136 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



larly, on the most favourable view, out of forty species 

 known in the Narbada area, only one-third are found in 

 South India ; and many of these are open to doubt. 



On the other hand the Cretaceous of the Khasi hills 

 between Assam and Sylhet is closely related to that of South 

 India; 1 and nearly every species which is known in the 

 former occurs in the latter. Moreover, both contain many 

 South African forms. Out of thirty-five species of mollusca 

 and echinodermata found in certain deposits in Natal, 

 no less than twenty-two are specifically identical with forms 

 of the South Indian Cretaceous. 



It is thus clear that the Narbada Cretaceous is much 

 more nearly allied to the Cretaceous of Europe than to that 

 of Assam, South India or South Africa; while the faunas 

 of these three places are closely related to one another. 

 Hence it is concluded that South Africa, the east coast 

 of India, and Assam lay on the south coast, and the Narbada 

 area on the north coast of a tract of land which stretched 

 across the Indian Ocean. 



The Cretaceous rocks of Northern India are also inter- 

 esting in another way. Although they are nearly allied to 

 those of Europe yet they differ from the ordinary European 

 development in this, — that there appears to be a complete 

 passage from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary. In Baluchistan 

 Oldham 2 has described a group of limestones with num- 

 mulites ; and this group passes laterally into shales which 

 contain Crioceras, Baculites, and Ammonites as well as 

 nummulites. Doubt however has been cast on the details of 

 this observation by Griesbach, 3 and the matter requires 

 further observation. However this may be, the fact ol a 

 passage from Cretaceous to Tertiary is well authenticated 

 in Sind. 4 The Cardita beaumouti beds contain a fauna 



^toliczka in Mem. Geo/. Surv. India, vii. (1869), p. 181, etc. 



2 " Report on the Geology of Thai Chotiali and part of the Mari 

 country." Rec. Geo/. Surv. India, xxv. (1892), p. 18. 



8 " On the Geology of the country between the Chapper Rift and 

 Harnai in Baluchistan.'' Ibid., xxvi. (1893), p. 113. 



4 W. T. Blanford. "The Geology of Western Sind." Mem. Geo/. 

 Surv. India, xvii. (1879). 



