Sir R. I. Murchison's Notes on the Alps and Apennines. 289 



of which has been continued into the nnmmulitic group. Two 

 or three species of GryphesB are alone common to the upper 

 beds of the one and the lower beds of the other. All the 

 other fossils associated with the nummulites, whether from 

 the Vicentine on the south, or from Sonthofen and Kressen- 

 berg on the north of the Alps, are of tertiary forms, a cer- 

 tain number of them being absolutely identical with species 

 of the London and Paris basins. Looking to the very great 

 thicknesses and fine lamination of these accumulations, in- 

 cluding the shale, sandstone, and limestone above the nummu- 

 lites in the Alps, it is contended that, as all these surmount 

 the white chalk, they must be an equivalent in time of what 

 is legitimately eocene ; and that they do not merely repre- 

 sent, as suggested by that eminent geologist M. E. de Beau- 

 mont, the interval which, in the North of Europe, has oc- 

 curred between the termination of the chalk and the com- 

 mencement of the plastic clay. 



Extending the application of his view to still more southern 

 and eastern regions. Sir Roderick Murchison is of opinion, that 

 the great masses of the nummulitic limestone of the Crimea, 

 Africa, Egypt, and Hindostan, are also of eocene age ; or, in 

 other words, that, from the Carpathians to Cutch, at the 

 mouth of the Indus, a space of not less than 25° lat., has 

 been occupied by sea-basins, in which creatures of this era 

 lived. In reference to Egypt, he cites copious collections of 

 shells and nummulites, chiefly those at the Royal Museum of 

 Turin, examined by M. Bellardi and himself; and in regard 

 to Hindostan (after reverting to the Cutch fossils collected by 

 Grant and described by Sowerby), he pointedly dwelt on the 

 rich and instructive supplies of them recently sent home to 

 him by Captain Vicary from Scinde and Sabathoo, and exa- 

 mined by Mr Morris, which not only demonstrate the exist- 

 ence of this same group in the Hala range, extending north- 

 wards towards Cabul, but also along the southern edge of 

 the Himalaya Mountains. 



The inference, then, is, that it is necessary to separate 

 the vast nummulitic formation, which the author believes 

 to be eocene, from the cretaceous system, with which it has 

 hitherto been merged ; and hence, that a great change must 



