290 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [ Dc. 
to deal in the Indian seas with such vast differences of depth and, 
by a consequence, of temperature. It is known that these seas are 
the home of several species of Mollusca and other invertebrate 
animals only known to occur besides in the Middle and Upper 
Tertiaries of Europe. Of others occurring in the same, and even 
in more ancient, deposits, we know that the nearest living repre- 
sentatives are only to be found in Australian waters, and it would 
be a most valuable acquisition both for Geological and Zoological ® 
science, if we could in any way establish a connexion between these 
widely separated faunas. 
Again, it is an acknowledged fact that complete and rapid de- 
struction of organic life hardly ever extends over very large areas. 
We know the enormous richness of the Cephalopodous fauna that 
existed during the latter part of the Cretaceous Epoch in some dis- 
tricts of Southern India, and it seems to us almost incredible that 
such a vast variety of forms of animal life should have in one 
moment, so to speak, been entirely extinguished. Moreover, the 
fact that species of Wautilus, very similar to those found fossil in 
the deposits just mentioned, continue to live in the waters of the 
Bay of Bengal, almost justifies the expectation that some recent 
descendants of the Ammomtide, believed to be entirely extinct, also 
may have survived. ? 
The Sub-Committee are confident that explorations of the deep 
sea in Indian waters will not only furnish data which will illustrate 
the modification of certain supposed laws regulating animal and 
vegetable life in countries Geographically and Climatologically 
different, but that they will undoubtedly supply much and most 
important material for the study and explanation of many yet 
obscure facts in Zoology, Geology, Physics, and the collateral 
branches of science. 
The Sub-Committee, therefore, earnestly hope that Government 
may be led to regard the undertaking of Deep Sea Dredging in 
Indian waters as the most important source whence great progress 
to Natural History and Physical Science will result. 
In the first instance your Committee would suggest the exami- 
nation of the Bay of Bengal by a line of Dredging right across 
from new Juggurnath Black Temple to Cape Nigrais, to be fol- 
