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Geological Society. 



flatness of the tops of trap-hiUs being the effect of well known laws, 

 to which lava, like every other liquid body, is subject. While the 

 deposit now covered up by trap was being formed in a lake or lakes 

 in Western and Central India, there was, he remarked, a contem- 

 poraneous formation, similarly overlain, going on in an estuarj'^ or 

 sea towards the south-east, about the mouths of the Goda,very. The 

 amygdaloid, which is generally found underlying the sedimentary 

 rock, he believes to have been liquid at a period subsequent not only 

 to the deposition of that rock, but also to the consolidation of the 

 tipper trap, both of these having apparently been broken up by it : 

 still he thinks it probable that the lava in both positions belonged 

 to the same eruption, the upper portion of it having cooled first. 



The author formerly held that the arenaceous strata which have 

 been described by some as the "diamond-sandstone" were of nearly 

 the same age as the fern-beds of Silewada, &c., the carbonaceous 

 shales of Umret and Damuda, and the argillaceous sandstone, with 

 Brachyops, of Mangali ; but he now considers that they must be 

 classed with the intertrappean deposit mentioned above, which they 

 tinderlie. They contain abundance of wood, chiefly silicified, and a 

 few PaludincE. This tertiary sandstone is metamorphosed into gneiss 

 by the intrusion, apparently, of some deep-seated plutoiiic rock, evi- 

 denced by veins of pegmatite. 



Some minerals from the trap, gneiss, &c. were then enumerated, 

 especially the " Hunterite " and " Hislopite" lately discovered by 

 Prof. Haughton. 



The Fossils were next alluded to : namely, Fish- remains — some 

 like the Sphyrcenodus of the London Clay ; also HeptHian remains, 

 and bones of Pachyderms. The Shells, both freshwater (from the 

 neighbourhood of Nagpur) and marine (from Rjijamandri, near the 

 mouth of the Godavery), were described by the author in detail, 

 Cypi'ides are numerous ; two species have been named by Mr. Sower- 

 by, and some new forms will be described by Mr. Jones. PldHt- 

 remains are abundant, but have not been yet described. Many remains 

 of Insects occur ; and, as far as Mr. Andrew Murray can form an 

 opinion on them, they differ from recent species. 



The author, after comparing the fossil shells of Nagpur with those 

 of the Nummulitic fauna described by Viscount D'Archiac, and with 

 the recent fauna of India, offered the conclusion that they are pro- 

 bably of Lower Eocene date. The nearest European analogue is 

 found in the Physa-bed {Physa gigantea) at Rilly, in France. 



These Tertiary deposits, with their pachydermatous remains, are 

 decidedly (in the author's opinion) older than those of the Sewalilc 

 Hills, so well known from Cautley and Falconer's researches. There 

 are yet newer deposits with huge fossil bones (probably of Upper 

 Pliocene age) on the banks of the Nerbudda and elsewhere. 



Lastlj% the author inferred that the upper or diamond- sandstone 

 must be of Lower Eocene age, like the intertrappean deposit with 

 which it is associated, and consequently that plutonic and meta- 

 morphic action must have taken place since that era. 



Shells from the freshwater strata of Nagpur and neighboUriiig 

 parts of Central India (all, but three, new species) :— ^ 



