130 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



doubted Cambrian fauna has recently been discovered in 

 the rocks of the Salt Range. l The most interesting forms 

 are trilobites, of which two have been described under the 

 names Conocep halites Warthi and Olenus indicus ; but the 

 reference of the latter to the genus Olenus is very doubtful. 

 According to most observers the " Salt Marl " is older than 

 the beds in which these fossils occur, but Middlemiss has 

 attempted to show that it is not a sedimentary deposit but 

 is of hypogene origin and has been intruded into its present 

 position. 2 The proof of this, however, is not complete. 



Beds which are referred to the Cambrian and Silurian 

 are also found in the Himalayas; 3 but the fossils which 

 occur in them have not been determined. Near Mandalay 

 also, Silurian beds with Echinosphcerites are stated to be 

 present ; 4 but this requires further confirmation. 



It is not till we reach the Carboniferous that we find 

 beds in which fossils are at all widely spread. In the 

 Peninsula the fossiliferous part of the geological sequence 

 commences with the great Gondwana system, the deposi- 

 tion of which appears to have begun towards the close of 

 the Carboniferous period. It is divided into two groups, — 

 the lower characterised by Equisetacese and ferns of the 

 Glossopteris type ; and the upper by Cycadaceae. 



At the time of the publication of the first edition of the 

 Manual the age of these beds was one of the burning 

 questions of Indian geology. 5 The difficulty of correlation 



x King. "Note on the discovery of Trilobites by Dr. H. Warth in the 

 Neobolus beds of the Salt Range." Rec. Geo/. Surv. India, xxii. (1889), 

 p. 153. Waagen. " Salt Range Fossils." Pal. Ind., ser. B, vol. iv., pp. 92, 

 104. 



2 Middlemiss. " Notes on the Geology of the Salt Range of the Pun- 

 jab, with a re-considered theory of the origin and age of the Salt Marl." 

 Rec. Geo/. Surv. India, xxiv. (1891), p. 19. 



3 Griesbach. "Geology of the Central Himalayas." Mem. Geo/. 

 Surv. India, xxiii. (1891). 



4 Noetling. " Field notes from the Shan Hills (Upper Burma)." Rec. 

 Geo/. Surv. India, xxiii. (1890), p. 78. See also Noetling. Ibid., xxiv 

 (1891), p. 104. 



5 The literature of the subject is extensive but has lost its former 

 interest, and no reference is needed but to Oldham's admirable summary 

 in the Manual, second edition, chap. viii. 



