1890.] AMress. 89 



probably an OJenus; tlius giving a lower Cambrian, or by priority, Taconic 

 age to the Neobolus beds. Messrs. Middlemiss and Datta have since 

 made considerable additions to this lowest palseozoic fauna, recognising 

 two fossiliferous zones in the upper of which a decidedly clearer and 

 somewhat larger form of Gonocephalites occurs. 



Mr. Griesbach, on his I'eturn from deputation with the Amir of 

 Cabul, in July last, reports that during his journey up the Logar 

 Valley to the Khurd Kabul Valley, he recognised at least three horizons : 

 the RhjBtic, with Litlwdendron (in Kharwar) ; the Upper Jurassic (or 

 possibly Neocomian) plant-beds (near the Shutargardan), and well 

 developed nummulitics (in Kharwar and Shilgar). 



Mr. Middlemiss has completed his memoirs on the Physical Geology 

 of the Sub-Himalaya of Garhwal and Kumaon, which will be issued 

 by the Survey almost immediately. It should form an excellent addition 

 to the literature and study of the geology of the outer Himalaya, which 

 was so ably initiated and carried on by Mr. Medlicott, the previous 

 Director of the Survey. 



Some interesting new information regarding the geology of the 

 Pamir border-ridge, in the neighbourhood of the Mustagh Ata, or 

 Tagharma Peak, and the adjoining valleys, whi^h had already been 

 explored by Dr. Stoliczka, has been obtained by M. Bogdanovitch, the 

 geologist of the Russian expedition to Tibet under Colonel Pevtzolf. 

 He finds no trace of mountains running north and south on the eastern 

 edge of the great Pamir plateau. The Kashgar mountains are an 

 upheaval of gneisses, metamorphic slates and tertiary deposits running 

 from north-west to south-east. The limestones which Stoliczka sup- 

 posed to be Triassic, proved to be Devonian. Several very characteristic 

 Upper-Devonian fossils were found, together with the corals described 

 by Stoliczka. The tertiary sandstones are broken through by dolerites 

 of volcanic origin, at the very border of the plateau, on the slope towards 

 Kashgaria. 



Among the geological papers in our Journal may be noted, Mr R. 

 Lydekker's on the Tortoises described as Chaibassia, in which he shows 

 that the genus Chaibassia should be included in Nicoria, and that the 

 one species of the former should be known as N. tricarinata. Brigadier- 

 General Collett's very interesting note on the geology of the Myelat 

 District, in Bui-ma, noticed last year, has been published. He draws 

 attention to some curious features in tlie drainage of the country, by 

 which the streams dizain into crater-like holes, from a few feet diameter 

 to areas of 3 or 4 square miles, formed by the washing down of the clays 

 overlying weatherworn limestones into the rock below, so that the 

 country is practically without rivers. 



