THE STUDY OF THE ANCIENT SEDIMENTS. 



IN an article in the September number of '' Science 

 Progress," attention was called to papers which 

 appeared during the second half of the year 1894, which 

 dealt with the Archaean and Lower Palaeozoic Rocks ; 

 in the present paper it is proposed to consider writings 

 treating of the Upper Palaeozoic beds which were published 

 during the same period. As usual the greater number 

 of these are concerned with the coal-bearing deposits of 

 various parts of the world. 



In the September article certain papers were noticed 

 which contained accounts ot Upper as well as of Lower 

 Palaeozoic sediments, and it will be unnecessary to refer to 

 these again, but before alluding to articles which are 

 occupied with a description of beds belonging to a single 

 geological system, I may allude to one paper containing 

 notices of the various systems of the Upper Palaeozoic 

 rocks as developed in Central Asia ( 1 ). In the Southern 

 Thian Shan, Middle Devonian rocks are found with the 

 typical Mid- Devonian fossil Stringocephalus Burtijii, and in 

 the Central Kuen Lun is a Devonian Stromatopora-X\m<i- 

 stone. The Lower Carboniferous beds are also repre- 

 sented in those two regions, furnishing as they have 

 done Chonetes comoidcs in the former, and Strept or hy fichus 

 crenistria in the latter region. The Upper Carboniferous 

 (Moscow Stage) is found in W. Kuen Lun, as a Fusulina- 

 limestone with Spirifer mosqnensis and Productus semireticu- 

 lattis. The uppermost Carboniferous strata are developed in 

 S. Thian Shan, where they have yielded Spirifer post strut us 

 and Prod?ictus indicus. In W. Kuen Lun are Permo-Car- 

 boniferous rocks with Martinia planoconvexa ; whilst north 

 of the Karakoram Pass are deposits which, formerly included 

 in the Triassic, are now relegated to the Permian system. 



It will be seen that our knowledge of the oceanic sedi- 

 ments formed contemporaneously with the abnormal Upper 

 Carboniferous, Permo-Carboniferous and Permian deposits 

 of Western Europe is rapidly increasing, and the time will 

 soon come when the gaps in our information concerning the 



