank of the Ravi, under the point of the Dhaoladhar ridge, it is very much compressed, being not moie than a quarter to half a mile in width. In this very crushed, probably inverted, outciop I found a characteristic sample ot the Ivasaoli plant bed, the only occurrence of it known west ot the Satlej. Should the unconformity between the Kasaoli and Mahan horizons in the eastern region he confirmed, this observation will extend the separation of the zones up to the Ravi; and I shall have been over-cautious in introducing the Nahan strata in this position so far to the eastward on my map.

Where the Ravi leaves its mountain gorge and turns sharply to the south, there is also an acute bend in the strike of the bottom tertiary zone, and from here to fshe westward this band increases steadily in width, chiefly owing to the gradual retreat of its inner boundary, which crosses the high ridge into the Chenab valley north of Chineni. The breadth here at fifty miles from the Ravi is over twelve miles. Iu the valley of the Pine over the village of Martin, fifteen miles from the Ravi, I got a small outcrop of earthy nummulitic limestone, the first identification of the Subathu zone west of the Beas. This case illustrates well the difficulty of fixing the bottom division of the tertiary series— the Subathu- Dagsbai boundary, if the Sirnuir group maintains its distinctness so far; or the Subathu-Nahan boundary, if the Upper Sirmur group merges into the Mahan group, as seems certainly to occur at some part between the Ravi and the Jhelam. This nummulitic outcrop on the Pine, in the midst of a great section of bright red clays and pale-greenish sandy beds near the south boundary of the Sirmur band, is about the highest position in which I have found nummulities; and it exhibits again how closely the great supra-nummulitic red deposits are connected with that formation in the Plimalayan region.

T may here note an important observation I made this year regarding the inner boundary of this oldest tertiary zone. In the position already noticed along the west base. of the Dhaoladhar where the recognisable band of these rocks is so narrow, bemg compressed crushed, and apparently inverted, there is no definable boundary between them and the contiguous rocks of the mountain which here consist of a broken amorphous mass in a semimetamorphic trappoid condition, red and green vesicular and quasi-amygdaloidal pseudo-trap being the prevailing type. The amygdala are not the smooth vesicles pr, duced by elastic fluids m a fused rock ; they are of irregular shape, but are quite filled with infiltrated minerals There is a magnificent fan oftbed6bvis of this crumbling mass just below Simliu, and now deeply cut into on the left bank of tlie Ravi. I could not but conclude that this peculiar rock is a metamorphosed condition, through enormous pressure, of the Subathu nummulities. Now it exactly resembles the so-called trap of the Pir Panj.il aud Kashmir, the debris of which is the most abundant shingle in the torrents from that range, and of the age or origin of which there is no definite knowledge. If the observation here recorded can be extended to that region, an important step will be made towards understanding its intricate geology.

As the inner tertiary zone expands to the west of the Ravi, the enormous thickness of the supra-nummulitio groups has room to display itself. The cross-gorge of the Choti-Tawi is a line of depression, the rocks of the high ridge to the north-west of it havin°- a steady south-easterly clip. Strata much higher in the series occur here. There are thick masses of

Medlicolt : Sul-Himalayan Series in Jamu.

pale soft clays north of Chineni that may even he Siwalik. Indeed, here for the first time in this zone, which in the east, as has been said, is lifted bodily upon a pedestal of the old slates, we find, as is so general in the outer tertiary zones, conglomerates along the inner boundary of the area and forming the top of the series. At several places in the upper Tawi valley, below the Bindi gap, coarse and massive conglomerates are at the contact nearly vertical. These are most important, as bearing upon the question of sub-division of tins Sub-Himalayan tertiary series : do these beds represent the Siwalik conglomerates P If not, we can scarcely avoid the inference that there are concealed unconformities to he looked for. ellie search for fossils is the most hopeful way of settling the point ; but as I was traversing the country by forced marches to pick up the leading structural features of a large area, I could not stop for this purpose. The internal evidence of the beds themselves is, however, very significant: the imperfectly rounded shingle, some blocks as large as 2 feet in diameter, is almost exclusively made up of the bottom tertiary sandstone. The identification is certain. A fact of this nature was one of the confirmatory points for the Nahan-Siwalik unconformity in the Simla region, the source of these boulders being there evident ; whereas for the conglomerates on the T4wi there is no apparent source; every trace, so far as is known, of the tertiary rocks hay ing been removed from the region to the north. The fact is, however, absolute as to their once having extended in that direction, and as to their disturbance and denudation before the deposition of this conglomerate, certainly suggesting possible unconformity here, and in favour of the conjecture, that these beds at the inner border of the tertiary area, and well in among the high ranges, may represent the Siwalik conglomerates.

One of the most interesting observations we made this season was the demarcation of a great inlier of old limestone within the tertiary area.. The extreme north-west end of this feature at Dandli close to the Flinch river was noticed, in my Memoir of 1862 (loc. cit n 89) and I have now to apologise for having given a mistaken reading of it, which has led to some confusion. I was sent up there in 1859 to report on an outcrop of coal at Dandli. I had only one day on the ground ; and, fresh from the Simla region, I was. too hasty in annivino- 'its features to this remote section. I at once recognised the Subathu group at Dandli "crushed up at the south base of a great ridge of old limestone. Throughout the Simla region there is no carbonaceous hand in the Subfithu group ; hut, owing to deep unconformity and crushing, this group is very frequently brought into contact with infra-Kiol carbonaceous shales. The superficial similarity of these sections, m parallel geographical positions, led me astray. The coal of Dandli belongs to the nummulitic formation ; and the limestone is not presumably Krol.

The first appearance of this inlier is eighty miles to south-east from Dandli, some seven miles north-west of Udampur. It is not continuous throughout this distance, as there is no ' n ot it in the valley of the Bari-Tawi between Naoshera and Eajaori ; but all the outcrops ocTcur along the same line of flexure and upheaval. It is noteworthy that this line is on the general extension of the middle tertiary break of the Simla region, the outer boundary of the Sirmur zone. The principal mass of limestone is at the south-east end, where for a length of thirty miles it forms a lofty picturesque ridge, through the very centre of which the Chenab has cut a precipitous gorge, just north of Eiassi.

The structure of this feature throughout conforms to that which is so dominant oyer the whole South Himalayan region, a normal anticlinal flexure broken and faulted on its steep outer face. Besides this familiar transverse structure, the clearly defined outcrop of tfe/e gVoups betrays a regular longitudinal waving of the stratification. The interrupted outcrop with intervening younger rocks suggests this; and the detail ows it more clearly. At each end of these ridges the beds curve continuously round the point of the anticlinal as v, omes depressed The river courses seem to have little fixed relation to this feature, tlie tlUl ZZZ of depression ; the Chenib errts through the middle of the Em.., ridge ; the Pdneh cuts the point of the D.rrdli ridge, nod seu.r.l mr.o, stre.m, seem specially to affect clefts or chasms across these steep ribs of hard limestone.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The relation of the Subathu group to these limestone masses is most uniform ; not only is there complete parallelism of stratification, but the beds in contact seem to be the same throughout. This is most markedly the case in the nummulitic group, the bottom bed every where being the peculiar pisolitic clay, identical with that I described as a bottom bed of the group at Subathu (loc. cit., p. 78), and also identical with that in the same position on Mount Tilla at the east end of the Salt Range. It is normally a ferruginous layer, but the removal of the iron often leaves it nearly pure white. The coaly hand with some shaly clays immediately overlies it ; to which succeeds the limestone. Immediately under the Subathu bottom bed there is very commonly found a sort of silicious breccia. The perfect angu larity of all the fragments forbids the idea of their having undergone any transport, as would f rim A facie be suggested by the occurrence of such a band over a very large area, and often when the bedding has undergone no contortion. In this rock iron-ore has been extensively mined at many places, especially on the Sangar-Marg ridge. I believe the rock to be a shattered condition of a sandstone band that often occurs at the top of the great limestone series. The ore is a cellular limouite occurring in nests and strings through the breccia; it is probably derived by decomposition and infiltration from the coaly band of the Subathu group.

The great limestone itself is a dense cryptocrystalline rock, in this respect contrasting strongly with the compact and often earthy nummulitic limestone close above it. It is often thin-bedded, locally cherty, and occasionally has intercalated bands of silicious slates and flags. The aggregate thickness of the formation must be great. We could nowhere find any trace of fossils in it, and I could see no special points of resemblance in it to the Krol group of the outer Himalaya east of the Satlej. On the more gentle northern slope of the range the Subathu group stretches high up along every spur ; and the pisolitic bottom bed with its attendant quartz breccia occurs on the highest summits. It will he seen how this relation of the nummulitic zone here to the underlying formations agrees with that in the trans-Jkelam country, and contrasts with its total unconformity in the Himalayan region east of the Satlej.

At Kotli on the Phneli we have the feature representing the middle tertiary break of the Simla region, being the outer boundary of the inner tertiary bolt. It is here a double folded-flexure, with inversion between the axes, and faulting along the inner (anticlinal) axis. On the strike to the north-west towards the Jhelarn the compressed flexure expands, the faulting dies out gradually, and upper beds stretch across the anticlinal axis. We were not able to follow this line up to the Jhelarn, but these changes in it are the same as occur in all these features as they approach the Jhelarn ; the faulting which is so common along the main flexures in the Sub-IIimalayan region dies out ; and in many cases the flexures themselves cease and are taken up, on the new strike west of the Jhelarn, by representative, not con tinuous, features. The two main north-west south-east anticlinal flexures outside the Kotli diin seem to bend continuously into the north-east south-west anticlinals on either side of Mount Nar, west of the Jhelarn. I had not time to follow them so far ; but I got a very near view from the summits east of the river. The synclinal of the Sensar dun, between those anticlinal ridges, certainly rises with a steep south-east dip in the ridges flanking Mount liar on the south-east and well seen at the Owen ferry.

The less defined flexures of the lower Jamu hills are also traceable into connection with the trans-Jhelam lines. The anticlinal crossing the Punch to north-west at Suru bends round and runs into a branch of the Bakrala north-east flexure below Dangli ferry on the Jhelarn. The main representative of the Bakrala anticlinal continues on to Salgraon, where it merges into several minor transverse corrugations. Similarly, the broad north-north-cast anticlinal of Behri and Godari sinks into the synclinal area of Ckaomuk ; and further south, the Rhotas north-north-east anticlinal spreads and sinks into the synclinal outside the last branch of the Himalayan flexures, north-east of Bhimbar. On the whole, the transverse line of the Jhelarn

Medlicott: Sub -Himalayan Series in Jamu.

would seem to be one of comparative depression ; although, of coui'se, the deepest section visible, the lower zones of rock are not so exposed along it as on parallel sections to the south-east. The river itself observes no rule in its windings amongst the points of these opposing flexures.

I could detect nothing definite in these mutually accommodating structural features to prove that either system is younger or older than the other. They fit into each other in a way that could only be effected by a simultaneous growth. The continuity of strike observable in each could not obtain if the strata had previously been affected by undulations of the other. Of the two, however, the strikes are much more steady in the north-west south-east system ; a fact which may, perhaps, suggest that they had somewhat the start in their alignment. The great Bakrala flexure is almost serpentine in its windings. The form also of the north-east south-west flexures is less regular ; and in its variation betrays the dominance of the Hima layan thrust : while to the south-west, the steep side of these flexures is almost uniformly on the south-east ; to the north-east the steeper side is to the north-west. It is so in the Lehri anticlinal, and in the Bakrala flexure north of the Kasi.

In following the tertiary zones south-westwards from the Himalayan border to the Salt Range, some important changes are very marked. As is usual in the proximity of all the great Himalayan rivers, the Siwalik conglomerates attain an enormous special development near the Jhelam. They are finely exposed in the hills west of Salgraon, where it is well seen how this character is due partly to encroachment upon the lower zone. When not in force, the conglomerates are confined to the topmost earthy-brown portion of the series ; this band is largely represented here ; but below it the grey sandstone is strongly conglomeratic for a thickness of several hundred feet. These coarse deposits decrease greatly to the south, and become confined to the topmost beds, as described by Mr. Wynne in the Kharian or Pabbi hills, south-east of Jhelam (Bee. Geol. Surv., Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 48).

The main fossiliferous zone of the Siwaliks continues in great force to the south. The uncertainty of our measurements of them does not admit as yet of any close comparison in this respect. Mr. Theobald has again during this season made a good collection from these beds, principally in the area immediately north of the Salt Range, between the Tilla and Bakrala ridges. Mr. Lydekher, when he returns from the field, will no doubt give a good account of them.

In the lower zone we again find a very marked contrast from north to south along the Jhelam, between the Sub-Himalayan region and the Salt Range. We have seen all along the former ground that the Subathu-Dagshai boundary is the most unsettled of any in the Sub-Himalayan tertiary series ; stray thin layers of nnmmulitic limestone being locally found high up in the purple clays transitionally overlying the distinctive Subathu zone. In the Salt Range, on the contrary, this is the most marked boundary of any ; thick, softish sandstones and clays rest abruptly on the clear nummulitic limestone. The commonest junc tion-layer being a conglomerate made up of water-worn pebbles of the limestone and its flints, I described the contact in my Memoir of 1862 (p. 91), as one of denudation. I do not think the term a misleading one for such a junction, although Mr. Wynne very properly insists upon the constant parallelism of the stratification in the two groups, and upon his failure to find even a single case of actual erosion in the lower group filled in by the upper one. It is quite evident, however, that a very considerable break in the tertiary series occurs at this horizon in the Salt Range, amounting, I should think, to several hundred feet of the Subathu and immediately supra-Subathu zones of the Himalayan sections.

An important formation not yet mentioned came largely under our notice in the Sub- Himalayan hills — high-level river-shingle capping the ridges and spurs of upturned tertiary strata and packed against their flank at fully 400 to 500 feet over the actual river courses, which must have been eroded to at least that depth since the period of these deposits. There is evidence also to show that to some extent at least this was a re-excavation of the channels out

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

of these deposits, i. e., that the existing rock-gorges load been to a great extent cut out before their accumulation, then filled by them, and subsequently cleared out. again. JBubhor stands on a great bank of these beds packed against a ridge of vertical Siwalik conglomerates ; and the bottom beds are seen to pass continuously for some way up the gorge of the Satlej, while the top beds of the same set are found capping the inner ridge of grey sandstone above Naili. They are unquestionably of very ancient post-tertiary date.

The distribution of this formation in the hills is generally limited to a greater or less distance from the great river courses ; a fact which seems simply a question of levels ; the fiat watershed of the duns being commonly 500 to 600 feet over the main drainage level.

The supposed glacial deposits of the Kangra valley would belong to this old diluvial period. I must mention that though we were unable to account for the distribution of the great erratics otherwise than by glacial action, Mr. Leydekher and myself were unable to find the moraines so graphically described by Mr. Theobald (Yol. VII, p. 86). The features so named are, I believe, only ridges of erosion out of a deposit that must once have filled the whole valley, remnants of it being found on the outer ridge high over Kangra fort.

The same deposits are largely displayed about the Jhelam, capping the Rhotas ridge on both sides of the Kalian ; and on the Potwar, filling the valley of the Sohan, and covering the country for some distance from the Bakrala and Tilla ridges with large blocks of stone, for the transport of which it is difficult to account. Mr. Theobald strongly advocates their glacial origin, finding what he considers evidence of an ice-stream from the south-east flank of Tilla, past the villages of Huuula and Hun, to within about 1,000 feet of the sea level.

As the principal object of our season's work, it is necessary to say something of the correlation of these tertiary groups, especially since, in the absence of direct information, conjectural affiliations have been published by the Survey — by Mr. Wynne in his Memoir on the Kohat Salt Region (Mem., Yol. XI, 1875), and by Mr. Blanfonl in his paper on the Geology of Sind (Roe. Vol IX, 1876). The former finds representatives of all the lower tertiary zones in the Kohat and Salt Range sections, and almost excludes the Siwaliks (see table, p. 24) ; while the latter runs the Siwaliks and Nahans together as equivalent to his Manehar (plioceue) group (p. 21). It is but right to explain that these opposite mistakes are largely due to some unpublished work of Mr. Theobald's in 1873-74, who, starting from the Satlej, somewhat arbitrarily restricted the Siwalik group to the outermost range of hills, and mapped all the rest as Nahans, up to the traus-Jhelam country, although finding in them fossils of the Fauna Sivaleusis, the object set before him being to work out the presumed distinction of the Nahan and Siwalik faunas. Mr. Wynne accepted his stratigrapliical identifications, and Mr. Blanford on his side was equally right in insisting that there was a very close affinity between the fossils said to be from the two distinct horizons.

Whatever value may be ultimately assigned to the unconformity which originally sug gested the separation of the Nahan group in the Cis-Satlej region, the distinction of the zone as a comparatively barren formation at the base of the great mammaliferous Siwalik depo sits will hold good, even if the fossils, whenever discovered, should make it desirable to designate the group as lower Siwalik. It has now been traced with fair certainty into the traus-Jhelam country, where it is represented by several hundred feet of sandstones and clays immediately overlying the nummulitic limestone on the east end of the Salt Range. It may not. unlikely be the equivalent of Mr. Blanford's Gaj (miocene) marine group in Sind.

It seems vei'y doubtful whether it will be practicable or desirable to separate this band from possible representatives of the upper Sirmtir strata, in the vastly greater thickness of purple sandstones and clays transitionally overly'ing the Subathu group in the Himalayan

Medlicott : Sul-Himalayan Series in Jamu.

region proper, to the north of the Salt Range. We may he well satisfied if we can make out there an assignable boundary for the top of the Subathu group. This remains to be done.

A word is necessary on the Subathu group itself: at Subathu, where it was first brought to notice through the collections of Major Vicary, described by D'Archiac and Haime, and all along the Himalaya up to Mari, the formation is principally made up of brown, olive, and red clays, with subordinate earthy limestone ; the base of the group being very sharply defined throughout by very characteristic beds resting upon much older rocks. In my Memoir of 1862, owing to the mistake already noticed regarding the coal of Dandli, and other causes, such as the specific difference of the fossils as noted in D'Archiac and Haime's work, I remarked upon the want of agreement between the Subathu group and the nummulitic band of the Salt Range. From the continuous observations of this season I was greatly struck by the remarkable correspondence between the thin nummulitic band at the east end of the Salt Range and the very base of the Subathu group. The point is important with reference to the great change that takes place in the formation to the westward, both in the northern and southern region — the immense and rapid increase of limestone. From Mr. Wynne's de scription of the Mari ground, it would appear as if the " Subathu group " overlay his " Hill nummulitic limestone;" but I am disposed to think, and information sent me byMr. Lydekher strengthens the notion, that this great limestone takes the place of the upper Subathu deposits. The coaly band, common to both regions, continues at the base of the formation all through the Salt Range and beyond it to the west. Thus it appears possible that the Subathu group of the Himalayan region may contain representatives of Mr. Blanford's Nari and Kirthar groups, and even of his Ranikot beds, in Sind.

Our observations of this season have strongly brought before us the necessity of indicat ing an upper division in the Siwalilc group of my Memoir of 1862, to represent the great conglomeratic zone and its equivalents at the top of the formation. We found repeated confirmation of my remark that the distribution of these Siwalik conglomerates is coincident with the proximity of the Great Himalayan rivers, they being generally represented elsewhere by brown clays undistinguishable from recent alluvium, or, if conglomeratic in this position, the pebbles are of local debris, not the hard torrent-shingle of the great conglomerates. There is no better example of this than at the Satlej, where there are some 4,000 feet of deposits highly conglomeratic throughout and very coarse in the upper portion. All are vertical, the strike being most easily followed continuously ; and thus, within seven miles of the Satlej, in the parallel section above Basoli (Madanpur), we find only about 500 feet of conglomerate in the middle of over 3,000 feet of brown sandy clays. It was in these beds that Mr. Theobald found remains of Bubalus and Came'lus ; and Mr. Lydekher insists upon their separation from the main Siwalik deposits on palaeontological grounds, suggesting that they may be the same as the Narbada fossil-beds. Upon this question of identification I think further consideration is needed. If the old alluvium of the Gangetic plains, which Falconer identified with the Narbada bone beds, are the equivalents of these vertical upper Siwalik strata, wherein the plains are we to look for the representatives of the very ancient high-level terrace deposits already described along the base of the Hima laya as post-tertiary? I am inclined to think that these may rather be grouped with the old valley-gravels of the Peninsula. The gap between them and the top Siwaliks must be very great.

(An outline-map for this paper will be given in a later number).

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Tuein.— Atti della R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, Vol. X, Nos. 1 — 8, (1874 — 1875), 8vo., Turin.

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„ Bollettino Meteorologico ed Astronomico del Regio osservatorio, Anno VIII, (1875), 4to., Turin.

Ditto.

Yokohama. — Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Natur und Volkerkunde Osta-

The Society-

Records

Of The

Geological Survey Oe India.

Notes on the age of some fossil fleas in India, by Ottokae FeistMantel, m. d,, Geological Survey of India.*

Ill, IV AND V.

In the last number of the Records I had occasion to discuss the relations of some local fossil floras of India, and from those relations, after a thorough comparison of our floras with others, I attempted to draw natural conclusions regarding the age of the rocks in which the plants occur. I began with the highest groups of the Gondwana series, and gave a list of fossil plants found in the plant-beds in Kach, and in those interstratified (partly) with the volcanic formations of the Eajmahal hills. I also referred the flora from Golapilli, (Kolapilli) near Ellore (Madras Presidency), to the same age as the Rajmahal group.

Proceeding in natural order, I should next describe the other local floras more or less closely allied to those mentioned above, i. e., to the Kach and R aj m ah al groups. Such local floras are found in the Jabalpur group of the S a t p u r a and S o u t h R e w a h areas, the S riper m a tu r beds near Madras and the Trichinopoly plant-beds. I will, however, postpone the consideration of these for the present, in order to give a p reliminary sketch of the floras found in the lower groups of the Gondwana system, which are paleontologically more interesting, as determining the geological range of this system as a whole.

The groups to be noticed in the present paper, according to the classification adopted by the Geological Survey of India, are the following : —

a. — The Panchet group.

b. — The Damuda group.

c. — The Talchir group.

However opinions may differ as to the age of these three groups, as indicated by their floras, I do not doubt for a moment that all belong to one g e o logical epoch the Trias. Their precise age, in each case, will be shown by a discussion of each flora separately. I should consider it a great paheontological mistake on my part, and it would show want of knowledge of the literature, were I to decide otherwise, for it seems to me incorrect to suppose that the floras of these groups cannot be compared with a well known fossil flora in Europe, and to refer them instead only to a loss perfectly known flora in Aus tralia, with which some of our plant-beds have by accident one or two genera in common. On the other hand, several important genera found in the fossil floras ol India are identical with

Continued from p. 42.

Records of the Geological Survey of Indie.

those described from a well known and defined horizon amongst the rock-systems of Europe, while not one of the animal fossils, which serve to determine the age of the lower portion of the Australian coal strata, has ever been found in our series.

I regret only that the provisional determinations of the plant remains given by Mr. Oldham in his paper in the Memoir's, vol. II, have been misunderstood, and have given rise to wrong conclusions, as the present state of our knowledge shows that the real relations of the fossil plants arc different from what they were formerly supposed to be. For any safe inference the following conditions must he fulfilled : —

1. — Only a thorough determination of the fossil remains can he used for the

determination of the age of the series.

2. — The comparison must be made with all the known floras, and not only with

one, especially if that one be not typical.

3. — Where, besides the fossil plant remains, there are no fossil animals, the typical

plants must determine the age of the groups, especially if the species of plants are identical with other well known and characteristic forms found in formations of well determined age.

4. — The conclusions must agree with all laws of Palaeontology; if one law is aban

doned, the conclusions are uncertain, and contradictions appear which are unnatural.

5. — It is not unnatural that certain genera having a wide range in time should

be common to several series. They can, however, be of no important influence in fixing age, which must be determined by the other fossils with which they are associated.

For instance, "there is nothing strange in the same species of Ptilophyllum, Morr., occurring both in the Rajmalial series ( Lias ) and in the Kach series ( lower Oolit e ), nor in some species of Ferns or Pquisetaceie, being found in the Carboniferous and Permian; "and similarly there is no reason why a certain species of the genus Glossopteris, ., occurring in our Da mil da series, the flora of which is really Mesozoic, should not also be found as well (and perhaps prevail) in some of the supposed Palaeozoic coal strata of New South Wales.

We shall see fhat'characteristic species are found in the Panchet group and throughout the Damuda formation, and that these species clearly define the age of the beds, while Schizoneura is common to both, and proves that both belong to the same great epoch. The Damuda group has no real connection with the lower coal-beds of New South Wales, although Glossopteris, ., occurs iu both, and in Australia (but only in the lower strata) is associated with marine fossils of palaeozoic age. The plant-beds of Kach and those of I'ajmahal, as was shown in the last number of the Records, arc, it is true, of different ages, but yet belong to the same great epoch, and are related by the occurrence of certain species of the genus Ptilophyllum, Morr. ; in the same manner* wo shall find that the three series now to be described are also connected together by common forms: that the Panchet ('roup is connected by a species of Schizoneura with the Damuda, and these latter again with the Talchirs by Gangamopteris ; proving that all these three, though of different age, belon0-to tho same epoch. There may be, and of course are, other opinions about the age of these groups. I can only remark, that as long as no other proofs are found, the fossils alone can serve to decide the geological age, agreeing, as they do, with other well known species from well defined series ; and as these are all well known fossil .plants, these must decide.

Feistmantel : Fossil Floras in India,

III. — Flora and probable age of the Panchet group.*

In his paper on "the Raniganj coal-field," 1. c., Mr. IV. T. Blanford described some beds overlying the Damudas as the Panchet group. From this group, hoxh animal and plant remains are known. The first have been already described by Prof. Huxley in the Palieontologia Indica, Ser. IV, No. I, and determined as bones of Labifpinlhodonts and Dicynodonts. Besides these some Estherim were also found. These animal fossils, in connection with the plant remains, amongst which Mr. Oldham recognised some triassic forms, led to an approximate determination of the age of the Panchet group. This we find expressed on page 205 of Mr. Oldhams paper, 1. c. (Mem. Ill) in the following

words: " . I feel no hesitation in expressing my belief that the Panchet group

of the present report represents the earliest portion of the great mesozoic division in the general geological scale, or, in other words, is of about the same age as the Buntersandstein and Keuper of Europe."

There is only to ho remarked, that to tills group cannot be attributed the age of two different European strata (as Buntersandstein and Keuper are). From a comparison ot the plants I must as I shall show, accept the age of the Keuper for our Panchet group.

Mr. Oldham gave also a provisional list of the plant remains (Mem. Ill, p. 204) which has been reproduced in a recent paper of Mr. H. F. Blauford.f

The list was —

Schizoneura, 1 species.

Tamiopteris, 1 „

Sphenopteris, 2 „

Neuropteris ? 1 „

Pecopteris, 2 „

Preisleria, 1 „

Of these I have been unable to find any Sphenopteris or any true Neuropteris, whilst with regard to the doubtful genus Preisleria, Presl, we now know from the investiga tions of Prof. Schenk, that in the specimens which Presl described the leaf fragments belong to Zamiles distans, Presl, and that the flower or fruit-like figure (fig. 10) is an arti ficial production, as I will point out hereafter. Our fossils, which Mr. Oldham compared with Preisleria, are, as I think, more.probably the fructification of some equisetaceous plant.

As I shall before long have occasion to speak of these plant remains, as well as of the others, in more detail, with illustrations of the best of them, I will here only briefly notice the most important —

A—Eq Tjiseta Gem.

Remains of equisetaceous plants are of frequent occurrence ; one very important genus being especially abundant.

Genus : Schizoneura, Schirnp.

(Schimper et Mougeot : Monogr. d. pi. foss. du Gres bigarrd des Vosges, 1844.)

Scliimper and Mougeot described this peculiar genus from the "Gres hi gar re', (Buntsandstein) of the Vosges-mountains. But it has since beeu found also in Keuper and in Rhastic. There are in all about four species known.

Tide W. T. Blanford : Memoirs, Geolog. Surv., Ill, Part I, pp. 29, 126, 132, &c.

„ Th. Oldham : Additional remarks on the geological relations, etc. Mem. Geol. Surv. Ill, p. 197.

Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc., 1875 : On the age and correlation of the plant-bearing series of India, etc,

Sternberg, II, tab. XXX III, f. 5—10,

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Our species from the Pan diet is distinguished from those previously described by the dimensions of the leaflets (on the gpathes), which are broader. It comes nearest to Schizoneura paradoxa, Schimp.-Moug., from the Vosges sandstone. As I think lam justified in considering this species from the Panchet group as identical with that from the Kaniganj group (Damuda), I shall describe it under the following name : —

1. Schizoneura Gondwanensis, . The description will he given farther on under the Danuida flora.

This species is of great importance ; both because it is of influence in the determination of the age (for these broad-leaved forms are only found in the Trias), and because it serves to connect the Panchet with the upper portion of the Damuda (Raniganj group) ; as this species is found in both groups of the lower portion of the Gondwana series I name the species Gondwanensis. There occur also a great variety of stalks, stems, and evidently also Rhizomes and rootlets, belonging no doubt to this genus.

The fossils which Mr. Oldham identified with Presl's genus Preisleria I am inclined to look upon as the fructification of Schizoneura : they have certainly nothing in common with the form described by Presl. I have already mentioned that Presl's figure was taken from a specimen which had been altered by artificial means. Schenk* has proved that Presl's figuref belongs to Zamites di, starts, and he considers that the markings which were taken for inflorescence were produced by painting the specimen with Indian ink.J

B.—Filicfs.

Amongst these, there are two species of importance for the determination of the age. The most abundant is —

1. Pecopteris conciuna, Presl. Sternberg: FI. d. Vorw. II, Tab. XLI, fig. 3.

A fern, of which we have several specimens found in a greenish grey soft sandy clay which has not been quite suitable for the preservation of the tender parts of the fronds ; still our specimens agree exactly with Presl's figure.

Mr. Oldham recognized this species, and says on page 205 of his paper (Mem. Ill) ; " A Pecopteris is undistinguishahle from P. concinna, Presl, a triassic (Keuper) form." It is true that Presl and other authors after him considered the locality of P. concinna, Presl, (Iloefen near Bamberg) as Keuper, hut Schenk has shown that this locality as well as several others belong to the Ehtetic formation, intervening between Keuper and Lias. Nevertheless, on account of its occurrence with Schizoneura Gondwanensis, ., I will consider it Keuper.

The other species is —

2. Cyclopteris pachyrachis, Goppert : Gattungen der foss. Pflanz., Lief. 5, 6, p. 94 Tab. IV, V, figs. 13, 14.

This fossil was originally described from Bamberg, and was supposed to have been found in beds belonging to the Keuper. Other authors, including Scheuk, have described it under the same name ; but the last named writer, from a special examination of the ground, has proved that the locality at which the fossil was procured belongs to the Ithmtic beds, and its position is nearly the same as that of Pecopteris concinna, Presl.

Beijtttge zur Keuper-tuid Bone-bed-flora, p. 57.

f Presl in Sternberg1, Vers. II, PI, XXXIII, fig. 10.

% Schenk, Grenzscliichtcn-flora, p, 162. " Das Original der fig. 10, in der Kreissammlung zu Bayreuth befiudlich, verdient gar keine Berucksichtjgung, es ist mit Tusehe bemalt und sind die rundown schwarzon Stellen mit Farbc aufgetragen, das Blatt gehort wahrselicinlioh ebenfalls zu Zamites distans

Feistmantel : Fossil Floras in India.

Schimper lias more lately transferred Cyclopteris pachyrachis, Gopp., first to Neuropteris, ., and in the last volume of his Paleontologie vegetale (III, p. 476,) to Pecopteris.

Besides these two very well marked species of ferns there are some more indistinct frag ments, only one of which requires notice here. It is a species of Tceniopteris, ., which, from the general habit of the frond and its coriaceous appearance, must, I think, he referred to Oleandridium, Schimper, and is evidently somewhat allied to O. stenoneuron, Schiinp, (Schenk) from Eh® tic beds.

In general, therefore, the Flora of the Pancliet is very poor ; but still it is sufficient for comparison with other Floras, and for determining the age, at least with some probability. All the fossil plants hitherto found in the Panchet rocks are from one locality south of Maitur, on the west branch of the Nunia in the Raniganj field.

Amongst the Panchet fossil plants Schisoneum Gondwanensis, ., is the most important form.

If we now turn to the determination of the age, we have, excluding the reptilian remains, especially to consider three very well marked species, which at once indicate an age lower than Jura (including Lias). Of these three plants, two, Pecopteris cunciwna, Presl. and Cyclopteris pachyrachis, Gopp., (as well as, perhaps, the Tceniopteris, .,) would indicate the transition series between Keuper and Lias; but the occurrence of ScMzoneura Gond wanensis, ., which on the one side is allied to the European broad-leaved species ScMzoneura paradoxa, Schim.-Moug., from the Yosges (Buntsandstein or gres bigarre), on the other side is the same as the ScMzoneura so abundant in the Raniganj group (Upper Damiida), which also, as will be seen, is lower Triassic (gres bigarre), induces me to take the plants altogether as indicating a rather lower age, and I do not hesitate to consider them all as Iveupor, a position which is moreover not at all in contradiction with the evL dence of the reptilian bones, and with Mr. Oldham's already pronounced opinion (Mem. III). The Pancliet group may he therefore taken as representative of the highest Tr.ias (Keuper).

I think also the animal remains of this group will not be opposed to these observa tions, as they agree very closely with many reptilian remains known from the Rhaetio of Bayreuth (Verzeichn. der Petrel', z. Bayreuth ; F. Braun, 1840).

This group is allied, through ScMzoneura Gondwanensis, ., with the Damudas, in the first place with the Raniganj group, and through this with the whole formation.

IY. — Feoea and probable age of the Damuda Foehation.

This formation is largely developed in India; it is also the most important, as it includes the deposits of the so-called " old coal" of India. We find it in Bengal, South Eewah, Satpura Range, on the Godavari and in the Eastern Himalaya. I need not mention anything about the stratigraphy of this series, as this has been done in the publications of our Survey.*

The most important notices are —

Memoirs I. — On the geological structure and relations of the Talchir Coal-field in the district of Cuttack. (W. T. and T-I. F. Blanford, and W. Theobald).

Memoirs II.— On the geologSeal structure of the central portion of the Nerbudda District. (J. G. Medlicott).

„ „ On the geological relations and probable geological age of the* rocks in Central India, (by

Memoirs III.— On the geological structure and relations of the Rauiganj Coal-field, Bengal. (W. T. Blanford).

Memoirs VI. — The Bokaro Coal-field. (Th. W. H. Hughes).

Memoirs VJI, — Kurhuvbari Coal-field. (Hughes).

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

It is quite possible and not unnatural that the whole group may be divided stratigrapliically and lithologically into the three sub-groups which have been proposed, idz. —

But with reference to their palaeontological relations, we must consider all these as belonging to the same age, for the whole of the fossil plants, taken together, exhibit a distinctly limited general character such as is found in a well defined group in Europe. One genus also occurs in the lower coal-strata of Australia, and consequently a corresponding age has been inferred for our coal-bearing rocks, but, I think, incorrectly, for the other plaut remains from our Damuda formation which are so very characteristic are not found in Australia, and even the greater part of our species of Glossopteris, ., are distinct from the Australian, and also in Australia the same genus occurs in the upper por tion of the coal-strata without any fossil animals, but with mesozoic plants, and is most abundant at this horizon. I therefore consider that —

a. — In Australia there may be fossil remains of animals which determine the age of

the series, although a certain species of Glossopteris, ,, is found with them.

b. — In India, on the other hand, as no fossil animals have been found, the age of the

series must be determined by the other plants, notwithstanding the occurrence of Glossopteris, .

I look upon the occurrence of Glossopteris, ., in the Damuda formation as offering a parallel case to the presence of Ptilophyllum, Morr., in the Kajmahal and Kach groups :

it is an interesting plant, but without direct influence in enabling us to determine the age of the beds. My conclusions are the following, that Glossopteris, ., began to exist in the lower coal-strata of Australia, where it is said to be associated with fossil animals of carboniferous age, and continued in our Indian coal series, which, however, are characterised by some very well defined genera, which indicate another, and a mesozoic age as in the upper portion of the Australian strata and in Africa. A more exact determination of the age will result from the comparison of the fossil plants.

It has been, and will perhaps yet he, endeavoured to show that the Indian Damuda series are of palaeozoic age, hut I do not see where is the proof, as the palaeontological results, the only possible proofs, indicate lower mesozoic, as will appear from the follow ing facts : —

a. — There is no other connection between the Indian rocks and the lower portion of the coal-strata of Australia except the occurrence of Glossopteris, ., in both ; it is, however, much more developed in India.

b. — The chief evidence that uo Taniopteris occurs in the Damuda (Oldham, Memoirs, II, p. 329, and some others), has been shown to be a mistake, as there are found in the upper portion distinct species of broad-leaved Tceniopteris, ., with mesozoic characters ( Macrotceniopteris) Schimp., as I will show more fully further on.

Memoirs IX.— Geology of Nagpfir. (W. T. Blanford),

Memoirs X. — Satpura Coal-basin. (Medlicott).

Memoirs XI.— Geology of Darjeeling. (Mallet).

Besides these I will mention only —

Bimbury.— Fossil plants from Nagpur. Quart. Journ., Geolog. Soe. 1861, Vol. XVII, p. 32S. Hoyle.— Illustrations of the Botany, &e., of the Himalayan Mountains. (Plants from Burdwan) McClelland, — lieport of the Geological Survey in IBIS-in (Damuodah plants).

Feisimanlel : Fossil Floras in India.

c. — The Danruda Sphenophyllum ( Ti'izygia ) proves quite different in habit from those of the carboniferous period.

d. — The discovery of Voltzia and Neuropteris with single pinnae (triassic forms) in the Barak ars is very important.

e. — In the Barakars there are forms of a genus allied to Glossopteris ( Gangamop - teris from the upper portion of the Australian coal-strata), which is almost the only fossil found in the Talchirs; by it these latter are connected with the former.

Having established these general views, I proceed to discuss the fossil plants, which afford additional evidence in favor of my opinions. I can, of course, only describe the most important fossils. A thorough discussion of all the plant remains will be given in the Palmontologia Indica.

A.—Eq Uiseta Gem.

These are very abundant, and one genus is especially important, as bringing the Damiidas into relation with the Panchets, and showing that both belong to the same epoch as a European formation, in which the same genus is well known. This genus is —

a. — Schizoneuea, Sc/iimp. & Moug.

This genus is especially abundant in the upper portion of the Damu das. It is found of different sizes, and in various states of development, but everywhere there is only one kind of leaves (spathes), and everywhere they have the same characters. They are very near to those of Schixoneura paradoxa, Schimp. & Moug., which they resemble iu the mode of connection of the leaflets in two parts of the spathe. Only one specimen is known in which the separation of the leaflets is nearly complete, and this specimen closelv resembles Schimper's figure, Pal. Vegetale, PI. XIII, fig. 8. I have no doubt that this specimen belongs to the same species as the others. As I consider that the Schixoneura. of the Panchets is the same as that in the Damu das, I will use the same name for both —

Scliizoneura Gondwanensis, .

Diagnosis :

Caule articidato, striato, variabili altitude.ne ac latitudvne ; foliis (foliolis) 12 — 22; plerumque in duas partes vaginae coalitis ; nonnunquam etiam liberis, sub erectis, foliolis in duas partes connexis, folia oblongo-ovalia exhibentibus ; usque ad 14'5 cents. lontjis, et media parte 2'5 cents. latin, 7 — 11 nervous continentibus.

This diagnosis of this species is, of course, the same for the form from the Panchet group : the habit and the characters are identical in both, only the Panchet forms are in general a little smaller.

As the only difference from the Vosges species S. paradoxa, Schimp. and Moug., is in the number of the leaflets, I consider that the two forms are nearly allied, and I look upon our species also as Triassic (Bunter-Sandstein). The fossils described as Zeuqopliy Hites, ., from India by Brongniart (Prodrome 121-175) and subsequently by Strzeeeki (Phys. descr. of New South Wales, &c.) seem to belong also to Schixoneura, as well as the fossil described by Mc'CLelland (1. c. PL XIV, fig. 4), as Zamia Burdwancnsis, Mc'Cl. ; there is, however, as far as I know the literature, nothing like Schixoneura anywhere mentioned as occurring in the lower coal-strata of Australia.

Records of ike Geological Survey of India.

b. — SPHENOPHYLLUM, .

In the Damuda formation, both in the upper portion and in the lower, some equi se taceous fossils occur, which were described by Royle as Trizygia speciosa , 1. c., p. 431. There is no doubt that these fossils belong to the well known genus Sphenophyllum, and we find them described in Unger's ' Gen. et sp. plant, foss., p. 70, under the name of ° Sphenophyllum trizygia, ting. Mc'Clelland (1. c., p. 54) described the same formas Sphenophyllum spedosum, Mc'Clell., and pointed out quite distinctly that there was no doubt about its being a real Sphenophyllum, . But whilst there is no doubt about the iden tity of Sphenophyllum and Trizygia, I prefer Unger's name Sphenophyllum trizygia, as there is a constant character in the arrangement of the leaves in three pairs, each of two equal leaves on one side of the articulation, the lowest pair of leaflets being the shortest, the middle burner and the highest the longest. There are, therefore, never more than six leaflets which do not form an entire whorl, but are arranged on one side. This arrangement is quite different from that found in all carboniferous forms, in which the leaflets are all nearly equal and form an entire whorl round the articulation ; besides this, the stem of the Indian Sphenophyllum is in all casos very thin in relation to the size of the leaves There can be no doubt about the nature of this species, which must have been a water-plant, expanding its leaflets at the surface of the water.

This Sphenophyllum, is therefore different from all Carboniferous and Permian forms, and I adopt ' Unger's name Sphenophyllum trizygia, Ung. I have specimens from Burd wan (from the upper portion of the Damiidas, Ramganj), and from Ta lchir near Cuttack from the Barakars. I think there is only one species.

Besides these two well marked fossils, various stalks with articulations, ribs and furrows, are common, and are generally known as Phyllotheca indica, Bunb I must say I have seen the real Phyllotheca such as Zigno described from the Oolitic formation, and as are known from the upper portion of the coal-strata in Australia (Newcastle), but I am very much inclined to consider a great proportion of the stems found m India as stalks of Sehizonenra, Schimp.; some others may be indeed internal casts of mesozoic species ot Equxsetum. In Australia there is in the upper portion of the coal-strata also a real Phyllotheca in Ziguo's sense (Newcastle) ; the Phyllotheca in the lower portion may be Calamites or Equisetum.

The very doubtful form, called Vertebraria, I consider to consist of roots and rootlets (Rhizomes), most probably of some e quisetaceous plants, in the same way as tie genus Pinularia, Lindl. and II., in the carboniferous strata, consists also of rootlets, most likely of Asterophyllites, .

Vertebraria abounds in the Damiid as, and appears to be characteristic of them as a series but it cannot be quoted for the determination of the age, for which only Sclnzoneura Gondioanensis, ., can be used. As far as I can tell from the literature, and from what I have seen of Australian fossil plants, Vertebraria is also known only from the upper portion of tlie coal-strata,

Jb — Filicjes.

In the same way as amongst the Equisetacece, the genus Schizoneura, Schimp. and Moim,, is the prevailing form, so also amongst the Filices one genus is especially prevalent. ThisVenus, however, cannot be directly employed as evidence of the age of the Damuda ;

Feistmantel: Fossil Floras in India.

it is only by its relations to other forms that it can be used as collateral proof. It is only characteristic of the series. This genus is —

a, — Glossopteris, .

However interesting this genus may be, it has, I think, been the chief cause of the con fusion of opinions about the age of the series in which it occurs — I mean the confusion has been caused by the comparison of this genus with the same in Australia, where it is said to be found in palaeozoic rocks. From this evidence also our Indian Damuda groups in which Glossopteris is very common have been taken for palaeozoic, without considering that Glossopteris has in this case been found apart from animal remains which indicate a pa I teo zoic age, but, on the contrary, only with plant remains, which are all mesozoic (Triassic).

I should consider it a great paleontological mistake if I were to take a series in which the majority of the plants are of mesozoic age, and identical or closely allied with well known mesozoic (Triassic) genera and species, to be of any other age than mesozoic, only because one genus is also found in it which is also known from a portion of the coalstrata in Australia. Nobody will class the Permian and Carboniferous as identical, although some species of plants or animals may occur in both.

We should rather say, some species of Glossopteris are found in the supposed palaeo zoic coal-strata of Australia, but the genus also occurs in great abundance in the lower mesozoic coal-strata of India.*

It is only remarkable that, while in Australia there are both fossil animals and plants of lower carboniferous age, of which the latter belong for the most part to genera identical with those found in Europe, there should be in the upper carboui ferous (without fossil animals) a sudden change in the flora and no true carboniferous plant found.

But another locality is known for Glossopteris, . ; this is in the Karoo beds of South Africa, described by Mr. Tate,t which series that author also puts in the Trias, and I think with justice. This would agree well with our series. Tate recognized in Africa the same forms which are most common here in India.J

See a similar opinion by Mr. Dawkins in the transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol. XIV, Session 1875-76, Part II, p. 28: Age of the New South Wales coal-beds. The manner in which Mr. Dawkins expressed himself is quite correct and natural, hut I never before read anything about the association of the Glossopteris in Australia with Lepidodendrmi, Sigillaria, Catamites, etc., these being only found below the lower marine beds.

t Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc., 1867, p. 140 ff.

x I cannot discuss this subject further here, aud I think it sufficient to quote the following literature about Glossopteris

Brongnidrt : Bistoire desvdgetaux fossiles, 1818.

Goppert: Systema filicum fossilium, 1836.

Mc'Coy : On the fossil botany and zoology of the rocks associated with the coal of Australia. Annals

of Natural History, Vol. XX, ser. 2.

Banbury: Fossil plants from Nagphr. Quart. Journ. Vol. XVIJ.

McClelland: Rep irt, 1848-49; Calcutta, 1850.

Dana: Geology (United .States Exploring Expedition), 1849.

Tate : South African fossils. Quart. Journ., 1867 (Vol. XXI11).

McCoy : Prodromus of Palatontof Victoria, IT Decade.

Schimper : Traitts do Pakoontolog. yegtitalc.

W. B. Clarice : Remarks on the sedimentary formations of New South Wales, 1875.

Also all the publications in our Memoirs which I quoted before should here be repeated, especially Mr. Oldham's paper on the probable age of the rocks in Bengal and Central India (Vol, II),

n

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The best known species of Glossopteris, ., is Glossopteris Browniana, ., of which Brongniart distinguished two varieties: (a), Indioa, and (b), Australasiaca, which, how ever, have been described by Schimper as two different species, and I think correctly. I may add that in India the only prevailing form is that with longer and pointed leaves and much narrower reticulation, Glossopteris in dice, Schimp., while the generally smaller form with a more obtuse apex and wider reticulation, Gloss. Browniana, ., is much rarer in our strata, although it prevails in Australia, where it is the only species found in the lower portion with the marine fauna.

I am now preparing a monograph of the genus Glossopteris, ., and some allied genera, in which I will enter more fully into details, and it will be seen that the pointed leaves 'prevail in the Damuda, and also that of the figures of our Indian forms those in Buubury's paper (1. c.) are the best, whilst those in Brongniart and Goppert are not very correct.

Brongniart described one form as Glossopt. angustifolia from Raniganj ; I have not found any" specimen from India, but I have seen one from Australia, from the upper portion of the coal-strata.

Besides these I have been able to distinguish a great many species, or at least varieties, also young fronds, etc.

Near Nagpdr several specimens have been found with fructification, with 1—4 rows of sporangia between the stalk and the margin, which, together with the reticulate nervation, tend to indicate a relationship between Glossopteris and some living species of Polypodium. On one specimen of the Australian Glossopteris, ., Mr. Carruthers seems to have observed a different fructification, consisting of linear sori along the veins, hut nearer to the margin of the leaf. (See Carruthers in Daintree's paper on the Geology of Queensland. Quart. Jour., Geol. Soc., 1872). This would prove further the difference between our Glossopteris

and the Australian species.

The best known forms are therefore —

1. Glossopteris indica, Schimp.— large pointed leaves, narrow reticulation. Sori

in rows on the surface of the frond. — Prevailing in India.

2. Glossopteris Browniana, ., Schimp.— smaller obtuse leaves, wider reti

culation. Australian form ; the only species found in the lower strata.

3. Glossopteris angustifolia, .— different in the nervation, known from the

Damudas and the upper portion of the coal-strata in Australia.

Other species will be shewn to exist after the special examination of this genus.

There are, besides these, several species described by Bun bury and Me Clelland, but Mc'Clelland's figures (1. c.) cannot be recognized, as they are not accurately drawn. I need only mention Glossopteris acaulis, Mc'Clell., Tab. XIV, 1. 3, 3 a, which is not sufficiently well figured to he identified, and others are equally imperfect.

The figures of Australian species of Glossopteris, ., in Dana's Geology are also of no vise for comparison, as the reticulation is incorrectly and irregularly represented.

Glossopteris is the most common and characteristic fossil of the Damudas. It is found in all three sub-divisions and is the unfailing evidence of the occurrence of this formation.

Feistmantel : Fossil Floras in India.

Bunbury's Glossopteris muscefolia seems from the drawing rather to belong to Teeniopteris, ., although the author says that the veins anastomose near the stalk. This the figure, however, does not exhibit at all, and the same may be said of Glossopteris strieta, Bunb., from Kamtbi. Tate's JDictyopteris simplex, (1. e.) PL VI, fig. 6, is a Glossopteris of the same group to which some of our Indian species also belong.

In one way Glossopteris, ., may be considered evidence of a mesozoic age: if it is compared with other ferns with reticulated leaves, the most nearly allied is the Tri assic and Rh retie Sagenopteris, ., and some forms of Glossopteris are evidently related to this Triassic genus.

b. Gangamopteeis, Mo' Coy.

In the lower group of the Damiidas (Barakars) there occur some ferns resembling Glossopteris, which, however, on a closer examination, show different characters ; the most prominent of these is the want of the distinct midrib, which is found in the real Glossop teris, . ; there are instead of it only three or four thicker veins starting from the base ; the other veins radiating from the base towards the margin. This is a character which we find partly in Cyelopteris, hut while iu the latter genus the veins between their point of origin and the margin are divided only dichotomously, in this form from the Barakars they are reticulated, as in Glossopteris, . We have therefore in these leaves —

1. — Want of a distinct midrib.

2. — A venation radiating from the base towards the margin, as in Cyelopteris, but yet reticulated, as in Glossopteris.

3. — A rounder leaf than in Glossopteris. Similar forms have been described by Mc'Coy (Pakaontol. of Victoria, Dec. II) from Australia as Gangamopteris, and I think I am not wrong in putting these forms from the Barakar group in the same genus.

The species I will call —

Gangamopteris Cyclopteroides, .

As this species occurs also in the T a 1 c h i r group, where it is almost the only fossil, I will give a diagnosis and a fuller discussion when treating of that group. A similar form* is described by Mr. Tate from the Karoobeds( Triassic ) in S o u t h Africa as Cyelopteris Jenkinsiana, which, I think, also belongs to this genus.

The occurrence of this genus in the Barakars is very important, not for the de termination of the age, hut because of the connexion it shows between the lower Damiidas and the Talehirs. It thus unites the latter with the whole Dam lid a group. These forms have been lately found iu the Barakars of the Kurliurbari coal basin. I have also one or two fragments from Kamthi which belong to the same species.

c. Sagenopteeis, .

If we take Glossopteris, ., as a single-leaved genus, with a certain venation, some other forms with several leaves coming out from the same stalk and a different venation must he separated from this genus and placed with Sagenopteris, . This is especially the case with the Glossopteris acaulis, Mc'Clell. (Hep. XIV, fig. 3), which, however,

See Tate 1. e. p. 146, Tab. VI, fig. 4.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

is not correctly drawn in Mc'Clelland's Report. I have had the opportunity of seeing in our collections the original specimen and another, and have had both drawn from nature. They exhibit a very different appearance from McClelland's figure : about eight leaves pass out from a common stalk ; the middle leaves seem to have been the longest; the venation is peculiar and different from that of our forms of Glossopteris, . I have no doubt these specimens belong to Sagenopteris, . ; but the specific name is inappropriate, and should, I think, be changed.

d. Ttenioptekis, .

The absence of Tceniopteris, ,, in the Damuda group has been urged as one of the principal distinctions between that group and the Raj m aha 1, and a strong confirma tion of the palaeozoic ago of the former. This view, however, is no longer tenable, for Glossopteris danaokles, Royl., figured by Royle in his work ( 1. c. PI. 2-9 ), is really a Tceniopteris, . The original specimen was from the Burdwan coal-formation, that is, from the Raniganj coal-field. I have not seeu the specimen, but I have no doubt about the fossil being Tceniopteris ; the venation proves it, as the veins are distinctly quite free at their base, and ouly dichotomous in their whole length.

The specimen from the Burdwan ( Raniganj ) coal-field represented by Mc'Clelland in his Geological Report, PI. XV, figs. 13a, 10, under the name of Tceniopteris danceoides, Me'Clellaud, is of course also a true Tceniopteris, ., and judging from the form of the frond and the distance between the veins, I am inclined to consider it the same as the species figured by Royle. In its broad leaves and distant venation this species presents a habit corre sponding with that of triassic forms of the genus. There is another specimen in the collection of the Geological Survey from the Damuda formation of Burgo in the R a j m a h a 1 hills which leads to the same conclusions as Eoyle's and Mc'Clelland's figures. Accidentally on the opposite side of this specimen are some fronds of Glossopteris, ., thus proving the association of the two genera in the D a mud a rocks.

Lastly, I have soon a broad-leaved true Tceniopteris, ., from Kamthi, with very narrow veins, which resembles strongly Bunbury's Glossopteris muscefolia, except that the veins do not anastomose near their base (1. c. PI. VIII, tig. 6), so that I will describe it under a different specific name. Besides this I think that Glossopteris stricta, Buub. (1. c. PI. IX, fig. 5) is also near to Tceniopteris, ., and Sir C. Bunbury himself has figured a fragment of a Tceniopteris (1. c. PL X, fig. 2) as Tceniopteris danceoides (?) Mc'Cl. He may be right. It may therefore be stated without hesitation that together with Glossopteris, ., there occur broad-leaved species of Tceniopteris, ., with a mesozoic habitus, and that the latter afford additional evidence against the palaeozoic age of the Damuda Flora.

e. Neukoptebis, .

, When Prof Schimper described the fossil plants from the Vosges sandstone, he referred to the genus Neuroptens, ., some forms which did not quite agree with the carboni ferous species, although the nervaturo of the leaflets in these triassic forms is the same as m those from the carboniferous strata, the leaves of the former being, however, sirup y pinnate. Not wishing to establish a new genus, he divided the genus Neuropteris into two principal groups, of which one, the carboniferous type, includes species with bior multr-pmnate fronds; the other or triassic type comprises the forms with simply pinnate fronds which are found in the Gres bigurre (Bunter.)*

See Schimper and MouSeot> Monogr, des plantes fossiles du gres bigarrd des Vosges, 1844, p. 76.

Feist-mantel : Fossil Floras in India-.

On liis Plates (1. c.) XXXVI &c, several species are figured, of which Neuropteris gravdifolia (XXXVI. f. 1) is the largest. Prom the Kurhurbari coal-field our Museum received some time since a splendid specimen of the shale aceompanyingothe coal seams. This speci men exhibited three very important genera and species, some of them represented by several specimens. One I have already mentioned, Gangamopteris cyclupteroi-des, . ; another belongs to the genus now under discussion, Neuropteris, .

When I saw the specimen, I at once recognized several fronds of a well developed fern with single pinnm, one being complete. At first I was astonished to see such a form ; but soon I saw another fossil on the same specimen, Yoltzia, ., which left me no longer in doubt about the simply pinnate leaves. From the nervature of the leaflets and from the singly pinnate nature of the whole frond, I was sure that the specimens represented a Neuropteris, belonging to the group found in the bigarre by Sehimper, or, in short, that the specimens represent a lower triassic (Buntsandstein) Neuropteris, . As no palmozoic species of this character is known, I could not longer be in doubt about this, as the occurrence of the genus already mentioned Schizoneura , Schiinp. and Moug., also a triassic genus) and of Yoltzia, ., strongly supported my views. The nearest ally of our specimen appears to be Neuropteris grandifolia, Schimp. and Moug., but the Indian fern differs in the following particulars .- —

a. — The leaflets in our specimen are wider apart.

5.— They begin, it is true, with entire or only slightly lobate leaflets, but the upper leaflets become larger and deeply lobate or pinnatifid.

The strong stalk both forms have in common. Our plant seems still larger than that figured by Sehimper. The simply pinnate character is well seen, the lowest leaflets are nearly entire and small, the middle are the largest and nearly pinnatifid, and the uppermost again like the lower. I will call this fern —

Neuropteris valida, .

Fronde simplici (pinnata), rhaeUde valida, striata; pinnulis imis minimis, oblongis, totafere Iasi adnatis, margine sinuosis, medics magnis, lubatis aut pinnatis, media parte basis pedicello latiusculo brevi adnatis, summit imos adcequantilus ; nerves creberrimis nervo primario basilari, vix distinct, secundariis e basi radiatim ascendentibus, dichotomis.

Further description and discussion may he reserved until I can figure this very in teresting species, which affords a strong evidence of the triassic age of the Damuda, and, as it happens, of the lower portion (Barakars).

f — Actinopteeis, Schenk.

I had already occasion, when discussing the Kach fossil flora, to mention this peculiar fossil plant, which formerly was united with Cyclop teris, ., Professor Guppert bariim described the only known species as Cydopteris peltata, . On account of its relation with some living ferns, Schenk called it Actinopteris peltata, and showed that the horizon at which it was found was Ithsetic. I found similar forms amongst the Kach fossil plants. Sehimper, however, had some doubts about the nature of these fossils, and was disposed to consider them merely infiltrations of hydrated peroxide of iron. From the Raniganj coal field we have a very well preserved specimen of a real fern, which I cannot refer to any other genus than Actinopteris.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

I call this species —

Actinopteris Sengalensis, .

Fronde orliculariter ovata, peltata,, ex foliolis singulis, segmenta farmantibus composit a; foliolis e media parte radiantibus, dichotomy partitis, marginem versus latioribus, spice rotund atis ; loco insertinnis petioli medio.

The whole frond is rather large, circularly ovate in outline, and the leaflets radiate towards the margin from the insertion of the stalk ; they are very well marked by a thin layer of coal, and are dichotomous in the same way as in Actinopteris radiata, Link. Not a moment's doubt can exist as to this specimen being a fern.

It seems to me different from those from Ehaetic strata, but is another proof of the mesozoic character of our flora. From the upper coal measures in Australia there is men tioned also " a peculiar peltate leaf," which may, perhaps, be also an Actinopteris, Schenk. (See Mines and Mineral Statistics of New South Wales, by John Lucas, etc., 1875, p. 129.)

Besides the ferns already mentioned, some other forms occur, which, however, need not be noticed here, as they are not of any greater importance than those I have already described. I may, however, add that Pecopteris Lindleyana., Boyle, which has been noticed in relation with Pecopteris australis , Morr. (from Tasmania), belongs undoubtedly to the group of Aletlwpteris Whitbyensis, Gopp-, which seems to include only mesozoic forms; still another Pecopteris ( Alethopteris , Gopp.) is not uncommon, but this also exhibits a mesozoic habitus. Amongst the ferns we have therefore to note especially the following species : —

Glossopteris indictt, Sehirnp., for the series.

Gangamopteris cydopteroides, ., for the relation of the Damiidas with the Talchir s.

Tceniopteris danmoides, Mc'Clell. (Eoyle), and the other broad-leaved species of Tceniopteris from Kamthi for the mesozoic age of the Damn das.

Neuropteris valida, ., for the triassie (Buntsandstein) age of the Damiidas.

Actinopteris Pengalensis , ., mesozoic form.

C.—C0Nifer2E.

Coniferm are very rare in the Damiidas, but a very important genus has lately been found in the Kurhurbari coal-fields.

a.— Voltzia.

This genus is peculiar and limited to the middle and lower Trias as Schimper states.* Brongniart, the founder of this genus, was very well acquainted with it, and described four species, all from the Gres bigarre.

On the large specimen from Kurhurbari, which I mentioned before when describing Neuropteris valida, ., there are some branches of a coniferous plant, which, judging by

See Schimper : Palieontologie vgetale, II, p. 240.

Feisl, mantel : Fossil Floras in India.

the form of the leaves, can only belong to the genus Voltzia, . Our specimen agrees best with the following : —

Voltzia acutifolia .

1838. Broil srniart : Prodroraus, pp. 108, 190.

1814. Schtaipor et Morjgcot : Monooraphie, etc., p. 20, Tab. XV.

1871-72. Schimper : Palirontologie rSgat, p. 211, Vol. II.

"When I compare our species with V. acutifolia, ., I must also add that the leaves, especially towards the end of the branches, are a little longer and broader. Voltz. acutifolia, ., is, with Voltz. heterophylla, ., most characteristic of the Gres Bigarre.

Besides this distinct Voltzia thereis also a branch, with much longer and broader leaves, which I cannot identify with any known Voltzia, but rather with Alhertia speciosa, Scliimp. (see Schimper and Mougeot, 1. e. PI. V, f. B), which is also a well known species characteristic of Lower Trias.

This is all that need now be said about the Conferee.

The above are tbe most important plant remains from tbe Damudas, so far as they have hitherto been determined, and no further discussion is necessary in this paper, as sufficient evidence has been brought forward for tbe determination of tbe age.

Prom the previous discussions I have been led to tbe following results : —

a. — i ScJiizoneura is represented by' the same species (ScJiizoneura Gondwanensis, .), in tbe Pauchet group and in the Damiidas, especially in tbe Upper Damudas, or Banigan j, proving that both belong to tbe same general epoch.

b. — The occurrence of Glossopteris, ., in all the three sub-divisions of the Damudas, besides the occurrence of triassic species (of the age of the Gres bigarre) in both the Upper and Lower Damudas, proves that all three sub-divisions belong to the same age.

c. — The species Gangamopteris cyclops eroides, ., which occurs in the Lower Damudas (Barakars of the Kurhurban coal-field), and which is the prevailing fossil again in tbe Talchirs, brings tbe latter into relation with tbe former, as I shall show presently.

d. — There is no difficulty in determining the age of the Damudas. We have to regard only the most important fossils, viz. : —

Act inop teris Bengalensis, ., Mesozoic.

Voltzia acutifolia, . (Gres bigarre) ; and perhaps Alhertia speciosa, Scliimp. (Gres bigarre).

All these are closely allied, and some are identical with species which hitherto are known onlylrom lower triassic; no form is palaeozoic, except Sphcnophyllum, ., which, however, shows very different characters from thoseof species from palasozoic rocks, therefore, considering all that 1 have said and determined, we are obliged, following the generally adopted palaeontological laws, to consider our Damuda formation as of lower triassic age. Considering the relations of the Damuda beds and the coal-strata in Australia, only the upper portion of the latter present some analogy with these Damuda

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

beds. In this upper portion (upper coal measures) of Australia we find fossil plants, mostly of mesozoic type, e. g., Phy Mother a australis, Phyll. Hooken (in the New castle coal-field, belonging to the real Phyllotheca type), VeHebraria (Damuda type), Glossopteris (some of them related with our Indian forms), Tamiopteris , broad with narrowveins. (Macrotcemopteris, Schimp.), Thinnfeldia. like ferns, Pecopteris oAontopteroides Mori*., a peculiar peltate leaf (which may possibly he Actinoptens, Schimp.), seed vessels ot Conifers (these may, perhaps, be allied to Araucarites Phillipsi, Carr., or Araucar. Eaehensis, . ?), and others, without any marine fauna. The lower portion ot these Australian coal-strata presents no analogy with our Damudas, as the latter contain none ot the marine animal fossils so frequent in the lower coal-measures of Australia.

y —Fossil Floba of the Talchiks.

This is the poorest flora of all. Only a few fronds have been found, and but one or two localities are known at which fossils occur. These fossils were mentioned by Mr. Oldham as "a large Cyclopterislike leaf;" Mr. W. T. Blanford had previously recognized the nature of this fossil, and in his paper on the K an ig an j coal-field, Mem., Yol. Ill, p. 38, writing about the fossils from the Talchir group, he said, "the best marked was a form intermediate between Glossopteris and Cyclopteris

I noticed above similar fronds amongst the Damuda fossils from the Barakars.

I pointed out that there are leaves with a radiating distribution of the veins, as in Cyclopteris, ., but the veins are reticulated, as in Glossopteris, ., and I referred them to the new genus Gangamopteris, Mc'Coy, I also said that these specimens from the Barakars are identical with those found in the Talchirs : the species I called—

I. — Gangamopteris cyclopteroides, .

Diagnosis :

Fronde ohlongo-oval , subobliqua, integerrima ; rhacMde nulla; nerves omnibus e basi radiantibus veluti in Cyclopteride, retina formantibus (Glossopteridis similibus), means ima parte distinctissimis.

This diagnosis serves for the species both from the Barakars and Talchirs.

By itself this species does not prove much; but its occurrence both in the Damfidas and Talchirs makes it at least very probable that these two groups are very near in age, and I, for my part, look upon the Talchirs as lower group of the whole Damuda formation, or, in other words, as a lower horizon of the lower triassic age.

Compared with the Australian species of Gangamopteris, our species is most nearly related to Gangamopteris obliqua, Mc'Coy.f

I have thus given a short outline of the most important fossils from the lower groups of the Gondwana Series, from the Panchets, the Damudas, and the Talchirs, and the following general results may be deduced

a pYom the relations of the fossil plants of these three groups, it follows that they

all belong to one epoch, the triassic.

Mem. II, p. 335.

f Prodromus of the Paleontology of Victoria, Decade II, PI. XII, figs. 2, 3, 4.

Blanford: Gonrlivdna Series in India.

b. — The Panchet group has Schizoneura Gondwanensis, ., common with the Damudas, and whilst the other two species of the Panchets, Pecopteris concinna, Presl, and Gyclopteris paahyrhar.his, Gopp., Would indicate a Rhaetic age, Schizoneura Gondwanensis, ., tends to give them an older aspect, so that I class them as Keuper.

c. — The Damudas have yielded important fossil plants of lower triassic age (Buntsandstein). I therefore refer all the three sub-divisions to this age, as the same fossil plants, and especially the same species of Glossopteris, ., are found in all three.

d. — The Talchirs contain a fossil plant, which has been found also in the Baradcars, viz., Gangamopteris cyclopteroides, ., so that I do not hesitate to consider the Talchirs as the lower continuation of the Danmdas.

We have derived, therefore, from the plants the following scheme : —

I. — Jurassic.

Middle. Lower.

Kach. Rajmabal.

II.— Teiassic.

Danmdas —

Talchirs.

Note on the geological age of certain groups comprised in the Gondwana series of India, and on the evidence they afford of distinct Zoological and Bota nical Terrestrial Regions in ancient epochs. By W. T. Blanford, a. r. s.m., f. r. s., &c., Geological Survey of India.

In the preceding paper and in that published in the last number of the Records {ante pp. 28—42), Dr. Feistmantel has stated at length the conclusions as to the age of the different members of the great plant-bearing or Gondwana Series of India, to which a care ful and exhaustive study of the fossil flora has guided him. How urgently a careful study of the plants was needed it is unnecessary to point out, and the results to Indian Geolosy must he most important. Guided by the abundance of particular forms, Indian Geologists had hitherto not unreasonably supposed that the Kachh (Cutch) plant-hearing beds were of the same age as those of Rajmehal, Tricbinopoly, &c., for in all these localities the commonest species are two forms of Ptilophyttum ( Palceozamia ). In the same manner no doubt had ever arisen as to the identity of the Damuda flora with that of the Australian coal rocks, for the common types in both are species of Glossopteris and Yertebraria, which have hitherto always been supposed to be identical, whilst other forms of Bquisetacece and ferns from both countries are closely allied. Whether we finally accept Dr. Feistmantel's conclusions, or not, it is impossible to conceive any researches likely to afford a greater service to Indian Geology than the accurate determination of the homotaxis of our different fossil floras.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

At the same time it will, I think, be advisable to hesitate before accepting as proved the age assigned to the different formations on palseobotanical grounds. Dr. Feistmantel has already noticed (ante p. 34) the palaeontological contradiction, as be very justly terms it, between the evidence derived from the animal remains in Kachb (Catch) and that offered by the fossil plants. This contradiction is, however, much greater than would be supposed irom Dr. Feistmantel's remark. The matter is so important in its bearing ou the relations of Indian rocks that it will be well briefly to recapitulate the history of the examination of the Kachh beds by the Survey.

From a very cursory examination which I made in 1863 of a small portion of the provmce § I was led to believe that the plant-bearing beds in Kachh, as a whole, rest upon the series of rocks with marine fossils of jurassic age, but that in some cases marine beds are intercalated with the upper plant-bearing group, and I pointed out that if they are not interstratified, certain fossiliferous bands in the Ch&rwar range south of Bhooj must have been brought up by a fault. Messrs. Wynne and Fedden surveyed Kachh in 1867-68-69, f the jurassic rocks being chiefly examined by Mr. Wynne, who found that a fault really exists, bringing up the rocks of the Charwar range ; consequently the principal grounds on which my belief m the interstratification of the marine and plant-bearing strata were founded proved untenable. Some information I had received as to the occurrence of marine fossils near BlioojJ appears also to have been incorrect. At the same time, the conclusion at which I had arrived, that both marine and fresh-water beds belong to one series, and that the two pass into each other, was entirely confirmed by Mr. Wynne. He also found in some places unquestionable intercalation of the plant-beds with strata containing marine fossils.§

The. Cephalopoda collected by Messrs. Wynne and Fedden were examined by Dr. Waagen,|| who found that those from different localities showed the existence of several distinct groups of jurassic strata, ranging from Lower Oolite (Bathoniau) to Uppermost Oolite (Portlandian and Titkonian). Dr. Stoliczka went to Kachh in 1872, and spent several months m examining the rocks. He ascertained that four separate groups of jurassic beds, distinguished by well-marked mineralogical and palaeontological characters, can be traced throughout the area occupied by the rocks of Oolitic age. These groups he called

Tithonian and Portlandian.

Kimmeridge and Upper Oxford.

Dr. Stoliczka s names were adopted in Dr. Waagen's account of the Jurassic Cephalopoda of Kachh, If and the groups referred to the abovementioned European sub-divisions of the jurassic series.

No account of Dr. Stoliczka's work in Kachh has ever been published. Shortly after returning he left with the mission for Turkestan, and he died on the return journey. The note books used by him in Kachh are amongst the survey records ; they contain a very full account of his exploration of the province, and after reading them through, I think there

Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VI, p. 17.

t Mem. Geol. Surv., India, IX, pp. 1—289.

t Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VI, p. ll.

§ 1. c., pp. 51, 210, 213, 215, 216.

II Rec., Geol. Surv., India, IV, p. 89.

"[[ Pal. Tndica, Ser. IX, Introduction.

Blanford : Gondivana Series in India ,

can be no question of the conclusions at which he arrived regarding the relations of the plant-bearing beds to the marine strata. His views were precisely the same as Mr. Wynne's and my own ; he determined that the plant-beds form the highest member of the Jurassic series, that they pass down into the beds with marine fossils of the Umia group, and that in some places bands of these marine fossils, especially Trigonia Smeei and a Trigonia, closely allied to the cretaceous T. tuberculferd* § of Southern India, are interca lated in the plant-bearing group. He consequently classed both the plant-bearing beds and the Umia marine beds in one group. Moreover, he found in one place, resting upon the plaut-beds, a band containing cretaceous cephalopoda of Upper Neocomian (Aptian) age.f It is difficult to ascertain from Dr. Stoliczka's field notes whether he considered these cretaceous rocks conformable to the Umia beds, or not, but he certainly on his return spoke of this Umia group as of Wealden age.

I may add at once that of the localities mentioned by Dr. Feistmantel, viz., Kukurbit, Trombow, Bhoojooree, Doodaee, Loharia, and Goonaree,J all, except the last named, are in the beds forming the upper part of the Umia group, and there is no important difference in the horizon. Goonaree is rather lower in position according to Dr. Stoliezka s map, being in the lower portion of the Umia group and associated with the marine beds, but not one of the localities is below all the beds with upper oolitic fossils. From Nurha,§ the only locality in Kachh belonging to the Katrol group at which remains ot plants have been obtained, the specimens, which have just been found, appear to belong to species found also in the Umia group.

It is important to insist upon these facts in order to prevent mistakes. It should be distinctly understood that the rocks in Kachli ( Catch) with a lower oolitic flora, and containing several species of plants identical with those found in the Lower Oolites of Yorkshire, rest upon marine strata containing Portland and Tithonian Cephalopoda, and are capped by beds with Upper A'eocomian ( Aptian ) Ammonites; that occasionally the marine strata with upper oolitic fossils are interstratified with the plant-beds ; and that the geological position of the Kachh plant-beds has been determined by careful and repeated examination by three ditlerent geologists, all of whom agree in their conclusions.

I do not see any probability of error in the determinations of the marine fossils. Dr. Waagen, whose knowledge of Jurassic Cephalopoda is probably equal to that of any Palscontologist living, insists particularly on the remarkable parallelism of the different groups which make up the jurassie series in Europe and India. The remainder of the fauna has not received the same careful examination and comparison as the Cephalopoda, hut I believe I am justified in saying that both Dr. Stoliezka and Dr. Waagen considered that the evidence afforded by it coincided with that furnished by the Cephalopodous Mollusca. Dr. Waagen especially states)! that in the Umia beds of nine species of Cephalopoda,

Pal. Indiea, Ser. VI, 3, p. 315, PI. XV, figs. 10-12. t Pal. Indiea, Ser. IX, p. 245.

% It may be useful to point out where these places are ; they are small villages not marked on most maps, and not easy to identify —

Gooneri (Goonaree of map) is in north-western Kachh (Cutch), about six miles east south-east of Lukput. Thrombow, six miles north-east of Bhooj.

Kukurbit, twenty miles west by a little north of Bhooj.

Bhoojooree, five miles east-south-east of Bhooj.

Doodaee, about thirty miles east of Bhooj.

Loharia, seventeen miles south-east of Bhooj, and south of the Katrol range.

The spelling is that of the map in the Memoirs, Vol. IX.

§ Mem. Geol. Surv., India, IX, p. 213.

j] Pal. Ind., Ser. IX, Vol. 1, Kachh Cephalopoda, pp. 225 and 233.

Records of the Geological Quroeg of India.

four are identical with European forms found either in the Tithonian beds of Southern Europe, or the Portland Oolite of England and Prance, and he adds that this proportion of forms common to the two regions will increase greatly when the other classes of mollusca are described, ' as many of the Pelecgpoda of this bed seem to bo identical with species from the Portland stone,' and elsewhere he especially mentions the abundance of Trigonice ol the type of T. gibbosa.

This is not written with a view of impugning Dr. Feistmantel's conclusions. These will be given to the public in full in the ' Palteontologia Iudica,' and 1 have no doubt are as accurate and trustworthy as Dr. Waagen's. But it is important to call attention to the exact terms of the contradiction between the marine and terrestrial forms of the Kachh Oolites, because it shows that one or the other is misleading when applied to the determination of geological age. As the marine fossils are much more numerous, and probably allord a much less im perfect representation of the life of the period, as they occur in a larger sequence of rocks and have attracted much more attention, and as they are preserved in a manner which, I believe, it is generally considered, enables their affinities to be determined with greater accuracy, it will, I think, be admitted by most paheontologists that we must accept the con clusions derived from them. The deduction is inevitable, that the comparison of the remains of plants leads in this case to results, as regards geological age, which are not accurate, and that other identiticatious on similar data must be received with great caution.

It necessarily follows that although the homotaxis of the Ra j medial flora he liassic, and that of the Panehets and Damudas triassic, we can only accept this homotaxis as an approximation to the actual geological age of the formations.

Between the Upper Gondwana rocks to which the Rajmehdls and Jabalpurs belong, and the Lower Gondwana series comprising the Pancbets, Damudas, and Takhirs, there is a great break in the forms of life. Cycads abound in the former, but have not hitherto been found in the latter, whilst the lower series is characterized by the abundance of equisetaceons plants. The only genera known to be common to the t wo, are ferns of considerable range in time. It follows as a matter of course that no arguments as to the age of the Lower Gondwana rocks can be drawn from the upper part of the series.

The evidence which Dr. Feistmantel has shown to exist in favour of ascribing a Triassic age to the Paucliets, Damudas, and Takhirs is undoubtedly of great importance ; but I feel some doubts as to whether it is conclusive, and although it is with great hesitation that I venture to express a different opinion on a subject on which Dr. Feistmantel's knowledge of palseobotany enables him to form a more accurate opinion than I can offer, I still think that if the evidence of plants alone be employed to determine the age of the Indian rocks, the relations between the Indian and Australian coal-measures must be taken into consi deration in estimating the bomotaxis of the Indian formations.*

It is also only fair to point out that the main arguments for the triassic age of the Damudas are derived from the occurrence of three plants which were only discovered this year. Even admitting, for the sake of argument, that the evidence at present justifies the reference of the Dannida beds to the Trias, it by no means follows that the flora known sixteen years, or even two years ago, was sufficient to warrant the same conclusion, and I believe Dr. Oldham was quite right in 1860, t and that my brother, Mr. H. F. Blanford, was equally justified in 1874, in assigning a palaeozoic age to the Dannida formation on the evidence of the plant remains alone. The Pauchet beds have always, since they were first defined, been considered as probably Triassic.

teistmautel a argument, that because the marine forms which determine the age of the Australian reeks arc absent in India, the evidence ol the plant remains becomes of less value, is quite true, but it is just us applicable to the Darnuda plants eommou to the trias of Europe as to those found also iu Australia.

t Mem. Geol. Suit, of India, II, p. 333, &c.

J Quart. Joum. Geol. Sot'., 1S75, pp. 628, 531, &e.

Blanford : Gondwd/ia Series in India.

Of course the first and most important question is, whether the age of the Australian coal-measures is definitely settled. It is not surprising that the evidence should he received with some distrust when it is found that ever since they were first described, one group of observers, headed by Professor McCoy, has persistently declared that the coal-beds are of jurassic age, whilst another group, comprising especially the Rev. Mr. Clarke, Professor Jukes, and Mr. Daintree, have contended that they are palasozoie. But there is an important difference between the two classes. The geologists have all examined the rocks in situ, and have ascertained that the plant-bearing beds are iuterstratified with marine hands containing Brachiopoda and other fossils admitted to be of carboniferous age by all palaeontologists. Of the paheo-botanists, McCoy, Morris, deZigno, Carruthers, Schiniper, and others, who have contended for the jurassic age of the Australian rooks, not one has ever examined the beds, and their opinions cannot consequently be of any weight, as opposed to the views of the geologists. Mr. Clarke has published two sections of coal-pits,* in which coal-seams and shales with Glossoptem, Phyllotheca. and NoeggeratMa (f Schizoneura) are shown to have been reached after passing through beds containing Spirifer, Fmestella, Conularia, Orthoceras, and other fossils of admitted carboniferous age. Mr. Daintree also has published a section showing beds with Productus and Spirifer resting upon coal-seams with Glussopteris. Unless the palaeo-botanists can prove that Clarke's and Daintree's sections are incorrect, the question must be decided against the mesozoie age of the Glossoptcris beds.

The succession of formations in the coal-fields of New South IV ales is said to be the following J: —

]. ianamatta beds ... i Gloawpterix mentioned in the lists of fossils.

3. Upper eoal-seams of Newcastle with Glossopteris, Yettebruriu, &q.

4. Lower coal-seams of Newcastle with Glossopteria, Phyllothecu, Noeggerathia, (? Schizoneura)

&c. With these and above the plant-bearing beds are bands with marine carboniferous fossils.

5. Marine carboniferous rocks.

6. Lower carboniferous or Devonian beds with Lepidodondron nothum, Unger, &c.

The Wianamatta and Hawkesbury beds, so far as is known, contain no plants common to any of the Indian rocks. They are now classed as older mesozoie. They are said to be connected with the beds beneath them, No. 3, by the presence of a plant, Pecupteris odoniopteroides, Morris, in abundance in both, just as the Panchets in India are connected with the upper sub-division of the Damiidas by the occurrence in both of the same species of Schizoneura. In the same manner the floras of Nos. 3 and 4 appear to be connected by the presence of Glossopteris Browniana in both, although, from specimens which Dr. Peistmantel has showed to me, there appears to he a considerable distinction in the flora. Until the Australian plant remains are subjected to a thorough revision, it will, perhaps, be unwise to consider too much as proved ; bur so far as the evidence goes, it appears that all the Aus tralian plant-bearing rocks of Australia are connected by species of plants passing in each case from one to the other, precisely as Dr. Peislmautel has shown to he the case with therrooks of the lower Gondwana series in India, and it on the strength of the evidence we are justified in assigning the Panchets, Damiidas, and Talchirs to the Trias, because the two former contain triassic plants, and the Talchirs contain one plant, also found in the lower Damudas,

Transactions, Royal Society of Victoria, Vol. VI, 1861, and Remarks on the Sedimentary Formations of New South Wales, 3rd edition, 1875, p. 61 ; see also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., XVII, 1861, p. 354. t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., XXVIII, 1872, p. 286.

X Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., XVII, 1861, pp. 358, 360; XXVIII, 1872, pp. 283, 286, 355, &c. Clarke, Sedimentary Formations of New South Wales, pp. 15, &c.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

we should equally be obliged to relegate the whole of the Australian coal-measures below the Hawkesbury group to the Carboniferous, because they contain at least one species of plant throughout, and their lower sub-division is interstratified with beds containing marine carboniferous fossils.

With one or the other of these Australian coal-beds, No. 3 or No. 4 of the preceding section, the following plants of the Damuda groups are common : —

Glossopteris, two or three species identical.

Vertebraria, one species identical.

Pecopteris (Alethopteris), one species probably identical.

We have thus five genera and four or live species common, without counting the Equisetaceie (Phyllotheca, &c.), which appear somewhat doubtful. With the triassic rocks of Europe, Dr. Feistmantel has shown that the following Damuda forms are common : —

Voltzia, one species identical,

Alhertia ? ditto P

Aetinopteris, the genus only, the species shewing affinity,

Saaenopteris,

ditto,

ditto,

Neuropteris,

ditto,

ditto,

Sehizoneura,

ditto,

ditto,

or six genera and one or, perhaps, two species. It is quite true, as Dr. Feistmantel has shown, that Pecopteris ( Alethopteris ) Lindleyana of the Damrrdas has nearly as close affinities to certain Jurassic forms in Europe as to P. Australis ; but, on the other hand, an equisetaceous plant occurring near Nagpurf was described by Sir 0. Bunbury under the name of Phylto theca Indica from a good series of specimens, and considered closely allied to some Australian forms.

On the whole, it appears to be a reasonable conclusion that the evidence which connects the Damdda formation with the Australian carboniferous rocks is about equal to that which tends to show their relations with the Trias of Europe, the only distinction of importance being that the evidence of connection with the Australian beds is so abundant, and the plants which are common to the Trias are (with the exception of Sehizoneura) so rare, that the latter have hitherto been overlooked.

The evidence afforded by the few animal remains hitherto procured from the Gondwana series is nearly as confusing as that of the plants. From the Kota and Maleri beds now shown to be identical, and to belong to the Upper Gondwana series, we have Ceratodus, which in Europe is Triassic or Liassic, but which has been found living in Australia; Ilyperodapedon, Triassic in Europe, but allied to the living New Zealand genus Jlatleria ; and certain early mesozoic forms of Crocodilia, together with fish [Lepidotus and Ectimodudf with liassic affinities, andEstheria, which is insufficient

The specimens described by McCoy (Prod. Palfeont. Victoria, Decade Ii, Pis. XII & XIII) are said by their deseriber to be from the upper coal-bearing strata of Victoria, the position of which is uncertain, but Dr. Feistmantel has detected one species in the beds from beneath the carboniferous marine beds of Newcastle, N. S. Wales.

f Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., XVII, p. 335. t See the following paper by Mr. Hughes.

Blanford: Gondwana Series in India.

for the determination of age. In the Panchet group of the Lower Gondwana series we have Bicynodon showing an affinity for South African strata, other reptiles from which have just been shown by Professor Owen* to be allied to Permian forms found in Russia. The other known Panchet Vertebrata are lalyrinthodonts and a Thecodont Saurian, which, according to Professor Huxley, might be either lower mesozoic or upper palmozoic. Besides these there are the ubiquitous Esther ice. Prom the Damitda formation (including the Kamthi of Mangali) one Lahyrinthodont ( Brachyops laticeps) has been described, the affinities of which appear to be uncertain, an Archegosaurus, hitherto only imperfectly examined, and Estherice. The whole evidence, so far as it goes, both of animals and plants, tends to connect the whole of the Gondwana series with formations ranging from the Upper Palmozoic to the Lower Jurassic.

It must be remembered that the affinities between the plants of the Australian coal bearing rocks and those of the jurassic beds of Europe are unmistakeable. They have been pointed out by all palaeo-botanists, and they extend to some of the plants in the beds interstratified with the carboniferous marine strata.

It would have been useless to recapitulate all these facts, most of which are well known, and none of which are new, did they not lead to a conclusion which appears t o me of the highest importance with reference to the ancient distribution of animals and plants.

In the present distribution of the animal kingdom, there is much greater uniformity throughout the globe in the marine than there is in the terrestrial fauna. The former varies chiefly with the depth beneath the sea, and, amongst the shallow water and coast forms, with climate. A collection of Mollusca or Echinodermata (and these are our principal guides in palaeontological classification) from the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans, all taken within the tropics, would afford but few examples of generic dis tinction. A collection of terrestrial vertebrata or invertebrata from Tropical America, North ern Australia, Malacca and Africa, would differ from each other, not merely in genera, but, in many instances, in families. The plants from these different tropical lands would also exhibit marked generic distinctions, and whilst many of the American plants would show affinities with the miocene forms found in Europe, numerous representatives would be found, amongst Australian animals and plants, of forms which, in Europe, were typical of mesozoic strata.f

In the evidence now recapitulated, 'that the plants which existed in Australia, whilst carboniferous forms inhabited the seas, were allied to species and genera of the jurassic flora of Europe, that some of these same forms of carboniferous age in Australia co-existed in India with species found also in the triassic rocks of Europe, and that plants of the lower oolite of England still existed in India, whilst the surrounding seas nourished uppermost oolitic forms, we have convincing proof that the land faunas and floras of palaeozoic and mesozoic times differed from each other in various parts of the globe, at least as much as they do in the present day. In short, the conclusions to which we are, I think, brought by a considera tion of the evidence are —

1st. — That the faunas and floras of distant lands varied in palaeozoic and mesozoic times, as they do at the present day, far more than the fauna of the seas ; in short, that there were distinct terrestrial zoological and botanical provinces.

2nd. — That evidence, founded upon fossil plants, of the age of rocks in distant regions, must be received with great caution, and that such evidence is certainly in some cases opposed to that furnished by the marine fauna.

Geological Society of London : Meeting of May 24th, 1876. Only an abstract of the paper has hitherto reached India.

t It would take up too much space to go into details. Zamia and certain Froteacece amongst plants, Ceratodus and the Marsupialia amongst animals, are sufficient to establish the general fact.

86 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. ix.

On the relations of the fosstliferous strata at Maleri and Kota, near Sironcha,

Central Provinces, by Th. W. H. Hughes, a.r.s.m., f.g.s., Geological Survey of

India.

The fossiliferous strata alluded to in this paper have already been brought to notice directly in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London* and incidentally in our own Memoirs, t and various other publications, hut hitherto only speculative suggestions as to their mutual relations have resulted, the essential element of stratigraphical evidence having been wanting to complete the data for practical discussion.

This year, however, in the course of a special tour in which I accompanied Mr. King Deputy Superintendent of the Survey for Madras, we were able to visit Kota and Maleri, and to trace the extension of the more prominent beds of the one locality into connection with those of the other, thus supplying the needed evidence.

The result we have come to is, that the Kota and Maleri beds must he classed together, or, at all events, are members of the same series, and that they are younger than the Kamthi, or Kamthi-Damuda series.

The most interesting result of our palaeontological researches in the same district was the discovery by Mr. King, in strata below the beds at Kota, of a Palissya which Dr. Feistmantel has identified as a specific representative of one in the Rajmahal series ( Palis sya conferta ) ; while in beds associated with the fossiliferous strata at Maleri, I detected another Palissya , referable to a species found in the Jabalpur group, and also the Arauca. rites of the Kach plant-beds.

The fauna already known from Kota and Maleri is represented by relics of lepidotus, (Echmodus, and Ceratodus, with the crocodilian genus Paraswchus, Pyperodapedon, &c., some of which indicate a Triassic age, whilst none are represented by allied forms in Euro pean strata at more recent period than the Liassic.

We thus have associated in the same group plants of our Indian Jabalpur, Kach, and Kajmahal groups, and animals, which, if judged by European analogy, are certainly not younger than the age of the Lias.

Dr. Eeistmantel has recently endeavoured to show that the flora of the Jabalpur, Kach and Kajmahal groups proves them to be older than the age usually ascribed to them, a view which our discovery tends to strengthen.

Notes on the Fossil Mammalian Faun* of India and Burma, by R. Lydekker, b.a..

Geological Survey of India.

The present short paper is intended to appear as a kind of preface to full descriptions of several new species of fossil mammalia which have lately Introduction. been discovered in the tertiary strata of India and Burma,

chiefly by Members of the Geological Survey of India. These descriptions will appear in the " Pakeontologia Indica," according to the opportunities of publication.

The formations and districts from which the remains of mammalia have hitherto been

discovered in India and Burma are shown in the following Formations. lists ; these I have arranged according to that which seems

to me to he their most probable succession in time ; several

VII, p. 272; VIII, p. 230; IX, p. 351; XVII, p. 34fl; XX, pp. 117, 280, &c. t II, p. 335 ; III, p. 202 ; IX, p. 33.

part 3.J Lydekicer : Fossil Mammalian Fauna of India and Burma.

faunse, such as those of the old alluvium of the Ganges and Jarnna, ol the gravels of the Nerbudda Valley, and of certain beds of the Deccan, are grouped provisionally together, as they evidently belong to (geologically speaking) the same epoch ; at the same time I would observe that these beds are nowhere found in direct apposition, and that, therefore, there may be con siderable differences in their age. It is also to be borne in mind that many of these formations containing distinct groups of animals may really be contemporaneous, the difference in their faunas being caused by physical conditions. After the names of certain genera and species m the succeeding lists, my own name is added; these genera and species are new to the fossil Indian fauna, and full descriptions will subsequently appear in the " Palseontologia Indica."

The following list comprises the known mammaliferous beds of India : —

Indian Mammaliferous Series.

Subathu

f Modern alluvia of rivers and plains, containing human 7 remains and bones of living Mammalia. r a. — Old alluvium of Jarnna and Ganges.

J lj. — Older gravels of Nerbudda and Godavari.

f d. — Upper Siwalik conglomerates and clays.

Mammaliferous sandstones and clays of Jamu.

Medlicott : Rec. Geol. Surv., Ind.,

Vol. IX, pt. 2.

Mammaliferous sandstones and clays of Potwar and Kokat L districts: (Wynne: Mem. Geol. Surv.. Ind., Vol. X, pt. 2.) Marine mammaliferous sandstones of Chittagong and Sylhet Siwaliks (?) of Tibet,

Mammaliferous beds of Pegu and Irawadi River. Mammaliferous beds of Perim Island.

Nahan beds of Bakrala Range ...

.. Nummulitic beds of Salt Range and Fatebjang

Recent.

Post Pliocene or

Newer Pliocene.

Pliocene.-

J

Commencing with the uppermost beds in this list, it will be seen that I have grouped three (a, b, together; the two first are placed together on the authority of Dr. Falconer, who grouped the older alluvia of the Jamua with the older gravels of the Nerbudda valley, on account of the similarity of their faunae (Pal. Mem., vol. II, p. 580.)— The Upper Siwalik group I have also placed near these beds (see infra), on account of the distinctness of its few mammals from those of the underlying beds : at the same time it must be observed that these uppermost beds are conformable to the underlying series, while they are capped by unconformable strata, which may be contemporaneous with part of the river alluvia : it would, perhaps, be best, therefore, to regard these Upper Siwaliks as "transition beds" between the true Siwaliks and the Nerbudda and Jamna series.

The following list of genei'a and species is from the older alluvia of the J amna : —

Euelephas namadicus, Falc. Tetraprotodon palaeindicus Falc. Equus (sp.)

Bubalus palseindicus Pale.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

In the Indian Museum* we have also specimens of Mus and Semnopithecus from the same deposits. The whole of the genera in the above list are still living in India with the exception of Tetraprotodon, which is now confined to Africa : all the genera (and species at present determined) are also found in the Nerbudda deposits. The mammalian fauna of the Nerbudda and Godavari deposits presents a somewhat more copious list than the foregoing : many of the species have been figured by Falconer (see " Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis" and " Pahcontological Memoirs"), but a few new species are contained in the collection of the Indian Museum. The following is the list from these formations : —

Bimana.

Pboboscidia.

Elephas namadicus, Falc. ... Stegodon insignis, Falc.

Perissodactyla.

Rhinoceros namadicus, Falc. Equus namadicus, Falc.

Aetiodactyla.

Hexaprotodon namadicus ... Bubal us palaeindicus, Falc.

Tetraprotodon namadicus ... Bos namadicus, Falc.

Cervus namadicus, Falc.

Carnivora.

Rodentia.

The topmost Siwalili clay and conglomerates near Bubhor (see Mr. Medlicott's paper, Rec. Geological Survey, India, vol. IX, pt. 2, p. 57) have yielded to Mr. Theobald's careful search" two species of Mammals, viz., Bubal ns palteindieus and Camelus sivalensis. As the first of these species is unknown amongst the subjacent Siwalik Fauna, and as the second is an essentially modem form, I have chosen to group these uppermost Siwaliks with the Ner budda beds rather than with those lying below them. Mr. Medlicott, however, is rather inclined to doubt this view.

It will be observed that in the above lists, the whole of the genera, with the excep tion of Hexaprotodon and Stegodon (which are really only Living genera. sub-genera), are still living on the globe, and among the

living genera, with the exception of Hippopotamus, the whole number are still living in India. None of the fossil species have, hitherto, been satisfactorily identified with living forms ; one species of deer is, however, very closely allied to the living Indian Bueervus (as I shall show in a subsequent paper) ; and the Bubalus palteindieus (as far as eraniologieal characters o) is scarcely separable from the Bubalus arm of India. The presence of a true taurine ox (Bos namadicus) in these beds marks the distinctness of this fauna from that of modern India, but, at the same time, such a highly specialized form confirms the very recent age of these formations.

Certain species of Ruminants, such as Bos Falconeri and Cervulus styloceras described by Mr. Theobald from the Nerbudda valley (Mem. Geol. Surv., India, vol. II, p. 279), are founded on bones of Bos namadicus and Bueervus.

Bones figured in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal (vol. II. p. 35), as human from these beds, were subsequently shown by Falconer to belong to other mammalia.

part 3.] Lydetter : Fossil Mammalian Fauna of India and Burma.

The last fomation which I have provisionally placed in this newer group consists of

certain gravels and clays from the Deccan, containing Deccan beds. Mammalian remains, some of which have been described

The fauna at present only comprises three genera, two of which are only known by fragments, and cannot be specifically determined. These are —

Mastodon pandionis, Lartet, has also been described by Falconer from superficial beds in the Deccan ( " Palaeontological Memoirs," Vol. I, p. 124).

These gravels being superficial and undisturbed, point to the comparatively modern age of the beds : the bones, too, are in an extremely friable aud rotten condition, which would induce one to think that had they been buried for long geological periods in this pervious soil, they would have completely perished. At the same time, the molars of the species of Rhinoceros are so different from those of any living or fossil Indian species, that I cannot help thinking these beds may be older than those of the Nerbudda valley, or, at auy rate, that the Rhinoceros is one of the last survivors of an older fauna.

The very peculiar and prominent " cingulum" on the premolars of this species indicates considerable relationship with the older Acerotherium and Palceotherium. If Falconer is right in identifying the Deccan Mastodon with M. pandionis, this is the only instance of a fossil Indian Mammal being identical with a European species.

The different groups of strata included under this head comprise those beds which have

produced the greatest number of fossil Mammalia : I have Pliocene. included under the head of Pliocene-Siwalik nearly the

whole of the Mammaliferous beds of the Sub-Himalayan region (with the exception of the topmost beds noted above), because we have hitherto found no distinction in the Mammalian Fauna of the different beds. Few identifiable Mammalian fossils have yet been discovered from the Malian beds of Mr. Medlieott (Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. Ill, p. 101), nor from what appear to be their corresponding beds in the Jamb and Potwar country (Rec. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. IX, pt. 2) described by Mr. Medlieott. The main exception to this are certain fossils, to be subsequently noticed, coming from the south of Attock.

Mr. Wynne (Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. X, pt. ii, p. 24) has proposed to identify the grey sandstone and brown-clay series of the Potwar and Kohat districts with the Nahans of Mr. Medlieott : this, I believe, partly arose from a mistaken conception of the geological age of certain fossils collected by Mr. Theobald in the Ivangra and Jamii districts : these fossils were all collected from Siwalik and not from Nahun beds, and as they agree specifically with those from Mr. Wynne's grey and brown beds, I have no hesitation in placing these, on palaeontological grounds only, as of Siwalik age : Mr, Medlieott agrees with this view (Rec. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. IX, pt. 2, p. 56).

The whole of the Mammalian fossils (with the exception of those from near Attock) described by the late Dr. Falconer, were, I have not the least doubt, obtained from the typical Siwalik horizon of Mr. Medlieott ; and there is, therefore, no ground for the suggestion which has been made, that Dr. Falconer erred in not making a distinction between Siwalik and Nahun Mammalian fossils. The divisions in the Siwalik strata, founded on lithological characters only, I have not noticed, as they do not, as far as we know at present, contain dis tinctive groups of Mammalia.

Records of the Geological Survey of India , [vol. ix.

The following is the list of Fossil Mammalia at present known to me from the Sub-Himalayan Siwaliks : —

Stegodon insignis, Falc. Stegodon bombifrons, Falc. Stegodon ganesa, Falc. Loxodon planifrons, Falc.

Euelephas hysudrieus, Falc. Mastodon latidens, Falc. Mastodon sivalensis, Falc.

Perissodactyla.

Ehinoceros platyrhinus, Falc. Ehinoceros sivalensis, Falc. Ehinoceros palseindicus, Falc. Acerotherium perimense, Falc.

Equus sivalensis, Falc.

Equus palaeonus, Falc. Hippotherium antilopinum, Falc. Listriodon sp. mihi.

Artiodactyla,— Suina.

Hexaprotodon sivalensis, Falc. Sus giganteus, Falc.

Merycopotamus dissimilis, Falc. Sus hysudrieus, Falc.

Tetraconodon magnum, Falc. et mihi. Hippohyus sivalensis, Falc.

Ahtiodactvla— Pecora.

Chalicotherium sivalense, Falc. Camelus sivalensis, Falc. Sivatherium giganteum, Falc. Camelopardalis sivalensis, Falc. Dorcatherium, 2, sp. mihi. Capra, sp. Brit. Mus.

Bison sivalensis, Falc.

Hemibos triquetriceros, Falc. Amphibos acutioorais, Falc. Peribos occipitalis, Falc. et mihi. Bos, sp. var. Indian Museum. Cervus, sp. var. Indian Museum.

Carnivora.

Felis cristata, Falc.

Felis palseotigris, Falc.

Drepanodon sivalense, Falc.

Hyaena sivalensis, Falc.

Canis, sp. Brit, and Indian Museum.

Hyamarctos sivalensis, Falc. Amphicyon, sp. mihi, Indian Museum. Ursitaxus sivalensis, Falc.

Lutra pakeindioa, Falc.

Enhydriodon ferox, Falc.

Bodentia.

Hystrix, sp. Falc. Mus sp. Falc. Typhlodon sp. non-desc, Falc.

Quadrttmana.

Semnopithecus Suh-Himalayanus, Meyer: and Macacus.

Several species mentioned in the manuscript notes of the late Dr. Falconer, but never described, and of which the original specimens are now unknown, have been omitted from the above list, as it is quite impossible to identify them. Camelopardalis affinis of Falconer has also been omitted, because the species appears to me to have been founded on a mistake. (See Appendix.)

Referring to the table of formations given above, we find the next on the list to be cer tain beds at Chittagong ; these beds I have never seen, nor am I aware that they have been described: they arc inserted here on the evidence of a small collection of fossils from the above locality in the Indian Museum. These fossils arc imbedded in a coarse green sand matrix, and comprise two or three genera of marine shells, with teeth of Lamna, and two Mammalian molars : one of the latter I have identified with Sics hysudrieus of the Siwaliks ; the other is the molar of a species of Cervus, apparently new; of course till more specimens are obtained from this district, it would be rash to speculate as to the age of the beds, though they may very probably be Siwalik.

part 3.] Lydekker : Fossil Mammalian Fauna of India and Burma. 91

The next formation on the list is the Mammaliferous series of Pegu and the Irawadi river: fossils from these beds have been described and figured by Dr. Falconer ("Fauna Ant. Sival." and " Pal. Mem."), and by Mr. Clift (Trans. Geol. Soe., London, 2nd series, vol. 4) ; several new species of Mammals from this district are contained in the collection of the Indian Museum, obtained by Mr. W. T. Blanford and Mr. W. Theobald. The following list contains only those species of which the locality is certain : —

Pkoboscidia.

Stegodon Cliftii, Falc. Mastodon latidens, Falc.

Mastodon sivalensis, Falc.

Perissodactyla.

Rhinoceros n. sp. mihi, Ind. Mus. Equus sp. Ind. Mus.

Acerotherium perimense, Falc. Tapirus, Clift.

Artiodactyla.

Hexaprotodon iravadicum, Falc. Bos. sp. Ind. Mus.

Merycopotamus dissimilis, Falc. Cervus sp. Ind. Mus.

Yishnutherium iravadicum n. gen. mihi.

Carnivora.

Ursus sp. Indian Museum.

The fauna of the (probably) Siwalik strata of the Nifci Pass and Tibet is only known from a few fragments of bone described by Dr. Falconer (" Pal. Mem., Vol. I, p. 175), and from certain fossils collected by General Straohey (Quar, Journ. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. VII, p. 292) ; these comprise remains of a species of Rhinoceros, and of a ruminant allied to Ovis or Capra.

The mammaliferous strata of Sind, with which I should be disposed to group those of Kach, have been recently described by Mr. W. T. Blauford (Rec. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. IX, pt. 1) under the name of Manokhar beds, which he correlates with the Sub-Himalayan Siwaliks ; the only genera which I can at present identify among the numerous fragments of bones collected by Mr. Fedden from these deposits are the following : —

Proboscidia.

Mastodon latidens, Falc. Stegodon sp.

Dinotherium sp. mihi.

Perissodactyla.

Rhinoceros, 2 sp. mihi. Listriodon sp.

Artiodactyla.

Merycopotamus sp. mihi. Ruminant sp. (astragalus.)

Chalicotherium. sp.

The last beds that I have introduced into the pliocene group are the mammaliferous gravels of Perim Island, in the Gulf of Cambay ; most of the species were noticed by Falconer ; the list comprises —

Proboscidia.

Mastodon latidens Falc. Dinotherium iudicum, Falc.

Mastodon perimensis Falc.

Perissodactyla

Acerotherium perimense, Falc. Rhinoceros sp. non-des.

Records of the Geological Survey of India ,

Aetiodactyla.

Bramatherium perimense, Falc. Antilope sp. mihi Ind. Mus.

Camelopardalis sp. Falc. Sus hysudricus Falc,

Capra, sp. mihi. Ind. Mus.

The Mammalian fossils which I have provisionally placed under the head of Miocene comprise three groups ; the first of these is from Kushalghar, forty miles to the south of Attock. In the early part of the present year I made a journey to Attock for the purpose of re-discovering the beds from which these fossils had been obtained ; unfortunately I had not been correctly informed as to the precise locality at which the fossils had been found, and I was consequently unsuccessful in the main object of my journey. The exact horizon of these beds must therefore be still an unsettled question : from the marked differ ence between their small fauna and that of the typical Siwalik area, I am inclined to think that they may belong to a somewhat earlier period, such as the Kalian of Mr. Medlipott ; red strata corresponding to the latter occur in the neighbourhood from which the fossils were obtained. The original specimens from this locality are now in the Indian Museum ; those to which Falconer's name is added in the following list were shortly noticed by him in a manuscript note (" Pal. Mem., Vol. I, p. 415) ; the following list contains all the species known to me from this locality ; —

Pboboscidia.

Mastodon sp. Ind. Mus. Dinotherium pentapotamicum, Falc.

Peeissodactyla.

Listriodon pentapotamise, Falc. (gen. mihi.) Antoletherium, Falc.

Rhinoceros sp. n. Ind. Mus.

Aetiodactyla.

Merycopotamus sp. mihi.* Sus pusillus, Falc.

Dorcatherium sp. mihi.

Caenivoba.

Ampbicyon sp. n. Falc.

With regard to other formations below the typical Siwaliks, the fossils are so few and so fragmentary, that very few of them can be specifically determined. Mr. Wynne has collected a fragmentary tooth of a species of Mastodon from the Ktihan beds of the Bakrala range near Jhilum. From the Sabathu nummulitic beds of Fatehjang and its neighbour hood Mr. Wynne has obtained a considerable series of bones, but mostly in a very unsatis factory condition.

From the beds immediately overlying the Mammaliferous clays of Fatehjang, I have recognised the perfect astragalus of an Artiodactyle animal ; the form of this bone shows that the navicular and cuboid were united ; the animal was therefore probably a Ruminant. From the Sabathu nunmulitics we have a femur of a Perissodactyle animal allied to Rhino ceros. These are the oldest Mammalian remains yet discovered in India.

Having now shortly noticed the faunae of the various Mammaliferous boils of India, it remains firstly to consider their relationship one to another, and subsequently the relationship of the whole group to the living and fossil Mammalian faunae of other regions of the globe.

See Appendix.

part 3.] Ly (hither ; Fossil Mammalian Fauna; of India and Burma.

On looking through the foregoing lists.it will be observed that there is but one species of Mammal common to the faun® of the Nerbudda beds and the lower Sub-Himalayan Siwaliks, viz., Stegodon insignis ; the remains of this species are far less common in proportion to those of other animals in the Nerbudda beds than in the Siwaliks : this fact indicates that the species was rapidly dying out in the latter period, beyond which the genus is unknown. Bubalus palcetndicus has been quite lately discovered (in company with Camelus sivalensis ) in the topmost beds of the Siwaliks, which have not hitherto yielded other Mammalian remains : as this species is not found in the lower Siwaliks, I have placed these uppermost beds in near relation to the Nerbudda beds. Since, as noticed above, the genera Hippopotamus and Stegodon are the only forms at present not generically represented among the living Indian fauna, there can bo no doubt as to the very modern age of these deposits.

The only two species of Mammalia at present satisfactorily determined to be common to the Sub-Himalayan, Irawadi, and Perim Island beds are Acerotherium perimense (this species was added last year to the Siwalik Fauna by Mr. W. Theobald's discovery of two well-preserved upper molars in these strata) and Mastodon latidens.

Both the species of Mastodon, which occur in the Siwaliks, are also found in the Irawadi beds ; but the Rhinoceros of the latter deposits is very markedly distinct from any of the Siwalik species. (The molai's of the Irawadi Rhinoceros in the Indian Museum I shall describe on a future occasion.) The species of Hexaprotodon are also different in the two deposits : the same species of Merycopotamus, however, occurs in both. Stegodon cliftii appears to he peculiar to the Irawadi beds ; it is the species most nearly allied to the Mastodons, and is therefore probably the oldest of the genus ; teeth of Mastodon are very common in these beds, while true elephants appear to he absent ; bnt I cannot lay-great stress upon this point at present ; if the absence of Euelephas be confirmed by a more thorough ex amination of these strata, I should be well-nigh sure that these beds are older than the Siwaliks. A new genus of Ruminant, for which I propose the name of Yishnutherium, closely related to, hut smaller than, Sivatherium and Jtramaiherium, has been determined byr me from a portion of a lower jaw with teeth obtained from these beds by Mr. W. T. Stanford. Remains of spe cialised Ruminants like Cervus, Bos, and Antilope, as also of Equ/is, are far more rare in the Irawadi beds than in the Siwaliks — facts probably pointing to the somewhat older age of the former.

From the Mammaliferous beds of Perim Island, Acerotherium perimense and Mas todon latidens are the only two Mammals which I have been able satisfactorily to identify with the Siwalik fauna; the one molar of Sus from Perim in the Indian Museum seems, however, to be the same as the Siwalik Sus hysudricus. All the other species at present determined are peculiar to this district : out of seven genera, four are quite extinct, and two of these, viz., Dinotherium and Bramatherium, are not found in the typical Sub-Himalayan Siwaliks. The presence of the former of these genera indicates a relationship between this fauna and that of Sind, and the Attock beds.

The extinct Mammalian fauna of the Siwaliks of Sind, as far as it is at present known, seems to indicate a group distinguished from that of the typical Sub-Himalayan deposits. Among the small hut interesting collection of fossils brought from this district by Mr. Fedden, I notice the absence of Equus and Bo void Ruminants, and the presence of Dinotherium, Dorcatherium, and Merycopotamus (all extinct). listriodon has been found in these beds, and single teeth have been obtained from Attock and the Potwar (Theobald), but not from the true Siwaliks of Falconer : it would therefore seem probable that this genus in tertiary times was confined to the western side of Upper India, not ranging into the Ravi and Satlej districts. Two species of Rhinoceros have been brought by Mr. Fedden from

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

these beds : one of them is different from either of the Siwalik species, and allied to R. deccanensis of Mr. Foote, while the other approaches to 11. palceindicus. The species of TAstriodon appears to mo to be the same as Listriodon pentapotamim from Attock. I think it probable from this fauna, either that it was separated from the typical Siwalik fauna by physical barriers, or that it might have been slightly older. Mr. Fedden tells me that the Mammals from these deposits are found nearly at the base of the fresh-water series ; in the Potwar district, on the other hand, they occur nearly at the top : this suggests that the Sind fauna is somewhat the older.*

The fauna of the Kushalghar beds near Attock comprises a small group of Mammalia, in which the species and in many cases the genera are quite distinct from those of the typical Siwalik area; all the specimens from this locality are molar teeth in an excellent state of preservation, so that there can be no doubt as to the correctness of their specific identification ; the fossils arc embedded in a red clay matrix, w'hicli lends confirmation to my suggestion that they may belong to the Kahun zone of Mr. Medlicott. Among a total number of nine genera from these beds no less than five are extinct ; one of these genera, Dinotheriwm (as noted above) is unknown in the typical Siwaliks; while another-, Antoletherium, is peculiar to these beds : a third, Amphicgon, is only known in the typical Siwaliks, from a single carnassial tooth of the lower jaw brought by Mr. Medlicott from the red-clay and sandstone beds of Nurpur (these beds are placed quite at the base of the Mammaliferous Siwaliks) ; the Attock specimen, which is an upper true molar, must have belonged to a much smaller animal than the Siwalik specimen ; and the two species were doubtless distinct. The Merycopotamus of the Kushalghar beds seems to be the same as the Siwalik and Burmese species + ; a lower molar of Rhinoceros, from the same locality, is quite distinct from those of either of the Siwalik species of the genus. A species of Dorcatherium from these beds may or may not be distinct from Falconer's Siwalik species, the original and description of which seems to have been lost, the name only appearing in a manuscript note. A very small and distinct species of Sus (the animal could scarcely have been larger than Hodgson's Rorcidot salvanid) is also peculiar to these beds. Listriodon has only just been found in the Siwalik strata by Mr. Theobald ; it existed in the lower Miocene of Europe : I think the Siwalik species is the same as Falconer's Listriodon pentapoiarnios.

Apart, therefore, from the position of these Kushalghar beds in the geological series, their Mammalian fauna is found to be very markedly distinct from that of the Siwaliks, From the presence of such, simple forms as Antoletherium Dinotherium and Listriodon together with Amphicgon and Dorcatherium — all European Miocene forms — and from the absence, hitherto, of all such specialized types as It os, Elephas, Equus, &c., wo are led to place this fauna in closer connection with the ancestors of the true Siwalik fauna. Whether the ago of the fossils is really prc-Siwalik, or whether the animals from which they were derived lived in part contemporaneously with the Siwalik fauna, but shut off from it by physical barriers, must remain an open question until the exact position of the beds is determined ; at all events there seems to be a distinctness in the fauna of all the Mammaliferous beds of the western side of India from those of the typical Siwaliks of Falconer. Dinotherium and Listriodon are only found at Attock, in Sind, and at Perim. The above comparisons tend to show that the Burmese Fauna, though different, still

In my note on Stegodon ganesa (Eec. Geol. Surv. India, Vol. IX, pt. 2, p. 46) I made the error of calling these beds supra-nummulitic" instead of Siwalik. Mr. Blanford's paper on Sind was not published when I wrote the paper.

f See Appendix.

part 3.] Lyclekker: Fossil Mammalian Fauna?, of India and Burma. 95

lias considerable relations to tlie Siwalik, indicating some land connection between the two areas, perhaps something like that which exists at the present day ; on the other hand, the Faunae of Perim Island and the Kushalghar beds are markedly distinct. Nothing definite can at present be predicted regarding the other beds.

Having now shortly glanced at the relations of the fossil fauna among themselves, we may consider their relations firstly to the present fauna of the globe, and secondly to the fossil fauna of other regions. The lists given above (excluding the Post-Pliocene period) con tain upwards of forty-six well established genera of Mammalia ; of these, the following twenty-five, or rather more than one-half of the total number, are now extinct, viz. : —

Pkoboscidia, Mastodon, Stegodon, Dinotherium.

Peeissodactyla, Antoletheriinn, Acerotheriwm, Bippoth erium , Listriodon.

Abtiodactyla, Bexaprotodon, Tetraconodon, MerycopotamuS, Bippohyus, Bramatherium, Vishnutherium, Sivatherium, Bemibos, Amphibos, Peribos, Dorcatherium, Cloalicotherium.

Rodentia, Typhlodon.

Cabnivoba, Drepanodon, Ampliicyon, Bycenarctos, Ursitaxus, Enhydriodon.

Of the remaining genera there are now found living in India or the adjacent countries the following seventeen, viz. : —

Pkoboscidia, Euelephas.

Peeissodactyla, Bhinoceros, Equus.

Abtiodactyla, Cervus, Antilope, Capra, Bison ( Poephagus ), Bos {Bibos), Sus.

Rodentia, Bystrix.

Cabnivoba, Eel is, By ana, Lutra, Canis, Ur sus.

Quadbumana, Semnopitliecus, Macacus.

The above list shows that rather more than one-third of the genera of the middle tertiary Mammalia of India are still living in Asia ; if now we turn to the living Mammalian fauna of Africa, we find the following twelve genera common to it and to the Indian Tertiary Mammalian Fauna, viz. —

Pkoboscidia, Loxodon.

Peeissodactyla, Bhinoceros, Equus.

Abtiodactyla, Bippopotamus ( representing Bexaprotodon), Bubalus, Camelopardalis, Capra, Antilope.

Cabnivoba, By etna, Lutra, Felts, Canis.

As being closely connected with our present subject, we may notice here the great number of living Mammalian genera common to the continents of India and Africa (south of the Sahara). The following list of forms (exclusive of Cheiroptera) common to the two continents was kindly given to me by Mr. W. T. Blanford ; it comprises twenty-three genera, viz. : —

Peoboscidia, Elephas (Loxodon in Africa and Euelepthas in India.

Peeissodactyla, Antilope (subgenera), Gazella, Capra, Bubalus.

Sieenia, Balicore.

Rodentia, Sciurus, Bystrix, Mus, Gerbillus, Lepus.

Cabnivoba, Belts (sp. leo. and leopardus), Canis (sp. aureus), Mustela (Himalayas), Byxna, Viverra Paradoxurus, Lutra, Aonyx, Berpestes, Mellivora.

96 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. rx.

Again, we find the twenty-six following genera common to the Indian Tertiaries and to the Tertiaries of Europe, viz. : —

Proboscidia, Mastodon, loxodon, Euelephas, Dinotlierium.

Pertssodactyla, Rhinoceros, Aceruthermm, Fquns, IUppotherinm, Listriodon. Artiodactyla, Hippopotamus, Sits, Ciudicotherium, Dorcatherium, Cervus, Bos, Bison, Capra, Camelopardalis

Carnivora, Ampldryon, Ursus, Felis, Drepanodon, Hycena, Lutra, Hycenarctos, Canis.

From the above list we find that more than half the number of genera of Mammalia which occur in the Indian Tertiaries are also found in the Tertiary fauna of Europe. In contrast to this if we turn to the living fauna of Europe, we find the following eight genera common to it and the Indian Tertiary fauna, viz. : —

Artiodactyla, Sus. Bos, Bison, Capra, Cervus.

Carnivora, Ursus, Felis, Lutra.

Finally we find the following fourteen genera peculiar to the Indian Tertiaries : —

Proboscidia. Stegodon .

Perissodactyla, Antoletherium.

Artiodactyla, Hexaprotodon, Tetraconodon. Meryeopotamus, Hippohyus, Ferihos, Hemihos. Amphibos, Sivatherium, Bramatherium, Vishnutherium.

Carnivora, TJrsilaxus, Fnhydriodon.

From the foregoing we arrive at the following results : firstly, that all the species of Mammalia found in the Indian Tertiaries below the Nerbudda beds are extinct ; and that

the following are the relations of the genera, : —

Extinct ... ... ... ... ... 25

Peculiar to Indian Tertiaries ... ... ... 14

Common to Indian and European Tertiaries ... ... 26

Common to fossil and living Indian fauna ... ... 17

Common to Indian Tertiaries and modern Africa ... 12

Common to Indian Tertiaries and modern Europe ... 8

The greatest number of genera common to any two periods occur in the Tertiaries of Europe and India; next to them the greatest common number is found in the living and fossil Indian fauna; thirdly, a small number of genera is common to the extinct fauna of India, and the living fauna of Africa ; a few genera are common to the extinct Indian fauna and the modern European fauna; while a larger number of genera are common to the living faunae of India and Africa.

The above results appear clearly to point to some former connection by land between the continents of India, Africa and Europe. The former land connection between India and Africa has been strongly insisted upon by several modern naturalists ; this ancient land con nection has been named " Indo-Oceunia" by Mr. PI. E. Blanford in a recent paper, (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. Lond., November 1875) by which name it will he cited here. The writers who have argued for the existence of this ancient continent have been led to form their opinions by the study of their own particular branches of science ; another line of evidence derived from the fossil Mammalia cannot but add strength to the hypothesis.

Up. Miocene of Attica : and perhaps in France ; see Gerrais, Palaintologie et Zoologie Fransais, p. 142.

part 8.] Lydekker : Fossil Mammalian Faunas of India and Burma.

Assuming the truth of this hypothesis, we must, in considering the relations of the extinct to the modern fauna of India, divest ourselves of the idea of peninsular India being con nected by means of the Himalaya with Central Asia ; rather we must look upon it as having been disconnected from the latter region by a deep Eo-Miocene sea, which deposited the extensive nummulit.ic formations of tire Himalaya a,nd Persia; and as having been con nected by the old " Indo-Oceania" with Africa, and so with Europe. Subsequently to the (at all events partial) upheaval of the nummulitie series and its overlying sandstones and red clays, the great fresh-water Mammaliferous series was deposited : and it becomes an interesting question to consider whether these were deposited previously or subsequently to the submergence of "Indo-Oceania."

Before there can he any chance of answering this question, the geological age of the Siwaliks must be certainly fixed ; whether in fact they should he placed in the Miocene or Pliocene period. The number of extinct genera of Mammalia in these beds is so large, that on first thoughts one would be at once inclined to say that they cannot he of later age than Miocene : this view was taken by Dr. Falconer, and has beeu subsequently acquiesced iu by most other writers. In considering this question we must, however, bear in mind, that it does not at all follow that the same rule holds good in India as in Europe ; changes of climatal and physical conditions, and consequently of the forms of Lite, may have beeu infinitely more rapid in the one region than in the other.

Besides the Mammalian remains, a considerable number of species of Molluscs have been collected from the Siwaliks; these were sent by Dr. Falconer to the late Prof. E. Forbes for determination ; a considerable number were identified with living forms, and Mr. Theobald now tells me that he believes (owing to the more complete collections ol living species now extant) nearly all are identical with living species. At the end ot his note on the subject (Pal. Mem., Vol. 1, p. 390) Prof. Forbes says that the Molluscan evidence tends to place the age of the Siwalik Fauna as not newer than older Pliocene; if, however, Mr. Theobald's suggestion turn out to be correct, the age would, from the Molluscan evidence, be later than this. In the first volume of the Palaeontological Memoirs (p. 26) it is stated that in the opinion of a then eminent authority (Mr. Benson), nearly it uot quite ,all the Siwalik shells were identical with living species. Our collection of these shells in the Indian Museum is not at present very extensive ; if additional specimens be obtained, it would be very important to have the whole series carefully compared with their living congeners.

There is, however, the still more important fact, that the Gharial of the Siwaliks, and one species of Crocodile, are absolutely indistinguishable from their living Indian represen tatives, whilst there is, 1 believe, no instance of reptiles having survived from the Miocene to the present period. Both of the above facts to my mind point very strongly to the Pliocene age of the Siwaliks : Emys tectum is also another Siwalik lieptile which has survived down to the present time.

Another very important piece of evidence tending to the same view is afforded by a statement of Mr. W. T. Blauford's (Rec. Gaol. Surv. India, Vol. IX, pt. 1, p. 18) in his Geology of Sind ; it is there shown that the Manclihar beds, which he correlates with the Siwaliks (and from the few fossils brought from them, I should say that they cannot possibly be newer) rest uueonforwably on beds " which axe at the oldest Upper Miocene." If this identification is certain, it at once disposes of the Miocene theory of the age of the Siwaliks.

The assemblage of Mammalian genera in the Siwaliks, and other Indian Tertiaries, is so incongruous, according to our ideas derived from the European fauna (as was long since pointed out by Dr. Falconer), that it seems to be impossible from this alone to decide their age. Forms such as Chalicotherium , Acerotherium and Dorvatherinm are very characteristic of the Miocene of Continental Europe ; but then we find mixed with them such

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

markedly modern forms as E quits, Hippopotamus' and Bos, just as characteristic of the Pliocene in Europe ; and it is from the presence of these and kindred genera that I am inclined to give my adherence to the view of the modern age of these strata ; rather than, led away by the presence of older forms, which might well have lived down to a later period in this country than in Europe, to place the Siwaliks in the Miocene period. Mr. W. T. Blanford, in the paper above quoted (page 18, note), attaches much weight to the presence of specialised Ruminants in the Siwaliks, as indicating their Pliocene age : and the absence of genera like Palceotkerinm and Auopdolherium, as far as negative evidence goes, also tends to prove the modern age of the Siwaliks ; with regard to Mr. Blanford's remark, however, it is mentioned in the report on the Miocene Mammals of Attica (Compt. Rend Yol. LI, p. 1296) that " L'abondance des Ruminants est remarquable h Pikermi and yet the strata are placed as Miocene.

Assuming, however, the Pliocene age of the Siwaliks, and the former connection of India with Africa, we still have to account for the number of generic forms common to Tertiary India and Tertiary Europe : this, however, presents no difficulty, because it is> I believe, a well-established fact that Southern Europe and Northern Africa were connected by land in middle tertiary times ; so that a land communication (not necessarily continuous at any one period) must have once existed between India and Europe, across the Indian Ocean, allowing of the free migration of the Mammalia of the three great continents.

According to this view of the case, we may readily conceive how a European Miocene genus like Helladotheriuni or Camelopardalis (both found fossil on the extreme southern borders of Europe) may have lived in these regions, in Northern Africa and in the inter mediate submerged land, and so may have given origin to the Camelopardalis of the latter continent, and also to the Siuatherium, Brarr.athervum and Giraffe of the Indian Tertiaries, which lived in the succeeding Pliocene period. The same may be said of Elephas and Hippopotamus, some forms of both of these genera being found either living or fossil in all the three continents; both genera might have taken their origin in the Miocene " Indo-Oceania," or adjacent lands, and thence spread out on all sides ; to live in one continent up to Pliocene and Post-Pliocene times only, and in the other two to exist up to the present day.

The presence of such genera as Equvs and Bos in the Pliocene of Europe, and in the Siwaliks of India — genera which are still living in both continents — appears to lead to the conclusion that the connecting land between India and Europe must have existed down to a comparatively modern period: and that perhaps some portion of the Siwalik strata were deposited during the period of this union.

The very large number of Mammalian genera common to the Indian and European Tertiaries, and the comparatively small number common to the former and to the living Fauna of Europe, seem to point to an earlier separation between India. and Europe than between India and Africa; the Fannie of the two latter countries still have so many forms in common, that it appears only a relatively short period of time can have elapsed since their separation ; a period not long enough to have modified the genera, and in several cases not even the species. Between India and Europe, on the other hand, the relationship between the living Mammalian genera is much less close; and we have to go back to the Miocene period of the latter country, and to the Pliocene period ol' the former, to find conclusive evidence of a former land communication between the two. Still, as before said, certain living genera are now common to both countries, and we must bear in mind that, assuming tbe former union of the three great continents of the old world, India and Europe would be situated at tbe two ends of tbe chain, and that, therefore, their faunae would naturally

part 3.] Lydekjcer : Fossil Mammalian Fauna of India and Burma, 99

differ most : moreover, the continents of modern India and Europe differ now (irrespective of what may have occurred in Tertiary times) very greatly in climate, and to this cause alone we may attribute in great part their present divergence in faunae.

If a more complete series of Mammalian remains should hereafter he discovered in the Tertiary strata of Africa, we may confidently expect to find among them more conclusive evidences of the former mingling of the fauna) of the three great continents of the old world. Among the few Mammalian remains which have been obtained from the upper Tertiaries of Algiers, there is a species of Bubal.us (B. antiquus : see Gervais' "Zoologie et Pateotitologie," 1st series, pi. XIX), which approaches much nearer in the form of its cranium to Bubalus ami of India, than to any living African species of the genus ; certain characters, however, relate it to B. braehyceros of the latter continent. Intermediate forms like the above afford the most conclusive evidence of the former connection of the two continents.

The presence of two or three genera of Mammalia in the Siwaliks seems to indicate that at some period of time the fauna of the Indian region must have had communication with the progenitors of the American Fauna ; for instance, the genera Mastodon and Equus are common to the Tertiaries of Europe, Asia and America : Sivaiherium is not only related by the form of its molar teeth to Camelopardalis and Megaeeros, but in the structure of its horn-cores it approaches the American Antiloeapra, and no other living Mammal. Camelus, again, which is found fossil in the Indian Tertiaries, and in no other formations in the world, must have had some relationship with the ancestors of the Lamas and Yicuunas of the Cordilleras : a fact which I have just discovered confirms this point : the Siwalik camel presents a peculiarity in the lower molars which is not found in the living species, hut exists only in the American Aiiehenia.* If camels exist wild in Turkestan, the presence of the genus among the Siwalik fauna is one of the few instances in which that fauna is related to the fauna of Central Asia.

No remains of Edentata (now sparingly represented in India) have hitherto been described from the Siwaliks. Insectivora are likewise unknown ; and no specimens of Bodentia have been obtained since Falconer's original specimens. As is so generally the case among older faun®, many of the Tertiary animals of Iudia vastly exceeded in size their modern representa tives ; as instances we may note, Slegodon ganesa, Sivaiherium , Brcnnci/Jierium , Bhinoceros platyrhinus, Ilymarctos sivalensis, and above all Colossochelys gigantea.

With regard to the presence of man among the fossil fauna of India, it will he noticed that the discovery of a stone weapon in the gravels of the Nerbudda by Mr. Hacket, and of another by Mr. Wynne, in the Godavari Valley, have confirmed the suggestion of Dr. Falconer (Pal. Mem., Vol. II, page 577) that man would one day be found in these deposits. No traces, however, of man have yet been discovered in the Siwaliks, though Falconer thought they might occur even here ; and on the theory of these beds being Pliocene, occurrence of human remains is still more probable ; even yet I think all hope of finding them is not ex hausted, especially when we remember how very rare are the remains of any Mammals of the anthropoid type; the one tusk of an Ape allied to the Orang, found by Falconer (Pal. Mem., Vol. II, page 578) is still the only specimen of the species hitherto discovered among the many thousands of specimens brought from these deposits. It must also be borne in mind that the whole of the Siwalik fossils are derived from strata and not from caverns, and that, therefore, the chance of finding human remains among them is so much the less.

This peculiarity will subsequently be fully described.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Lastly, I would conclude with a few words as to the past and present physical features of the Siwalik region, and as to the causes which have led to the complete extinction of the old Fauna. My remarks will chiefly have reference to that portion of the Siwalik area lying between the rivers Satlej and Indus, as being that with which alone I am personally familiar.

The present Siwalik hills consist of a series of comparatively low ranges, with a general north-west strike, forming the outermost bands of the Himalaya (see Mr. Medlicott: Mem. Geol. Sur., India, Vol. Ill, and Mr. Drew : " Jamu and Kashmir Territories"), here and there pierced through and broken up by masses of the underlying forma tions : even their very topmost beds are contorted and crushed in every conceivable manner, indicating the lateness of the period down to which the upheaval of the Himalaya has extended.

These hills are either completely bare, or are covered with forests of Finite longifolia and Picea Webbiana, or with low scrub jungle : the "duns" between the ridges are gene rally cultivated and fairly fertile. The rivers are generally confined to narrow channels in deep-cut gorges, and never that I am aware of spread out into lakes : isolated lakes of any size are aiso very rare. On the uncultivated lands natural herbage (lit for food) is extremely scarce; and in its present condition the country seems to me entirely unfitted for the support of a fauna such as that of which we find the remaius embedded in its strata.

Mr. Medlicott, however, has reminded me that the old Moghul Emperors used to hunt the elephant in the Jamu hills ; and it therefore seems likely that cultivation must have had a share in rendering this part of the country unfit for the habitation of large game. Fur ther to the east the Siwalik area still abounds in jungle, in which the elephant is found abundantly.

Several of the Mammalia found in the Siwaliks of Jamu belong, however, to genera which live in the open sparingly-watered plains of Africa; such are Equus and Camelopar davis. The Hippopotamus, however, on the other hand, is only found at the present day inha biting large and deep rivers, with pools and lagoons, and on the banks of which grow abundance of rank and succulent vegetation ; and, to my mind, could not have possibly lived in any of the rapidly -flowing rivers of Jamu.

If, on the other hand, we glance back at what might have been, and very probably was the character of the country during the deposition of the Siwalik strata, we may readily imagine a physical condition much more suited to animals like the hippopotamus.

Since, in the J am ft district, at all events, the Siwalik strata are carried up and contorted by the conformable underlying rocks, it is evident that these older rocks have only been raised at a comparatively recent period to the elevation at which we now find them, and that conse quent in Siwalik times the whole of the outer belt of the Himalaya must have been much lower than at present. This lower elevation would imply a smaller degree of fall in the rivers (which Mr. Medlicott supposes to have flowed in the same courses in Siwalik times as at present) and these consequently, instead of denuding, would have been depositing in the Siwalik districts, and might have wandered in sinuous courses over extensive marshy plains, spreading out here and there into lakes : under such conditions we may readily ima gine the country to have abounded with dense jungles of succulent plants suited for the support of large herbivores like the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, &c. ; the condition of the country was probably more like that of Assam at the present day, where the rhino ceros, elephant and bufl'aloe still exist. Evidence of the former existence of extensive forests in these regions is afforded by the vast number of tree-stems found in the Nahan sandstone of Jogi-Tilla near Jhilam, and more sparingly in other places.

part 3.] Lydehhr : Fossil, Mammalian Fauna; of India and Burma.

During the whole of this " depositing-period" tbe innermost band of the upper Tertiaries (Nahans) was probably being gradually upheaved, while its detritus was again deposited in tbe outer band : in course of time the elevation of tbe inner regions would become so great as to cause the rivers to begin to cut through the outer Siwaliks, and so gradually to drain the country ; the Siwalik strata becoming contorted and crushed as they were slowly upheaved. This gradual draining of the country and consequent disappearance of a great part of the vegetation would, I imagine, have been of itself a power quite sufficient to have caused the total extinction of migration of the old Siwalik Fauna from these regions without invoking the aid of man or any other living agent.

Why some genera like Camelopardalis and Hippopotamus, apparently as well fitted as Elephas or Rhinoceros to have survived in other parts of India, should have entirely disappeared from the country, while others like Sivatherium should have become totally extinct, it is useless to conjecture in our present state of knowledge.

It may be observed that the whole of the Siwalik Mammalia belonged to genera fitted for life in tbe plains or in low jungle-dad hills, not barren and lofty mountains : we mark the presence of genera like j Elephas, Camelus, Camelopardalis, JEquus, Hippopotamus, and Rhinoceros, and note the rareness of Capra, Ibex, Ovis, Nemorhcedus, and similar mountain genera. Certain beds in Tibet (General Strachey, sup. cit.), however, presumably of Siwalik age, have yielded either an Ovis or Capra : the further exploration of these strata would pro bably show a more intimate connection between their fauna and that of Central Asia than is found to exist between the latter and the typical Siwalik Fauna.

Appendix A.

Descriptions of some new or little known Mammalia from the Indian Tertiaries.

tetraconodon magnum, Falconer.

This genus was originally founded by Falconer upon two upper molar teeth from Dadupur; ('Palaeontological memoirs', Vol. 1 page 149) these teeth have apparently been lost; but a drawing is given in tbe memoir quoted : no other specimens of the genus have ever been recorded. The molar teeth indicate an animal of the hippopotamus family.

In the present season Mr. Theobald has sent down from the Siwaliks of Asnot in the Potwur district a portion of a right mandible of a Hippopotamoid, containing the first and second molar teeth, and the ultimate premolar, together with the penultimate premolars of both sides of the jaw. The molar teeth of this specimen seem to correspond in general character with the molars of Falconer's Tetraconodon so closely, that I have referred the present specimen to the same genus and species.

The second molar tooth has not yet come into full wear, and is in excellent state for description. The crown of this tooth is oblong in shape; it is produced at its angles into fourconical or mastoid processes, forming a pair at each eud. A cruciform valley occupies the surface of the crown between the four cones; the transverse portion of this valley is the widest and deepest ; the extremities of this transverse valley extend downwards to the sides of the crown. At the central hollow between the four cones there is a bilobed flat tubercle ; another talon tubercle occupies the hindmost portion of the ante-o-posterior valley ; there is a very small tubercle at the outer extremity of the transverse valley. There is no cingulum.

On the worn surface of the first molar the plane of wear slopes very slightly outwards.

The resemblance between this penultimate lower molar and the penultimate upper molar of Falconer's specimen (as may be seen by comparing the two descriptions) is complete ; and on the evidence of this tooth alone I have united the two specimens under one species.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

1 now come to the premolar teeth of my specimen, hitherto unknown, and which are of a most abnormal and interesting character. These teeth vastly exceed in size the true molars, a character which is, I believe, unknown among other mammals ; they are placed in direct contact with the molar series, and have a general resemblance in form to those of Hippopotamus wadi Merycopotamus ; eaioh is inserted into the jaw by two fangs; the penultimate premolar does not present any facet of pressure on its anterior surface, and was therefore probably separated by a diastema from the preceding tooth.

The ultimate premolar has a nearly square base, from which rises an oblique compressed cone, the summit being directed backwards and placed a little in advance of the hindmost border of the crown ; the anterior face of the cone projects into a sharp sinuous ridge running from summit nearly to base, expanding below into a cingulum, which occupies the greater part of the anterior base ; the cingulum slopes from the ridge to the antero-external angle. A small tubercle occurs between the summit of the cone and the posterior border ; this tubercle forms the summit of another cingulum occupying the posterior surface ; the posterior cingulum slopes towards the base of the crown on each side from this central point ; the outer extremity of the cingulum forming a very marked ledge at the poster-external angle of the crown ; a rounded notch occupies each side of the crown between the roots of the fang. The inner surface of the tooth is nearly vertical, the outer sloping.

The enamel is arranged in irregular branching ridges radiating from the summit to the periphery of the base ; these ridges are again marked by fine parallel transverse stria;.

The summit of the crown is worn obliquely, the face directed upwards and backwards ; the worn surface present two facets, and is of an irregular oval shape, the longer diameter placed antero-posteriorly.

The penultimate premolar differs from the other in being rather smaller in the base of the crown presenting a somewhat triangular cross-section, and in the summit of the coue being more directly over the centre of the crown. A more prominent ridge from this summit runs along the centre of both anterior and posterior surfaces ; the posterior cingulum is also rather more prominent.

The dimensions of the specimen are as follows, in inches a

Length of two molars Ditto 2nd molar ...

Width of ditto ditto

Height of ditto ditto

Length of ultimate premolar

Width of ditto ...

Height of ditto ...

Length of penultimate premolar...

Width of ditto ...

Height of ditto ...

Depth of jaw at ultimate premolar

Length of the penultimate molar of Falconer's specimen ...

Tlie general form of the premolars resembles those of Hippopotamus : the cingulum, however, is confined to the fore and aft surfaces only. In the position of the cingulum, and in the straight ness of the inner wall of the premolars, the specimen approaches the premolars of Mery copot amus.

As stated hy Falconer, the molars can only be compared with those of Hippopotamus and its allies ; the position of the four cones at the corners, and the absence of the trefoil-shaped surface of wear, sufficiently distinguishes the molars from those of Hippopotamus. From Sus they are distinguished by the slight degree of obliquity of the worn surface, and from the crown surface not being a collection of semi-distinct tubercles, but divided into four distinct simple cones. The cruciform valley is a character common to this genus and Sus.

id tenths : —

80

paet 3.] Lydeklcer : Fossil Mammalian Fauna of India and Burma.

The distinction between the molars of this genus and Anthrae other ium are well pointed out by Falconer in bis memoir.

The peculiar form and size of the premolars, now first known, (sufficiently differentiate this) remarkable genus from all its congeners. The gigantic size of the premolars appears to be a further extension of the ultra development of the anterior teeth, which is found in Hippopotamus and Sus : in the living genera this ultra development is confined to the canines and incisors only, while in the fossil genus it extended back to the premolars. It is to he hoped that further re searches may bring to light the cranium and autcrior teeth of this most remarkable mammalian form.

The o-enus was called by Falconer by the two names of Tefraconodon and Charotherium The latter name is now applied to a small suine animal from Sausans, (Lar) ; (see Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 1Y, Yol. XII, p. 177). For this reason 1 have here called the genus by Its forme

name only.

Genus founded on a portion of a left mandible discovered by Mr. \V. T. Blanford in Burma ; the specimen contains the first and second true molar teeth. The general form of the molars is like those of Camelopardalis, Sivatherium, and Bramalherium, and the enamel has the same rugose character ; the teeth are, however, distinguished from those of either of the above genera by the following characters : —

Along the whole of the external surface of each molar there is a well-marked sinuated cingulum ; this extends half way across the posterior and anterior surfaces, where it is very conspicuous : it is produced into a number of cusps on the anterior surface ; there is a prominent tubercle at the entrance to the main valley between the barrels : the other characters differ hut slightly from those of the teeth of the above genera.

Ditto of last ditto ... 1 io

This genus is distinguished from Sivatherium and Bramatherium by its small size, and by the presence of the cingulum and tubercle; from Camelopardalis by the presence of a cingulum, and by the tubercle being pointed and present in both molars, instead of being blunt and only present in tbe first molar : other minor differences will be noted when the specimen is figured and described

fully.

Appendix B.

The following is a summary of the new forms added to the Siwalik fauna by the collections brought down during tbe present year by Mr. Theobald, together with notices of some of the more remarkable and rare specimens of previously known species.

Perhaps the most interesting of these additions is a specimen of the tympanic bone of a species of Cetacean : tbe specimen presents some points of affinity to tbe corresponding bone of Platanista, and is of about the same size; it, however, presents such differences as will probably necessitate its being placed in a distinct genns. This is tbe first instance of a Cetacean bone having been obtained from the Siwaliks, though Falconer conjectured that they would eventually be discovered

Two geneva, though previously known in other tertiary beds of India, have now been for the first time added to tbe true Siwalik fauna : these are Listriodon and Acerotherium.

Of tbe genus Bos and allied forms, four new species have been added to tbe Siwalik fauna : descriptions of these will shortly be published in tbe "Palseontologia Indica.

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

Rhinoceros : a new species of this genus, founded on upper molar teeth, has also been obtained.

Tetraconodon magnum , hitherto known by the drawing only of the Dadupur specimen, is represented by the jaw noticed above.

Lntra a portion of a lower jaw, which seems to be larger than Lutra palceindica, and may perhaps bo distiuct.

Bramatherium. — Of this genus we have obtained a very perfect cranium, not yet cleaned from its matrix ; the teeth are complete, and the cranium seems only lacking the horn-cores to be also complete : this is, I believe, the first perfect cranium discovered.

Dorcatherium sp. — A number of molar teeth and jaws; the upper molars indicate the existence of two species.

Camelopardalis sivalensis. — Part of a lower jaw, and two upper molars.

Merycopotamus sivalensis. — Several portions of lower jaws, and an astragalus.

Ursitaxus sivalensis. — The first true molar, and the last premolar from the maxilla of each side; these teeth are Valuable additions to our collection, as the genus lias been hitherto known only by Falconer's two specimens : the oue a cranium, and the other a fragment of a lower jaw.

ITijrena sivalensis. — Several fragments of lower jaws.

Fells sp. — One lower carmissial tooth.

Tlrsus u. sp. cranium.

In addition to the Mammalian specimens, I have also to notice the discovery of a very perfect cervical vertebra of a bird belonging to tlie order Grallatores. Falconer also had one or more specimens of bird-bones, which he referred to the same order ; and it is not improbable that our new specimen may be closely allied to Falconer's. Falconer considered that liis specimens belonged to a bird which must have exceeded in size the gigantic Bengal adjutant Leptoptilvs argala.

Remains of Ophidians have not hitherto been recorded from the Tertiary Fannse of India ; it is therefore interesting to have to notice their discovery from two localities in the present year. Mr. Theobald has brought four dorsal vertebra.' of a species of snake allied to, but smaller than, the Indian l'ytlion from the Shvaliks of the Potwar district; while Mr. Fedden has collected two very similar vertebrae from the Shvaliks of Sind.

I shall hope on a future occasion to give descriptions and figures of the more remarkable of these novelties.

Note on Camelopardalis from the Shvaliks. In looking over the collection of ruminant teeth from the Shvaliks in the Indian Museum, the great rarity of the teetli of this genus struck me as being very remarkable, especially as Falconer had determined two species, viz., Camelopard dis affinis and Camelopai dal is sivalensis. The former of these species was founded upon molars closely resembling those of the living African species, while the latter was founded upon a cervical vertebra. (The specimens are figured in the " Palaeontological Memoirs, " Vol. I, p. 198.)

It then occurred to me to consider why separate species had been made from these two series of remains, which on prim a facie grounds it would have seemed natural to refer to one species. I then found that in the catalogue of the Fossil Mammalia of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, there were certain teeth which had been entered by Dr. Falconer as the lower molars of the second species of' Camelopardalis ( C . sivalensis). These teeth are numbered in the collection ii'_ and on examining these specimens 1 was greatly surprized to find that they belonged to Bos or some allied form, and not to Camelopardalis at all. (The teeth are much narrower in proportion to their length than in Camelopardalis ; they have a long slender accessory lobe between tbe two cy linders, which reaches to the summit of the crown, whereas in Camelopardalis there is only a minute tubercle at the base of tbe cylinders ; and finally tbe outer walls of tbe cylinders are placed nearly parallel to the long areas of the teeth, instead of very obliquely, as in Camelopardalis). These

part 3.] Lydekker : Fossil Mammalian Fauna of India and Burma.

teeth have a somewhat rugose enamel, and I can only suppose that in a hasty examination Dr. Falconer, who says that at the time of cataloguing them he had no means of making a comparison at hand, was led away by this character into placing them under the head of Camelopardalis.

No teeth have therefore been found which are referable to Camelopardalis siralensis ; on turn ing to Dr. Falconer's remarks upon the genus, it is stated that the teeth figured in the " Paleonto logical Memoirs" were assigned to a second species, because they were of too large a size to have belonged to an animal possessing cervical vertebra; of the size of those of the original Camelopar davis sivalensis.

On turning to the measurements of the vertebra of the latter species (" Palaeontological Me moirs. " Vol. 1, p. 201), 1 find that the specimen was described as being one-third shorter than the corresponding vertebra of the living species; but ou looking at the relative dimensions of the centre of the vertebra of the two species, 1 find very small differences between them; indeed, some of the diameters of the vertebra of C. sivalensis are actually larger than those of C. giraffe.

The following measurements are taken from Falconer's table : —

Vertical diameter of anterior articulating surface of centrum

C. sivalensis.

C. giraffe. 1*55

Transverse ditto ditto

Length of post-zygapophysis

Width of disc ... ... ...

l'O

Length of pre-zygapophysia

Vertical diameter of posterior articulating cup of centrum

From the above measurements it will be seen that the anterior articulating hall of the centrum has an area nearly equal in the two species ; the diameter of the posterior cup of the vertebra of the recent species is rather the larger of the two, but this is caused by a less development of the rim in the fossil specimen. Both of the zygapophyses present a considerably larger area in the fossil than in the recent specimen ; and since their surfaces are the main aids in coun ecting the different vertebra, it is clear that the neck of the fossil species was at the least equally strong with that of tire living species, and was therefore capable of supporting a head and teeth as large as those of the latter.

Moreover, from its shortness and consequent absence of the groat leverage which occurs in the living species, the neck of the fossil species might well bear even a still larger head and teeth than those of the living species.

From the above arguments I am perfectly convinced that Falconer's second species —Camelo. pardalis affin is— founded upon the teeth alone, should be abolished, and both teeth and vertebra assigned to Camelopardalis sivalensis.

Camelopardalis sivalensis, according to this view, was an animal furnished with molar teeth (and probably with a cranium) of the same size as those of the living Camelopardalis giraffe; its neck, however, was one-third shorter than that of the latter ; it probably took its origin from some short-necked form allied to Sivatherium ; while tho loug neck of the recent species is, as we should naturally expect, a specialized character of quite modern origin.

As according to the above view we have only one species of Shvalik giraffe, tho rarity of the molars, though still very remarkable, is not so noticeable as if there had been two species.

Note on Merycopotamus.

M. Nanus, hale. This species was added to the list of Indian Fossil Mammalia by Dr. Falconer on the evidence of several molar teeth and one premolar from Kushalghar near Attock (" Palmontological Memoirs," Vol. I, p. 416).

Lately, on looking over the collection containing these specimens, I Was surprised to find that the molar teeth ascribed to this species do not really belong to the genus Merycopotamus at all, but to the genus Dorcatherium : (on a hasty examination it would he possible to mistake the one or the other.)

106 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. ix.

The premolar tooth does, however, belong to Meryeopotamus, and seems to be quite of the same form and size as the corresponding tooth of Meryeopotamus dissimilis.

It will therefore be necessary to remove this new species of Meryeopotamus from the list of Attock fossils, as given by Falconer, since it is founded only on the above-mentioned molars. I shall figure these teeth of Dorcatherium in a subsequent paper on Siwalik Ruminants

P. S. — Since writing the above I have to add an Edentate allied to Manis, but larger, to the Sind fossil Fauna; the specimen consists of a phalange of the third digit of the mauus.

Donations To Museum.

April to June 1876.

Donors.

Specimen ' blue lias,' England

„ ' Cannel' Coal, Wigan Co., England

„ Coal-tar, pitch

„ patent fuel, made at the Oriental Gas

Works, Calcutta.

„ Limestone from Neemuch

Series of fossils from England ... ...

Fossils and rocks from Tibet on the northern road from Ladak to Lhasa, obtained by one of tbe Pundits.

J. Blackburn, Esq., m.i.,C.e., Manager, Oriental Gas Works, Calcutta. Ditto ditto.

Ditto ditto.

Ditto ditto.

Colonel Crommelin, r.e.

E. Lydekker, Esq., Geological Survey' of India.

Captain Trotter, k.e., Great Trigono metrical Survey.

Accessions To Library.

From 1st April to 30th June 1876.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Ammon. Ludwig von. — Die Jura — Ablagerungen, (1875), 8vo., Munich.

Annuaire du Club Alpin Frangais, 1874, with map, (1875), 8vo., Paris.

Bellew, H. W. — Kashmir and Kashgar, (1875), 8vo., London.

Brandis, Dr. D. — Illustrations of the Forest Flora of North-West and Central India,

Brush, George J. — Manual of Determinative Mineralogy, (1875), 8vo., New York.

Catalogue of the Hunterian Collection in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in

Dana, James D. — The Geological Story briefly told, (1875), 8vo., New York.

Dawson, J. W. — Life's dawm on earth, (1875), 8vo., London.

Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of Comparative Anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, Yols. I (1833), to V, (1840), 4to., London.

Drew, F. — The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, (1875), 8vo., London.

Endlicheb, Stephano. — Genera Plantarum secundum online naturales disposita, Nos. I

(1836), to XIX (1840), and Supplement 1 — 3 and 4, pt. 2, (1842- 47), 8vo., Vienna.

„ — Synopsis Coniferarum fossilium, (1847), 8vo., Sangalli.

Accessions to Library.

Titles of Books. Donors.

Ettingshausen, Peof. R. von. — Beitrage zur kenntniss del' Flachen-Skelete der Farnkrauter, Th. I und II, (1862 — 1864), 4to., Vienna.

Foster, M., and Balfour, F. M. — The Elements of Embryology, (1874), 8vo., London.

R. Lydekkbk.

Hanley, Sylvanus, and Theobald, Wi. — Conchologia Indiea, Pt. VIII, (1876), 4to, London.

Heath, C. — Practical Anatomy, (1869), 8vo., London.

R,. l:Vn

Hermann, D. L. — Elements of Human Physiology, (1875), 8vo., London.

Huxley, T. H., and Martin, H. N. — A course of practical instruction in Elementary Biology, (1875), 8vo., London.

Kurz, S. — Preliminary Report on the Forest and other Vegetation of Pegu, (1875), Use., Calcutta.

The Author.

Manual of the Natural History, Geology and Physics of Greenland, &c., for the Arctic Expedition, (1875), 8vo., London.

Meek, Conrad. — Excavations at the Kesslerloclc near Thayngen, Switzerland, (1876), 8vo. London.

. Meuniee, Victor. — Les Ancetres d'Adam, liistoire de l'homme fossile, (1875), 8vo., Paris. Mitchell, John.— A Manual of Practical Assaying, 4th Edit., (1873), 8vo., London.

Report on the Progress and Condition of the Royal Gardens at Kew during 1874, (1874), 8vo., Kew.

The Director, Kew Gardens.

Sandbergee, Dr. C. L. F. — Die Land und Siisswasser-Conchylien der Vorwelt (Sclilussheft), (1870 — 75), 4to, Wiesbaden.

Saegeaunt, Capt. R. A. — Notes on the climate of the Earth, past and present, (1875), 8vo. Loudon.

Schafhault, Dr.— Geognostische ITntersuchungen des Siidbayerischen Alpengebirges, (1851), 8vo„ Munich.

Suess, Eduard. — Die Entstehung der Alpen, (1875), 8vo., Vienna.

Teall, J. J. H. — The Potton and Wicken Phosphatic Deposits, (1875), 8vo., Cambridge. Warren, G. K. — An essay concerning important physical features exhibited in the valley of the Minnesota River, and upon their signification, (1874), 8vo., Washington.

Wilson, Andrew.— The Abode of Snow, (1876), 8vo., London.

The Author.

PERIODICALS, SERIALS, &c.

American Journal of Science and Arts, 3rd Series, Vol. XI, Nos. 62 — 65, (1876), 8vo., New Haven.

The Editors.

Annales des Mines, 7th Series, Vol. VIII, livr 4 — -6, (1875), 8vo., Paris.

L'Adhins. des Mines.

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Series, Vol. XVII, Nos. 99 — 101, (1876), 8vo., London.

Arckiv fiir Naturgeschichte, Vol. XLII, heft 1, (1876), 8vo., Berlin.

108 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [voL. ix.

Titles of Rooks. Donors.

Bibliotlieque Uuiverselle et Revue Suisse, VoL LIV, Nos. 216 — 220, (1876), 8vo., Lausanne. Bibliotlieque Universelle et Revue Suisse, Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, Vol. LIV, Nos. 215 — 219, (1876), 8vo., Geneva.

Geographical Magazine, Vol. Ill, Nos. 3 — 5, (1876), 8vo., London.

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Records

Of The

GEOLOGICAL SUltVEY OF INDIA.

Notes on the age of some fossil floras in India, by Ottokae Feistmantel, m. d.,

Geological Survey of India.

Vi, Vii And Viii.

VI.— On the homotaxis of the Gondwana System.

In the last number of the Records {supra p. 79) there is a clearly written paper by my colleague Mr. W. T. Blanford, calling in question the general value of geological homotaxis as drawn from the fossil remains of terrestrial life, and based upon an analysis of the evidence for the age of our Gondwana series. The general question may safely be left to time for settlement. I have no fear that the higher forms of animal and of vegetable life can fail to tale their due place in the adjustment of the records of the earth's history — a place proportionate and analogous to their importance in the world; and I therefore regret to see the question brought forward in the unbecoming and unreal aspect of a dispute between geologists and palroontologists.

Regarding the particular case, there is much to bo said in correction of it as stated by Mr. Blanford. Perhaps I owe some apology for having left it possible to be so stated ; but I had no idea that this discussion would be so precipitately raised, while still the materials for it are under examination. I might otherwise, in the notes already published, have anticipated some of the most serious objections brought forward in the paper under notice. I had postponed these niceties of detailed comparison till the data for it were more com pletely worked out, being content to state broadly the facies of each local flora. I must, however, as briefly as possible, remedy that omission of mine. In doing so it will be neces sary to mention undescribed fossils ; which, however, I describe shortly in an adjoined paper.

As to the Each group, I had already fully noticed f supra p. 29) as a " paleonto logical contradiction" the discrepancy between the homotaxis of the group as derived from the plant remains, and as judged from the fossil cephalopoda, when we find strata with a middle jurassic flora intercalated with and overlying strata with four cephalopoda of Portlandian affinities. It would indeed be rash to question the determinations of the cephalopoda by Dr, Waagen ; but it must not be forgotten that all the fossil mollusca and other fossils are

Records of the Geological Survey of India .

not yet critically examiued ; and it is very possible that the full examination of th & fauna may modify the strati graphical relations as deduced from the cephalopoda, and then the " palaeon tological contradiction" would not be so strong. To show this, and to explain my point of view, the following observations may he given : —

1, — There are certainly some mollusca that are generally of older age than Portlandian, passing into the higher beds of Ivach.

a. — I may mention only from the Umia group (which contains the Portlandian cephalo poda) the very frequent occurrence of —

Goniomya-V-scripta, which mostly occurs in middle jurassic beds in Europe.

Astarte major, Sow., very near with Astarte maxima, Om., from Middle Jura in Ger many.

A Trigonia near Trigonia Van, Sharpe, from jurassic beds on the Sunday River in Africa.

A Goniomya scarcely different from Goniomya inflata, Ag., a Middle Jurassic form— also related with Goniomya rhombifera, Goldf., from Liassie strata.

A Trigonia very near to Trig. TLerzogii, Hausm, from Enon on the Sunday River in South Africa.

Some Trigonice allied with Tr. ventricosa in South Africa.

A portion of the lower jaw junction of a Plesiosaurus, which has mostly allied forms in the English Lias — found near Borooria in the Umia group.

hi — Erom the Charee and Katrol beds of Each, which are especially taken as represent ing the Oxford group and Callovian, we have especially to mention Mtonotis inceguivalvis. Sow., in Europe generally of Liassie age — here in the Charee beds.

Monolis Munsteri, Goldf., generally in Europe from Middle brown J ura here in the Katrol group which is talceu as representative of the Upper Oxford group.

Pttrasuchus, a vertebra of that Crocodilian fossil which is looked upon as Triassic, and which occurs frequently with the Jabalpur flora near Maleri, which latter is identical with our Kach flora.

Near Nurha, in the Katrol beds (therefore below the common plant horizon), the follow ing fossil plants occur : —

Sphenopteris arguta, L. & H., from Inferior Oolite in England In India occurs in the Raj mahal Series (Rajmahal Hills) and in the Jabalpur group.

Alethopteris Whitbyensis, Giipp., in the form as Pecopteris tenuis, Bgt., from Inferior Oolite in England. Also at Kukurbit and in the Jabalpur group.

Otozamites comp, contiguus, . — A similar form from Kukurbit.

Araucarites Kachensis, . — a smaller specimen of this frequent species at Kukurbit and in the Jabalpur group.

These plant remains are mostly identical with the others from Kach and the J abalpur group.

2. There is a great affinity of some of the fossils in the uppermost beds of Kach with forms from the South African strata on the Sunday and Zwartkop rivers as already men tioned ; and also Dr. Waagen* refers a Trigonia from the Umia beds to the Trig, ventri cosa, Kr.

Pal. Indies ; Jurassic Cephalopoda of Kach, p, 237,

Feislmantel : Fossil Floras in India,

It is true those beds were first supposed by Mr. Krauss* to be lower cretaceous ; but this has been shown to be wrong by MM. Bain,f Sharpe, J and Tate.J Mr. Bain considered those beds as Liassic ; Mr, Sharpe, however, and Mr. Tate declared them from the whole of the fossils to be analogous with the great Oolite in England. Also Dr. Waagen speaks of them as Jurassic. With the fossils of those strata many of the mollusca in the uppermost strata of Kach are identical, or very nearly.

Thus it would seem that the decision from the four Portlandian cephalopoda may not bo final ; but if that determination should be confirmed by the whole marine fauna, I will willingly accept the decision, as I have already done in the analogous case of the upper coal seams of Bohemia, where the gas-shale contains Permian animals with a carboniferous flora.

I would next notice some points relating to the lower Gondwana groups, upon which Mr. Blanford's conclusions were rather premature. It will appear —

a- — That the contrast between the floras of the upper and lower groups of the Gondwana system is not so very decided ; no more so than between the Jurassic and Triassic formations elsewhere.

b. — That the affinities of our Damuda flora with that of the mesozoic epoch and

especially of the triassic formation are overwhelming ; and that the argu ments for this conclusion are not derived from three species discovered only last year.

c. — That the analogy with the flora of the lower coal strata in Australia is com

paratively weak.

a.— Relation of the floras of the upper and lower Gondwana groups.

That there is a certain contrast between the flora of the lower and upper portion of the Gondwana Series is, as I think, quite natural, both belonging to distinct formations ; the former considered by me Triassic, the latter being J urassie; but I think the break is not more distinct than between Trias and Lias, or between Trias and Oolite, or even between Rhmtic and Oolite in any country.

We find, for instance, scarcely any identical species in the Buntsandstein of the Vosges and in the Lias of the Alps or in the Oolites of England, and we find also no species identical in the Rhsetic strata and the Oolitic strata of England.

The triassic strata of the Vosges are, as everybody knows, marked especially by Schizoneura and some of the Coniferous genera as Voltzia and Albertia. None of these occur in Lias or Oolite in Europe ; and the Cycads in the European Trias also are very rare, although not wanting.

Here in India the relation or the passage between the upper and lower portion of the Gondwana Series is paleontologically much better marked —

a. — Indirectly, or by the strata themselves, and especially through the Panchet group.

This contains some rhietic fossils, which formation is altogether a transitive group between the Trias and Lias ; our Eajmahal beds being of this latter

Nova Acta Lecpoldina Ac. Nat. Curios., Vol. XXII, Part II, p. 456 ff„ PI. 49, f. 2. t Transact. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. VII, 2nd Ser., p. 175 ff. Pi. XXII, etc. t On South African fossils : Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc„ 1807, p. 140 £f,, Pis. V— IX.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

age.* § The Damudas again are closely connected with the Paneliet group by that very well marked fossil Schizoneura Gondwanensis, ., which is so frequent in both, and which has its only relations in the European Trias.

b. — Directly by fossils. — There are several forms which are common to both, or, at least, which are represented in both.

There are amongst the Tceniopteridece two forms which are very near to some from the Bajmahal Hills, Mtcrotceniopteris danceoid.es f being very near to Maerot. lata, 0. M., var. muscefolia ; both occur very frequent; and some other specimens from Ivamthi being near, if not identical with Angiopteridium McClelland i, 0. M., from the Bajmahal Hills. (This we find in Sir Charles Bunbury's paper as Tceniopt. daneeoides ? McClell.) Both these Tceniopteris are found together with the common Glossoptcris,

Amongst the Becopterides there is Alethopteris Zindleyana, Royle, and another form, lately brought by Mr. Wood-Mason from Eaniganj (see further on), which belong to the same group as the Alethopteris indica, O. M., from the Bajmahal Hills ; it is to the mesozoie group of Alethopteris Whitby ensis Gopp.

Cycadeacece in the lower groups are also not wanting at all, siuce we know that there is a Nceggerathia Bislopi, Bunb., from several localities, a Nceggerathia Vosgesiaca, Broun, from the Godavari District, and a Glossozamites from the Karharbari coal-field. (For these species see further on),

Of course it may be said again that these are genera of wide range, but yet the species are distinct, so is the Macrotceniopteris lata and danaoides well distinct from Taniopt, obn.orm.is or German or mullinervis in. the Carboniferous ; also Alethopt. Whithyensis and Zindleyana from Alethopt. Serli or pteroides in the Carboniferous; and Nceggerathia Bislopi and Vosgesictea from Nceggerathia foliosa, ., from the coal-measures.

There are, moreover, all the other mesozoie relations, as Phyllotheea, Actinopteris, Sagenopteris, &c., which are represented in Jura and Bhretic, or in the middle mesozoie epoch of Europe, to which latter the upper portion of our Gondwanas is to be referred.

b — The affinities of our Ztamuda flora with that of the mesozoie and especially

triassie epoch.

The first critical discussion of the Damuda flora was given, 1861, by Mr. 01dham§ and later again, 1865, where it was endeavoured to be shown that it had a pakeozoic affinity, although Mr. Oldham himself acknowledged the exclusively triassie connection of the so

Messrs. Oldlmm and W. T. Ttoford have stated this too. Mr. Blanford (Mem. Ill, p. 133, Eaniganj field) says plainly " that the Paneliet Series represents a period of time intermediate between that of the other two groups (Damuda and Bajmahal "), and Mr. Oldham (1. c., p. 204) says-

" The marked break between the Bajmahal and the Damuda rocks, as proved by the total change in their flora, has now, to a certain extent, been tilled up by the establishment of the Fanchet group or sub-division interme diale between the two

t Known already by Royle and McClelland , later brought from Burgo , Baniganj, and lately again from Baniganj.

J Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc., XVII : Flora of Nagpur.

§ Memoirs, Geological Survey, India, Vol. II, p. 324 et seq.

11 Memoirs, Geological Survey, India, Vol. Ill, p. 2Q3 et seq ,

Feistmaniel : Fossil Floras in India.

frequent genus Schizoneura. Already, 1861, in a paper by Sir Charles Banbury* (p. 345), strong doubts are expressed as to this supposition, and the flora of Nagpur and Burdwan considered rather mesozoic.

In the fifteen years which elapsed since that date, the collections have increased greatly, and we have in all the special collections unmistakable evidence for the supposition of M. Bunburv as to the mesozoic, and, as I add, triassic age of the Dainuda flora.

Already in the old collections from Raniganj there were proofs enough. There were Schizoneura very frequent, there were one or two Sagenopteris, Presh, Glossopteris, different from those in Australia. Prom Kaiuthi there were specimens of Tceniopteris ( Macroheniopteris and Angiopteridivm), of distinct real Phyllotheca, like that in the Oolites in Italy; there were again a quite different Glossopteris from those in Australia, different uot only by the shape of the leaf, but especially by the fructification.

In 1871 some fossils with mesozoic and also triassic affinities were brought by Dr. Stoliczka from Karharbari, amongst which Yoltzia heterophylla and a Cyclopteris angustifolia, McCoy, were at that timo determined, and amongst which I have recognised a Sagenopteris and a distinct Glossozamites.

Again in 1873 an Actinopteris was obtained from the Raniganj field, and a collection from the lower Godavari contained somo triassic affinities in Naiggerathia Yosgesiaca and mesozoic affinities in a Sagenopteris near rhoifolia, Presl. In the season 1873-74, Mr. V. Ball brought from the Satpura Basin the Triassic Schizoneura, which was there frequent enough. In 1876 we got some interesting species, which are of great importance as cumulative evidence for the triassic age of our Damudag, especially as they are just from the lowest portion, the Bar Altar group. These important fossils arc from Karharbari, and were presented by Mr. Whitty. They were Neuropteris valida, ., Yoltzia Tieterophylla, Bgt., Alhertia speciosa, nil triassic forms, and Gstigamopteris cyclopteroides, ., which is identical with that almost only fossil of the Talchir group, aud whicli lias relations in the mesozoic beds in Victoria.

Lately, too, I discovered a real Phyllotheca, as that from the Oolites in Italy, amongst the Raniganj fossils. And quite recently Mr. Wood-Mason brought a rather valuable suite of fossils from Raniganj containing further proofs of mesozoic age. I mention especially Vertebraria, Sagenopteris peduneulata, .,t Alethopt. Lindleyana, fructificans, another Alctliopteris of the group of Alethopteris Whitbyensis, and so on.

To illustrate this relation of our Damuda flora with the mesozoic epoch in general and with the triassic epoch specially, I add have a full list of the fossils, as I know them at present; they are partly contained in my first note, and the description of others are contained in following note, No. VIII ; others will be given in the Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal.

Pq Uispta Gpje

1. Schizoneura Gondwanensis, . — Very frequent in the Raniganj group of the Raniganj field and in the corresponding Bijori horizon of the Satpura basin, also in the Panchet group. The only relation is the Thiassic Schizon. paradoxa, Scliimp.,J from the Vosges. Never known from Australia.

Quart. Jour. Geofog. Soe., XVII : Flora of bfagpdr.

t This and other species of Mr. Wood-Mason's collection will be described in the Journal of the Asiatic Society Bengal.

t The genus Zengophyllites, Bgt., which has been eonfnsed with Schizoneura and of which wo find a figure in Strelecki's New South Wales (p, 250, Pi. VI, f. 5), proves by a thorough examination to be a Zumitm of the genus Zam it es or Podozamites, and quite different from Schizoneura. ; So also Noygerathia (W, T. Blanford, 1. c,, p 83) is no Schizoneura. '

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

2. Sphenophyllum trizygia, Royle, sp. — from the Raniganj group, Raniganj field,

and from the Barakars of Talchir in Orissa. — Completely different from all palmozoie forms.

3. Vertebraria indica, Bu.nb, — In the whole Damuda Series. Some specimens from

Raniganj prove the relation with Triassic Eqidsetacece. In Australia only from upper coal-measures.

4. Phyllutheca indica, Bunk.-—1 The type form in the Kamthi beds, and a specimen

from the Raniganj field. Nearly allied forms in the Italian Oolite, with which Australian forms also are connected.

5. Other stems of Equisetaceous plants in many places.

Felices.

6. Actinoptcris Bengalensis, . — from Raniganj coal-field. In Europe the

genus is in rhsetic strata.

7. Neuropteris valuta, . — from Karharbari coal-field pretty frequent. The

only analogous forms are in the Trias of the Vosges; single-pinnate Neuropteris.

8. Alethopteris Bindley ana, Royle. — from the Raniganj field. One species of the

mesozoic group of Alethopteris Whitbyensis, Gopp. Lately brought in fructification by Mr. Wood-Mason.

9. Angiopteridmm comp. McClellandi, 0. M. — from the Kamthi beds, otherwise in

the Rajmahal Series.

10. Macrutainiopteris danceoides, Royle, McClell. — from the Raniganj and Jheria

fields, pretty frequent, and from Burgo in the Rajmahal Hills (Damudas)— Related witli mesozoic forms.

11. Macrotcenioptcris Feddeni, . — from the Kamthi beds.

12. Glossopteris (Tamiopteris ?) muscefolia, Bunb.— from Kamthi beds, different

from any Australian form.

13. Glossopt. ( Tceniopteris ?) stricta, Bunb. — from Kamthi beds; not like any in

Australia.

14. Glossopt. indica, Schimp. —from Raniganj and Kamthi ; in the latter place with

fructification; the globular sporanges in 4-5 rows on the leaf surface. Nothing like this in Australia.

15. Glossopt. leptoneura, Bunb.— from the Kamthi beds ; an Indian species.

16. Glossopteris — many other species — not common with the Australian beds.

17. Glossopteris Bmwniana, Bgt. — I must state that I have never seen a good

representative of this species from Indian rocks.

18. Sagenopteris pedunculata, . ( Glossopt . acaulis, McClell.) — from the

Raniganj coal-field, lately brought again by Mr. Wood-Mason. Nothing like that known from Australia.

19. Sagenopteris comp, rhoifolia ? Presl. — from Kunlacheru in the Godavari

District. In Europe in Rhsetic.

20. Sagenopteris Stolicskaua, . — from Karharbari coal-field. The genus in

Europe is Rhictic and Oolitic. No Sagenopteris is known from Australia.

21. Gangamopteris angustifolia, McCoy. — from Karharbari coal-field. In Aus

tralia in the mesozoic rocks of Victoria.

Feistmantel: Fossil Floras in India.

22. Gangamopteris cyclopteroides, . — from the Barakars in the Karharbari

coal-field and from the Talchirs. The genus in Australia occurs in the mesozoic rock of Victoria.

23. Gangamopteris Whittiana . from Raniganj field. The genus is mesozoic.

24. Belemnopteris Wood-Masoniana, . — New genus and new species, from

Raniganj field.

25. Palceovittaria Kurzi, ., nov. gen. and spec.— from Raniganj field.

Cyc A Be A Ce2R.

26. Nceggerathia Dislopi, Bunb. — from the Ivamthi beds.

27. Nceggerathia comp. Yosgesiuca, Bronn— from Kunlacheru, Godavari District.

This species, to which our specimen is very near, is in Europe known only from triassic beds.

28. Glossozamites Sloliczhanus, . — from Karharbari coal-field. In Europe

this genus ranges from Lias to Cretaceous.

Coniferae.

29. Voltzia acutifolia, Bgt. — from Karharbari.

30. Voltzia heterophylla, Bgt. — from Karharbari.

31. Albertia speciosa, Schimp. — from Karharbari.

From what I have said in this section we can draw the conclusion —

That the Damuda flora exhibits itself guile decidedly as mesozoic and most naturally as of triassic age, as out of tliirty-one species known at present, there are nineteen distinctly mesozoic forms, of which six species evidently triassic, four species of rhostic, and the others of generally mesozoic affinities.

But also, the other twelve species, amongst which Glossopteris is represented by six species, have no paheozoic affinities; and of all the species of Glossopteris, only one might be identical with one in Australia.

c. — What is the analogy of our Damuda Series with the lower coal-measures in Australia l

This point, as Mr. Blanford truly observes, must he taken into consideration ; hut the analogy is by no means what he seems to think it.

Any instructive or conclusive comparison can only be made between series that possess fairly represented and characterized flora. For our Damudas this condition can only be said to exist in the upper coal-measures in Australia, and in some exclusively plant-bearing rocks of Europe.

I think those palaeontologists who declared the whole Australian flora as absolutely jurassic, did not distinguish the lower and tipper portion of the coal-measures. The first contains forms which could never support this assertion ; while the upper measures con tain, besides those plants without analogy, some other forms which certainly can justify the supposition of a jurassic age.

- On page 83 Mr. Blanford gave a scheme of the formations in the New South Wales coal field (1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Nos. 1, 2 (Wianamatta and Hawkesbury beds), it is true, have yielded no distinct Glossopteris ; hut in Tasmania, from where identical fossils with those of these

}In Europe the most charac teristic species of triassic beds.

Records of the Geological Survey of bulla.

two beils a, re known. Glossopteris occurs with Pecopteris Australis, Phytlotheca, and the most important, with Teenio-pts Daintreei, McCoy. (McCoy: Prodrome* Decad. II, p. 15 : Report of Progress, Geol. Survey, Victoria, 1874, p. 25).

As to 3 and 4, of which the first are the upper coal-measures of Newcastle, Mr, Blanford himself (p. 83) says, " Nos. 3 and 4 appear to be connected by the presence of Glossopteris Browniana in both, although there appears to he a considerable distinction in the flora!' ; and I would add, No. 3 does not contain any animals, while in No. 4 marine animals are found abundantly.*

On page 84 Mr. Blanford enumerates the species, which, as he considers, are com mon lo our Damudas and the Australian beds, and others which are common to the Damudas and the triassic rocks in Europe (as I pointed out). On these I would remark —

Glossopteris (two or three species identical, W. T. B.) — I think with great difficulty we may be able to get only one common species.

Gangamopteris (the genus only. W. T. B.). — This form is not known at all from those beds intercalated with marine fossils, but from really mesozoic beds in Victoria, associated with Tamiopteris Daintreei, McCoy.

Vertebraria (one species identical. W. T. B.) — There is as yet no full description of the Australian Vertebraria, and that which is known seems to be quite different from ours. The greatest portion of our Damuda Vertebraria are probably not identical with those from Australia.

Pecopteris ( Alethopteris ) (one species probably identical. W. T. B.) — I doubt whether our Alethopteris Bindley ana can be united with Alethopt. Australis, McCoy ; or if this is altogether the case with any other species.

Thus it seems that the evidence of a connection with the Australian coal-measures is very weak, while the fossils enumerated as common with European Trias are unmistakably identical.

As to the stratigraphy of the Australian coal strata— the literature is not poor; but yet it is not iu all points quite clear and always trustworthy.

It is well known that there can he a complete concordance in the stratification of rocks, and yet two or more different formations may be represented which can only be dis tinguished by the prevailing fossil forms. As an instance I can note the Suit Range in India, where, as Mr. Wynne tells us, the lower marine carboniferous and the triassic rocks are conformably deposited ; and yet they are different in age, although a well marked Ceratites and Phylloceras goes down into the carboniferous rocks, and marked forms of Belerophon survived into the Trias. The same relations will have to be applied to the two portions of the Australian coal-measures, only that hero the case is illustrated in the flora.

For the stratigraphical grouping of the coal-strata of New South Wales we must especially take Mr. W. B. Clarke's observations, which to a great extent are published :f partly Mr. Clarke communicated them to me in two letters, and he sent also a suite of fossils for

I speak of this further on.

t Remarks on the Sedimentary Kooks in New South Wales, Illrd Ed., 1876,

Feisimantel : Fossil Floras in India.

comparison. From all liis clear communications it is plain that there are two very distinct portions in the Australian coal-measures —

a. — Upper coal-measures.

a. — The upper portion is marked by a flora, which is abundant Nos. 1, 2, 3 of Mr. Blanford's list must be referred to this ; they contain no marine fossils to indicate a connection with the lower portion.

b. — The lower coal-measures are marked by two marine faunas of, as generally taken, a carboniferous age, which separate distinctly these from the upper beds. The flora is, as both Mr. Clarke and Mr. Daintree state, only rare.

c. — Below this there are beds with real lower carboniferous plants.

The succession of the several strata of the Australian coal formation, as Mr. Clarke communicated it to me in a late paper, and as it is to be found in his " Remarks" ( 1. c. ), is as follows : —

"" Beds in Tasmania, ""l Without New South

Queensland, Victoria. J Wales.

Clarence River.

Winamatta beds.

Hawkesbery beds.

Bowenfels.

Upper beds in Newcastle.

r Beds with marine animals intercalated with plant beds. Especially

Upper Coalmeasures.

No animals.

Lower Coal-measures

.

Stony Creek, Rix. Ck., Greta, Mnt. Wingen, &c. C Again marine beds.

C Smith Creek Culm Series

Devonian ... Goonoo-Goonoo

Lower carboniferous plants with car- ( boniferous animals.

Plant remains only.

As to the fossils from these several beds I may give an account of those which I have seen, or which are mentioned as really occurring — -

a. — Upper coal-measures —

1. From Queensland Pecopt. odontopteroides Morr., Tceniopteris Daintreei,

Cyclopt. cuneata, Carr., &c.

These beds are altogether taken by Daintree as mesozoic, and Tceniopt . Daintreei, characteristic of these beds.

2. From Tasmania — prevailing Thinnfeldia-YiY.0 ferns ; besides this Glossopteris

and Pecopteris Australis, McCoy.

3. From Victoria— from here we find the following plants described as

mesozoict : —

Gangamopteris angustifolia, McCoy, G. spathulata, Gangam. obliqua, McCoy, Neuropteris sp.

I should say this is rather a Thinnfeldia. t See Report of Progress, Geolog. Suit, of Victoria, p, 3o*

Records of /he Geological Survey of India. [vol. ix.

Pecopteris Australis, McCoy., Sphenopteris, Teeniopteris Daintreei, McCoy,, Zam.it es ellipticus, McCoy.

Phyllotheca Australis, McCoy. — Here we have real Phyllotheca with Tceniopt. Daintreei, McCoy.

4. From the Wianamatta and Hawkesbery, we have mostly Dichopteris, Thinn - feldia, Pecopteris odontopteroid.es, Morr., Teeniopteris, etc. ; and in both the same genus of a fish.

5. I rom Clarence River District. — Teeniopteris with narrow leaves, and a coni* ferous branch, to which Mr. Clarke himself marked /Voltzia.

G. Bowenfels and Newcastle— Here the flora is mostly developed : Vertebraria, real Phyllotheca, many Glossopteris (hut very few identical with those oi India), mostly Gloss. Browniana, Bgt., coniferous plants near the mesozoie Pchinostrobus, coniferous seed-vessels and others, but no animal fossils, nor lower carboniferous plants.

I have seen Teeniopteris near Tceniopt. Eclcardi, Germ., Glossopteris, small specimens: besides these, there are quoted Phyllotheca and Nceggerathia. With these are associated carboniferous fossils.

Strata below with Cyclostigma Kil tovko.mi m. Haught., 11 h a cop ter is , Spheno - phyllum (real palasozoic form). These I have seen myself. And again a palaeozoic (carboniferous) fauna.

From this we see the following Only the strata sub. b can claim a palaeozoic age, containing a prevailingly carboniferous fauna, which already in c occurs together with a pahuozoic (lora. The flora in b is very poor, containing only few forms, which* are so frequent in the upper strata ; and to use Mr. Clarke's words about the Glossopteris, we may say : " There (in the Australian lower coal-beds) it clearly does not govern, but must be subordinate to the fauna and further he says, " why might it (Glossopteris) not pass into secondary rocks without denying its existence in the Australian lower coal-measures" ?

In the last publication, Mines and Minerals of New South Wales, there is a Sup plementary Report by Mr. John Mackenzie on the New South Wales coal-fields, in which on Section b, is a sketch-section from Newcastle to Port Booral, about thirty miles long. In this the difference in the fossil remains of the upper and lower portions of the coalmeasures is plainly indicated, and also that the upper portion and lower portion are, besides all the differences, slightly discordant.

This may he enough for the present paper ; some more material would clear off the matter still better. But already lrom this we see that there is a great difference between the upper and lower portions of the coal-measures in Australia, the former containing only flora of mesozoie afliuities, the latter prevailingly a carboniferous fauna, by which they are in connection with the beds below, although some plant forms begin in them, which afterwards are much more developed ; but no Schizoneura, no single-pinnate Neuropteris, no Sagenopteris, no Voltzia, no Atbertia, etc., are found.

Our Damuda flora could, at all events, only be compared with this upper portion, and only tluough the Glossopteris and Vertebraria, our flora being much more numerous, but, as I have said, there is perhaps only one species common ; the Australian Verteb raria seems to differ from ours, and the Phyllotheca in Australia is as well related

Remarks, etc,, p, 165,

Feidmantel : Fossil Floras in India ,

with ours as with that from the Italian Oolite, while in our Damuda flora all the other plants are mesozoie and most of them triassic.

That the upper beds in Australia — Wianamatta, Hawkeshery — and the upper Newcastle coal-beds form a connected series is also shown by the occurrence of the same fish, which is not found in the lower strata.

The following table may illustrate the relations : —

Europe.

Lower Gondwauas in India.

Super 1 Upper Trias

Gres bigarr£ 1 T ™ .

f Damuda group, j Flora only.

Coal-measures in Australia.

a. Upper coal-measures. Alt the strata, as I enumerated them above under 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Flora only.

Carboniferous

b. Lower coal-measures.

Carboniferous

Strata beloio.

Devonian ?

Goonoo-Qoonoo.

VII.— Flora of the Jabalpub group in South Rewah, near Jabalpub, and in the

Satpuba basin.

The Jabalpur group, as indicated in a former note (ante, p. 29), is that upper portion of the Gondwana series covering a large area in South Rewah and also in the Satpuras, the two being almost continuously connected by a narrow outcrop skirting the intervening area of overlying trap, and passing through Jabalpur at the head of the Narbada valley. It derives its name from the place where its fossil plants were first and best known, i. e., Jabalpur.

Although the stone in which the plants are preserved differs in each of the three positions just named, the fossils themselves do not, plainly showing that we have to deal with but one formation. These beds were formerly placed on a common horizon with those of Rajmahal and Each ; but, as I have already indicated, these must be separated into two groups, au older typified by the Rajmahal group (in the Rajmahal Hills and near Golapili, Godavari District), and a newer containing the Each series, to which the Jabalpur group belongs, the fossils of both being identical.

The fact of the Each and the Jabalpur strata being placed with the Rajmahal group, which has long since been recognised as most probably Liassic, would, however, show that from the first the fossil plants of Each have not been considered of so young an age as has lately been interred from some of the associated marine fossils. When I examined the Each flora I was not acquainted with that of the Jabalpfir group; but although geographically intermediate between Each and Rajmahal, and thus presumably likely to exhibit a blending of the flora had there been any community of horizon, as was formerly supposed, the Jabal pur flora is specifically the same as that of Each, and confirms the conclusions I had arrived at regarding the age of the rocks. Some recent discoveries in the Godavari region,* where Jabalpur plants have been found together with reptilian remains and liassic fishes, tend to support those conclusions, as opposed to the impression made from the Cephalopoda of the Each strata.

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

The flora of the Jabalpur group is more numerous than that of the Kach beds, but it exhibits the same character and some of the same peculiarities. I will proceed now to describe the plant remains.

A . — E Q Xjiseta Ce2E.

As in Kach, we find also in the Jabalpur group a complete want of any plants of this order; but I think the jurassic period, above the lias, did not, on the whole, abound in equisetaceous plants, the scarcity of them also marking the whole cretaceous epoch until they become again more frequent in the tertiary rocks.

Even in our liassic Kajmahal group the equisetaceous plants were very rare and represented only by Equisetum Hajmahalense, Schimp., from the Kajmahal Hills; while in the Panchet group and Damuda series the frequence of equisetaceous plants is represented by the very triassic Schizoneura, Schimp.

B. — Filices.

In the Jabalpur group ferns are much more frequent than in Kach, and altogether better preserved, the rock being less sandy and micaceous. With the new species I will give a short diagnosis and will indicate shortly the relations, not omitting relations with older fossils than jurassic.

I. — Sphenopteeides.

There is only one species closely allied to a form in Europe only known in the oolite.

1. — Sphenopteris arguta, Lindl. and Hutt.

There is little doubt that our specimen must be referred to this species, its greater size only made me hesitate to identify it completely, but the whole habit and form of the leaf, &c., agree. Erom the Satpura basin.

II. — Neubopteeides.

None of the real Neuropteris have been found, but there is another plant which is generally brought in connection with Neuropterides ; it is a Cyclopteris , Bgt., and belongs to that division, distinguished by the name Baiera, Braun., which does not indicate more than a mesozoic Cyclopteris, Bgt.

1. — Cyclopteris lobata, Estm. [Compar. Cyclopt. ( Bajera ) digitata, L. and H.]

Folia semicircularia, basi emarginata, cordata (?) margine lobate, loins (laciniis) ut videtur deuticulatis ; nerves e basifoliortim radiatim usque ad marginem eggredientibus, dichotomis, ramulis repetito furcatis.

This species already considered by Dr. Oldham a Cyclopteris belongs indeed to this genus in the real sense of Brongniart's Cyclopteris, of which some mesozoic forms were subsequently ranged with Baiera, Br. ; while those specimens from the Kajmahal Hills, which I have called Cyclopteris Oldhami, .,* belong to the sub-genus Cordiopteris, Schimp.

Our specimen from Jabalpur resembles that form described by Dr. Schenk as Dicranopteris Momeri, Schenk, f which is also a Cyclopteris and from rharticbeds. The only difference I see is in the slightly thinner veins, On the other hand it is scarcely to he distinguished from Cyclopt. ( Baiera ) digitata, L. and H., from the lower oolite iu England ; especially Lindley and Hutton, pi. (53, f. 1, and Brongniart, Hist. d. veget., tab. 61 bis., f. 2. Our specimen seems to me not to be so deeply lobed.

Kecords, Geol. Surv., Ind., 1876, Vol. IX, 2 p. 35. f Flora der Grcnzscliicliteu, &c., 1867, p, Ho, FI. XXI, i. 9,

Feidmantel : Fossil Floras in India.

We have here also again a form which begins in rhasticand goes into lower oolite. Our specimen is allied with both. From Jabalpur.

III. — Pecopterides.

This family is pretty frequently represented ; it also occurs both in Kach and in the Rajmahal series.

Group of Alethopteris Whitbyensis, Gopp.

Two forms represent this group, which is essentially lower jurassic.

1. — Alethopteris Medlicottiana, Oldh.

Fronde tripinata, pinnis remotis patentibus, pinnulis integris, striatis ; e Iasi latiore lanceolatis, acuminates basi paulum sub decurrent ibus, fere contingentibus. Nervo medio distinct, nerves secundariis sub angitlo acuto aggredientibus dicliotomis. — (Diagnosis given by me).

This specimen was recognised already by Dr. Oldham as differing from the others of this group. He proposed the name as above, which I will not change, although it has never been published, and I find it only in pencil on the original drawing.

Our species differs from the allied forms in the pinnules . which begin with a broad base, but become much narrower, giving the whole plant a peculiar appearance ; it may be closely allied with Pecopt. ligata, Phill.*

2. — Alethopteris Wldibyensis, Gopp.

This species we know already from Each ; in the present region it is more common and especially in the form described formerly by Brongniart as Pecopteris tenuis ,t which has, however, already been united by Unger and others with Alethopteris Whitbyensis, Gopp.

As I have said, M. SchimperJ placed all these related forms to the group Alethopteris Whitbyensis, Gopp., considering it a truly jurassic typo.

Mr. Saporta has done the same ; only he established for all these allied forms a new genus, Cladophlebis, Sap., which would then contain the following species : —

Alethopteris Rosserti, Aleth. Whitbyensis, dentata, Phillipsi, harburnensis, arguta, recentior, nebbensis, fyc., Sfc., establishing for all these a close relation, as I have shown in my Kach flora.

Our specimens of Alethopt. Whitbyensis, Gopp., are from the Satpura basin.

3. — Pecopteris comp. Murrayana, Bgt.

A specimen from Jabalpur recalls this lower oolitic species. I found the same determination written by Dr. Oldham on the original drawing, which I will use in my detailed paper.

Of the Pecopterides, therefore, all three species indicate a lower oolitic age. One is also found in Kach.

IV. — Tainiopterides.

Only some fragments represent this family, indicating one of those forms which Schimper placed in his subgenus Macrotceniopteris, reserving Taeniopteris for the Palaeozoic forms ; amongst these, however, are also some which could he taken as Macrotaeniopteris, Schirnp. I only recall the specimen described thirty years ago by Gutbier as

Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire, III Edit., PI. VIII, f, 7i. t Hist. d. vegdt, toss., 12S, PL 110, f. 1.

% Trait, do Pal. vcgul., VoL X, p. 0U0} &u.

Records of Lhe Geological Survey of India. [vol. ix.

Jmnioplens abnormix, Gutb.,* § and which also Sell impel-has placed with Tceniopteris, Bgt. But Dr. Sterzelf in Chemnitz, finding this species very closely allied with the r luetic Macrot. gigantea, Schenk., and with the liassic species from the Eajmahal Hills [ Macrot . laia, Oldh. Mor., Macrot. Mustmfolia, Oldh. Mor. (not Banbury), and Macrot. Morrisi, Oldh. (only partly)] has regarded it also as Marrotmniopteris. Schimp. Dr. Sterzel says about these species, so closely allied with Tceniopt. abnormix, Gutb., that there is scarcely any diilerence and only the formation separates them. For me it is a great satisfaction to see forms, which 1 have declared to be liassic, so nearly related with a Permian one. The close relationship of Macrot. lata, Oldh. Mor., from the Eajmahal Hills with Macrot. gigantea, Schenk., from rhmtic, I mentioned already in my first note,]; and will discuss it more closely in my Eajmahal Flora.

Altogether, Macro toiniopteris , Schimp., contains mostly representatives of lower jurassic forms.

1- — Mu cro tmniop tens Satpuremis, .

Fronde iatixsima, lit videtur tenera ; nerves secundariis approximate, rectissimis plurimis indivisis non nullis solum jurcatis.

Our specimen is quite fragmentary— only a portion of the leaf-surface is preserved,— but the veins are so peculiar that it can be distinguished by this character— of course scarcely as a peculiar species, only as a variety; it is rather related with those forms described from the Eajmahal Hills, which differ only in having the venation more separated.

Our specimen is from the Sat pur a basin.

V. — Dicttopterides.

Genus : Sagenoptebis, Bgt.

1. — Sagenopteris comp. Phillips i, Lindl. & Hutt.

Bindley and Hutton first described this species as Gl.ossopt. Phillipsi, § while Prof. Phillips has mentioned it as Pecopt. pauc folia. In his last edition of the Geology of Yorkshire, however, he uses the name Glossopteris Phillipsi, L. & H. In M. Brongniarts Hist. d. veg., pi. 63, f. 2, ive find also two figures of Glossopt. Phillipsi, L. & IB, agreeing only with Phillip's figure (III. edit., pi. VIII) ; and both of these differ from Bindley and Hutton's original figure.

Later, Brongniart's and Phillip's figures have been correctly placed by Schenk and Schimper again in Sagenopteris, Bgt.** as Sagenopt. Phillipsi, Schenk., ff where Bindley and Hutton s variety is to be placed also. But Schimper does not mention that Sagenop teris begins, as is known, in the l-baltic and continues in the lower oolite.

Lately I succeeded in getting some species of Sagenopteris out of the Damudas, one of which is strikingly near to Sagenopt. rhoifolia, Presl., from rhastic (see further on).

Gutbier: Versteincr ungen, etc., 1837, I, p, 71-73.

7 Jalirb. f. Min. Geol. Takeout., 1876, Uber die Taniiopterideu v. Chemnitz, p. 309, etc., pi. v, vi.

t Iiee. Geol Surv. Ind., 1876, N. II.

§ Foss. Flora of Gr. Brit., Vol. I, pi. 63.

Geology of Yorkshire, I and II edit., Tab. VIII, f. 8.

% Vol. I, pi. 63.

Flora der Grenzschichtcn, p. 104.

tt Also Count Casp, Sternberg in FI. d. Yorw. II„ p. 165, knew the name Sagenopt, Phillipsi.

Fmlmantel: Fossil Floras in India .

From the Jabalpur group there is a pinna, of which the veins are disposed in the same manner as in Sagenopt. PMllipsi, especially in Brongniart's figure 2, tab. 63 (Hist.). Our specimen is narrower and longer, the midrib quite distinct, the secondary veins passing out of it at an acute angle, are once or twice dichotomous, and join again quite close to the margin. From Jabalpur.

In considering the ferns found in the Jabalpur group, we have mostly such forms as are found in Europe in the lower oolite, thus :

1. — Sphenopteris comp, argnta, L. & H. — In England a lower oolitic species.

2 . — Cyclopteris lobata, . — Nearly identical with Cyclopteris digitata, L. & H.,

which is lower oolitic in England.

3. — Alethopteris lYhitbyensis, Gopp, — A lower oolitic species in England.

4. — Pecopteris comp, il lurrayana, Bgt. — In England a lower oolitic species.

5 —Sagenopteris comp. Phillipsi, Schenk.— A lower oolitic species in Europe.

C.—C Yca Pea Cem.

In the Jabalpur group we find the Cycadeacece pretty abundant, more so than in Each, and with other genera ; but here again the genus Ptilophyllum, Morr., is found.

%me of the species are true lower oolitic forms; one is lias sic.

L— Zauu-.t:.

This family alone is represented in the Jabalpur group, but very frequently. I shall use the generic names as Schimper used them in his Paleont. vegetale, and as they are also generally acknowledged.

1. — Podozamites ( Zamia-Zamites ) lanceolatus, L. II.*

There occur very many detached leaves, long and lanceolate, angustate a little at their base, acuminate on their apex, and with numerous veins. They are identical with Zamia lanceolata f E. & H., or Podozamites lanceolatus , Schimp.

This is a lower oolitic species, where it has the same place and importance that Podozamites distans, Presl.§ has in the rhtetic; the veins of the latter, however, are rarer and thicker.

We know this species from all three districts— South Eewah, Jabalprir, and Satpura basin.

2. — Podozamites spatkulatus, .

Foliis brevioribus, ovato lanceolatis, basi attenuatis, spathulatis, nerves paucis, simplicibus.

This form is shorter, ovate towards the apex, and the veins are more distant from each other ; in this character this species approaches more to Podoz. distans, Presl., of the rhsetic. From South Rewah —

Foss. Flora of Gr. Brit, Vol. III., pi. 194. t Trait, d. Pal. v6g<$t., Vol. II, p. 159.

t Presl. in Sternberg Ver. II, p. 196, Tab. 41, f 1 ; Schenk. Flor, d. Grenzsehichten, p. 159, Tab. 35, f. 10, etc, Schimper Pal. veg6t., Vol. II, p. 160,

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

Fronde latiuseula, rhaehide crassiore.foliolis ( pinnis ) approximates, allonge lanceolatis, acuminatis, had angustatis, suboppositis, oblique inserts, nerves creherrimis, ut vide fur simplieibus ; media in parte costa subdistincta longitudinal e basi usque ad apirem current.

Two specimens of tliis species liave been brought by Mr. Racket, which differ from the former in the arrangement of the leaves, their form, the rigidity and disposition of the veins.

Our specimens are so closely allied to Mr. McCoy's Podozamites BarMyi,* that the want of a decurrent leaf-base and the presence of but one longitudinal rib constitute the only difference. By the want of the decurreut leaf-hasp our specimens have less resemblance to an Araucaria (or Bowenia) than Mr. McCoy's. (See loco cit.)

The Australian species is from the Bellarine beds (Victoria), which Mr. McCoy con siders as mesozoic (oolitic), in which I think he is right.

Our specimens are from the Satpnva basin, and are named after Mr. Hacket (of our Survey), who collected them. It is of importance.

The genus Otozamites is frequent enough in the Jabalpur group, together with Ptihphyllum , Morr, The species above is a very good one, and has been named so by Dr. Oldham himself, for which reason I have kept the specific name, placing it among Otozamites to which it appears properly to belong. There is, however, no description of this species anywhere. The name is written only with pencil on the label of the specimen. The diagnosis I give m3self.

Foliis latiusculis, apicem versus attenwatis ; rhaehide ut videtur tenui ; pinnis rhackidis superjiciem tegentibus, alternantibus, basi latioribus, apicemque versus attenuantibus, spice paulo sursam incur vatis obtusis ; basi obtuse auriculata, indistineta eordata, puneto uno tantuin inserla ; nerves e basi radiat'im in folia currentibus, distinct repetito furcatis.

In the form of the leaf -base and in the manner of insertion, it resembles quite closely Otozamites Goldicei, Bgt.,f but the leaves are much shorter and more obtuse.

In the Kach flora I have described one form as very near to Otoz. Goldicei, Bgt., from Kukurhit ; it may stand between our Otoz. Hislopi, Oldh. sp., and the true Otozamites Goldicei, Bgt.

Our specimen is from the Sher river, Satpura basin.

Besides this species there are several other species of Otozamites, Br., of which I will only mention one as important.

2. — Otozamites comp, gracilis (Kurr sp.) Sehimp.

Kurr described this species first as Zamites gracilis it is from the schist with Posidonia of the Upper Lias near Ohmden in Wurtemberg.

Schimper described it as Otozamites, and this is the only species with which he could compare our Ptilophyllum. He says in his Paleontologie vegetale : " Cette espece rappelle

Prodromus of the Pal. of Victoria, Decade I, p. 33, PI. VIII. f. 1, 2, 5.

t Saporta: . foss. de France, Paleontologie fran9. PI. XCV. f. 1, from lower oolite in England, Yorkshire* % Kurr: Beitrage zur Flora der Jurat'. Wurtembergs, 1845, p, II, pi, I, f, 4,

Feislman/el : Fossil Floras in India.

un pen le genre Ptilophyllum des hides.'* And we Lave this liassic species in our Jabalpur group, which is of the same age as the Ivach series.

There are about three or four specimens which closely resemble Ptilophyllum cutchense, Morr. ; but they have no decurrent leaflets ; the base of the leaflets a little broader, subauricled, and subcordate, attached by the middle of the base only, the veins radiating in the leaflets, and forked within ; the leaflets closely set, alternating, having evidently all the characters of Olozamites, JL\, in which class Schimper has therefore right! v placed it. Dr. Oldham had already determined it correctlv.

It still further proves the early age of our Jabalpur and Kaeh series. Our specimens are from the Sher river in the Satpnra basin.

This common genus of the upper portion of the Gondwana series occurs, and shows again the relation of this group with the others as belonging to the same epoch. Ptiloph. acutifolium, Morr., is the prevailing form.

The only related form of Ptilophylhim , Schimper finds, as I mentioned, with the liassic OlozctwUes gracilis (Kim'.), Schimp., and just this genus is the most prevailing and most characteristic of the upper portion of the Gondwana series.

Our specimens of Ptilophyllum dive from Saipura basin.

1. — Williamsonia, eonf. gigas, Carr.f

I have had occasion to mention this interesting and important genus from the Kach series, the Rajmahal series in the Rajmahal Hills, and from Golapili. It occurs also in the Jabalpur group.

In pi. 53, f. 15, Mr. Williamson gives a section of the restored involucrum, with smooth pyriform axis supporting a superficial layer of oblong cells arranged vertically on its outer surface, and with this our specimen from the Jabalpur group agrees quite well, only that the layer of cells seems to be broader in the upper part. Outside, several of the lanceolate scales are well seen. I will range our specimens provisionally as Williamsonia comp, gigas, Carr. From the Satpuru basin.

We have therefore amongst the Cycadeacece the following species of great importance :

I. — Podazamites lanceolakts , L. & II. sp. Very frequent in all three districts; a lower oolitic species in England; represented in the rhsetie by Podozam. distune , Fresh

2- — Podozamites Hacketi, ., from the Satpura basin. Nearly identical with the Australian Podoz. Barklyi, McCoy from mesozoic (oolite).

3 —Otozamit.es comp, gracilis, Kurr. ,J from the Satpura basin. In Europe an upper liassic form, related a little to Ptilophyllum, Morr.

Ik.— Ptilophyllum acutifolium, Morr., from the Satpura basin. Prevailing in the Eajmahal series.

5.— Williamsonia comp, gigas, Carr., from the Satpura basin. In England specially a lower oolotic species.

Vol. II,, p, 171.

t Williamson Transact. Linn. Soc. Vol. XXVI, PI. 52, 55; Carrutkers Transact. Linn, Soc., Vol. XXVI, '+ Also Dr. Oldhain determined it lo be this species.

Records of the Geological, Surrey of India.

D.— Conifer M.

In this class are again some very typical lower oolitic plants, as we have found also in Each ; one species expressing the relation of these beds with the other members of the upper portion of the Gondwaua series.

Ramis distichis alternUntibus, foliatis, foliis linearibvs patentibus aUernis, in pulvinulo decurrentibus distinct issime sessilibus nervo distinct e basi uno sulcis duobus pro f u.ndio Abus limitato (fonctificatione non obvia).

Of the same plant which Dr. Oldham and Prof. Morris figured from the Rajmabal Hills, and which I found later among the Each flora and from Golapili, some very good

specimens occur also in the Jabalpur group, one of which MM. Oldham and Morris figured already in their Rajraahal Flora (1. c.) as Taxodites indirus, O. & M. But later Dr. Oldham himself recognised it to be a Palissya, and I will use his specific name. But as MM. Oldham and Morris have given no diagnosis, nor any description, I supply the want. It is very near to Palissya Brauni, Endl., irorn the rhsetie. From the Satpura basin.

Ramis distichis ( ?) ; crassioribus foliorum pulvinulis tectis ramulis foliatis ; foliis asqualibus, oblonge lanceolato-ovalibus, patentibus, remotiusculis ; basi constrirt.is, distinct decurrentibus, pulvinulis oblong is insidentibus ; nervo ut videtur unico medio. Amentis in curtis.

This species is very characteristic of the Jabalpur group, and, till now, known only in it; it has the same importance here as Palissya conferta, ., in the Rajraahal series. Through this species and one other coniferous plant (Auracartiles Kachensis. .). I have recognised the Ceratodus beds of the Godavari region as belonging to our Jabulpur group-t From Jabalpur.

3. — Brachy phyllum mamillare, L. & H.

I take this fossil in the sense of Lindley and Hutton J, who figured on PI. 188 and 219 two specimens. Mr. Schimper thought these forms different from that described by Brongniart and called the British species Brachy phyll um PhiUipsi, Schiinp. § ; still I take these specimens to be Brachy phyll um mamillare, L. & H.

Our specimens are pretty frequent and do not differ in anything from the English lower oolitic species. Dr. Oldham himself has already written on the figures of some specimens, which I found drawn, the determination : Brachy phyllum mamillare, L. & H., which they really are. From Jabalpur.

4. — Erh inoslrohus expansms, Schimp.

Of this species, so frequent in Each, several specimens occur. One specially is verywell preserved, showing a pretty large branch with branehlets and the characteristic leaves. It is much more complete than any of those from Each, and, I should say, than any of those figured. While our specimens from Each agree more with Phillips' figures this specimen from the Jabulpur group agrees better with Sternbarg's* §[

Taxodites indicus , Oldh., Morr Iiajm. Flora, PI XXX HI. f. 6— Figure only,

f See Mr. Hughes : Rec. Geolog. 8ur. Ind., 1876, N HI.

X Foss. Flor. of Gr, Brit., PI. 188, 219.

§ Palseontol. T6g£t., II. Vol., p. 336.

Geology of Yorkshire, ed. TII. Ed., pi x. f. ii.

Vers, einer FI. d Vorw. I. Tab. 38. f. 1, 2.

Feistmantel : Fossil Floras in India.

From South Rewah and the Satpura basin,

I gave this name to seeds which were pretty frequent among the Kach fossils and which are very closely allied to Mr. Phillips' " Winged seed,"* described later by Carruthers as belonging to Araucarites, with the name Araucar, Philligsi, Carr.f Those from Kach I called Araucarites Kachensis, .,J in order to distinguish them, although they are very like those from England. In the Jabalpur group they' also occur very frequently, and they are the same as in Kach, so that I shall call them by the same name.

Besides Palissya Jabalpurensis, Fstra., Mr. Hughes found this species in the Wurdha coal-field, near Nawgaon. I was, therefore, able to determine this group with certainty. From South Rewah, Jabalpur, and the Satpura basin.

Besides these species mentioned, there occur some more coniferous plants that seem to be peculiar, although allied with one or the other of those described.

Amongst the coniferous plants there are, therefore —

1. — Palissya indica, . — an Indian type.

2. — Palissya Jabalpurensis, ., characteristic of the group.

3. — Brachypjtyllum mamillare , L. & H.

4. — Ec.hinostrobus expansus, Schimp.

5. — Araucarites Kachensis, . — the three last are lower oolitic forms in

England and elsewhere.

Altogether I have now mentioned nineteen species of fossil plant?, which may' rise to about twenty-four or a little more when I add the species as yet not mentioned. I would here only discuss those that are best determined and correctly compared with other well known forms. From these nineteen mentioned species there are —

— Identical or very closely' allied with English lower oolitic species —

1- — Cyclopteris lolita. ., — scarcely different from Cyclopteris Baiera digitata, L. & H.

2. — Alethopteris Whitby ensis. Gopp.

3. — Pecopteris Murrayana, Bgt.

4. — Sagenopteris comp., Phillips, Schenk.

5. — Sphenopteris comp, arguta, L. & H.

6. — Podozamites lanceolatus. L. & H.

7. — Williamsonia comp, gigas, Carr.

8. — Brachyphyllum mamillare, L. & H.

9. — Echinostrobus expansus, Schimp.

10.— Araucarites Kachensis, ., near Araucar. PMUipsi, Carr.

Of the other nine species there are — h.— An upper liassic form : —

1 — Otozam.ites gracilis, Kurrsp— from Upper Lias nearOhmden in Wurtemberg— the only ally of our Ptilophyllum, Morr.

Geology of Yorkshire, II. Edition, PI., x., f. 5. t Carruthers, Geolojr. Masraz., 1869, Vol, VI., p, 6, PI. II, f. 7—9, £ Kach Flora, Falteontol. Indica, 1876,

Records of the Geological Surrey of India.

c. — An Australian type : —

1. — Podozamites Hacketi, . — strikingly close to Podoz. Barlclyi, McCoy— from Ballarme Books (Mesozoic — Oolitic) in Australia.

d. — Two species are Indian types : —

1. — Ptilopliyllum acut folium, Mon'. — in the whole range of the Upper Gondwana

series.

2. — Palissya indiea, . — common in the upper portion of the Gondwana series,

as in Ivach, and in the Bajmahal Hills and Golapili.

e. — One species is peculiar to the group.

1 . — Palissya Jabalpurensis, . Known only in these beds.

There are therefore —

1 upper liassic.

2 of Indian types.

1 characteristic of the group.

The other four are peculiar, but more or less allied with those already mentioned.

If we compare this flora with the other Indian local floras, it has the nearest relation with that of Kach.

Species identical with those in Kach —

1. Alethopteris Whitbyensis, Gopp.

2. Ptilopliyllum acute folium, Morr.

3. Williamsonia, Carr, genus.

5. Echinusivobus expansus, Sehimp.

Species identical with those of the Rajtnahal series —