58 REPORT — 1851. 



In writing on this subject I may refer to another of ahnost equal interest and 

 novelty, referring to a change in the aspect of the interior of India, not, so far as I 

 know, liitherto described. Along the line of the Moolla and Motamoola, near 

 Poona, where the river cuts through deep beds of alluvium, about 15 feet under the 

 surface, a stratum of freshwater shells' makes its appearance ; they are sometimes 

 loose in the clay or sand, more frequently they are cemented together by calcareous 

 matter : they are for the most part perfectly entire and fresh, and seem, so far as I 

 can judge, identical with those now in existence. These beds are found over a vast 

 expanse of country, wherever, in fact, alluvium of any considerable thickness prevails. 

 The alluvium contains hardly any gravel or stones ; it lies in uniform beds, and bears 

 every appearance of having been a lake-, none of having been a river-deposit. Dr. 

 Gibson, Inspector of Forests, is convinced that the whole alluvium of the Deccan owes 

 its origin to a vast series of magnificent lakes of comparatively recent existence, lakes 

 which must have affected the climate as well as the whole character of the country. 

 Compared to the swamps referred to by Dr. Malcolmson and Dr. Falconer*, the col- 

 lections of water under consideration must have existed as of yesterday ; and were the 

 regions over which they prevail examined with sufficient care, we might be enabled 

 to map out the area which they occupy, and infer with considerable accuracy the age 

 to which they belonged. ___^ 



On the Eehinodermata of the Crag. By Professoi* E. Fokbes, F.R.S. 



These fossils, amounting to twenty species, are mostly obtauied from the coralline 

 crag. They consist of two new Comatulre, not related to the existing British, but to 

 Indian species ; a unique specimen of a star-fish from the Red Crag, identical with 

 the recent Uraster ruhens ; four Echini, of which one is the common British species, 

 E. sphcBia ; three others allied to Teimiopleurtis, — a genus not now living in the At- 

 lantic, but living in India, where it also occurs fossil ; two species oi Echinocyamus, 

 one identical with the British E.pusillus; fragments o{ an Echinoneus, two species of 

 Spatangus, one S. purpureus, the other S. regina (Gray), of Malta; a species of ^7?j- 

 jihidotus ; and lastly, Brissus Scilla, which occurs both living and fossil in the Medi- 

 terranean , but is properly a tropical Indian form. In this assemblage there is a mixture 

 of Celtic with Indian types, and an absence of characteristic Lusitanian forms ; as if 

 during the crag epoch there had existed a communication with the eastern seas, but a 

 barrier to the south, — a conclusion which would harmonize with Mr. Searles Wood's 

 inferences from the shells of this formation. 



On the Discovery by Dr. Overweg of Devonian Rochs in North Africa. 

 By Professor E. Forbes, F.R.S. 



This was an announcement of an important discovery made by Dr. Overweg in 

 Fezzan, whence he has sent specimens of true Devonian rocks with fossils identical 

 with those of the Devonians of the Sierra Morena in Spain. No palaeozoic rocks have 

 hitherto been discovered in Africa north of the line ; and this new fact may probably 

 prove of consequence in explaining the physical and organic peculiarities of Africa, 

 and taken in connexion with the fact of the existence of Devonian rocks in the Cape 

 region, may indicate a palaeozoic axis running north and south through that continent. 



The Rev. J. Gunn exhibited the Femur of a gigantic Fossil Elephant, dug up on 

 the beech at Bacton. It is the shaft only, without the epiphyses, of a young animal, 

 and measures four feet in length ; by placing with it articulating extremities of cor- 

 responding size from the same formation, the complete femur is shown to have 

 been five feet in length. The head of another femur, from Mr. Gunn's collection, 

 was obviously too large to have belonged even to this magnificent specimen. An- 

 other entire femur of an aged elephant, dredged up off Yarmouth, was only 3 feet 

 4 inches long, but still indicated an animal equal in size with the largest living Indian 

 elephants. With respect to the species of elephant to which these remains belonged, 

 Jttr. Gunn exhibited molar teeth obtained from the same localities, showing that the 



* Transactions of Bombay Geographical Society for 1845. 



