336 Mr Hardie on the Geologic of the Bhurtpoor District, 



either synchronous with, or anterior to, the consohdation of the 

 sandstone strata, and future observation perhaps may identify 

 some of the lower beds of the loose arenaceous deposits with the 

 superior beds of the new red sandstone formation containing 

 rock-salt. Might not the identical agent, supposing it to have 

 been a body of water concerned in the transport of the loose 

 deposits, have supplied the pressure necessary for the conditions 

 of Sir J. Hall's hypotheses ? And might not the presence of so 

 large an ocean in countries now far removed from the sea, be 

 connected in some way with those great upheaving agencies 

 which are supposed to have effected the elevation of our moun- 

 tain masses ? Well-marked indications of the operation of some 

 such agencies may be perceived in the neighbouring hill ranges; 

 and we might thus be enabled to trace a regular chain of phe- 

 nomena which might all be referred to one grand original cause. 

 The speculations of Elie de Beaumont, and others, have invest- 

 ed this subject with a degree of interest bordering almost on 

 romance. 



Unfortunately, we know as yet but little of the minute geo- 

 logy of the Gangetic deposits, and the little we do know tends 

 rather than otherwise to perplex the subject. The borings for 

 fresh water now going forward in Calcutta, may probably lead 

 to important results, and the attention of the scientific in India 

 has of late been more forcibly directed than heretofore to such 

 studies. 



As far as I know, no organic remains have as yet been dis- 

 covered in the deposits under consideration, except perhaps 

 some recent shells found imbedded near the surface in the last 

 formed of the alluvial soils. Had organic remains of the larger 

 antediluvian animals been abundant, they must ere this have 

 been observed on the banks of the Ganges, Jumna, and other 

 rivers which have worn for themselves deep channels in the 

 soils. From the loose nature of the materials forming them, 

 these banks are constantly liable to extensive slips, and fresh 

 sections, often of great perpendicular height, are thus daily ex- 

 posed. Would the absence of organic remains, if satisfactorily 

 demonstrated, tend in any degree to corroborate the idea of the 

 identity, in regard to age, of the inferior beds of these deposits 

 with the saliferous sandstone formations ? 



(To be concluded in next Number.) 



