134 GEOLOGY. 



5. ASIA. 



Ball, V. The Riiigarh aud Hingir Coal-field. (Second notice.) Bee. 

 Geol. Surv. Incl. vol. viii. pp. 102-121, with map. 

 ■ The rocks in and about the coal-field are systematically described. 

 The chief groups are the Talchir series, the Barakar group of the Da- 

 muda series, and the Hingir sandstones. The Barakar group is de- 

 scribed in a number of detached areas ; sections are given showing it 

 to contain coal-seams from a few inches to 6 feet thick. In the Hingir 

 group Equisetaceae and Pilices have been found. The author considers 

 that there is a fair prospect of the coal-field proving of value ; but the 

 truth can only be ascertained by borings. Assays of some of the coals 

 are given. There is a note of some ironstone, which is worked by the 

 natives. . F. D. 



Barbot de Marny, N. [Geology of Central Asia.] N. Jah-h. Heft 

 viii. pp. 858-861. 



Describes a recent journey. The peninsula of Mangy chlak is a pla- 

 teau of Sarmatian beds, resting on older rocks, chiefly Cretaceous. The 

 upper part of the plateau, between the Caspian and Aral seas, consists 

 of Sarmatian beds ; the base consists of Oligocene and Cretaceous rocks. 

 Describes the new Russian possessions N. of the Amou-Darya. The 

 celebrated greenish black stone on Tamerlane's tomb, at Samarkand, 

 is nephrite, or oriental jade. F. "W. R. 



. Geologische Untersuchungen in Amu-Delta. [Geological 



researches in the Amu Delta.] Rottger's MussiscTie JRevue, Heft iii. 

 pp. 307, 308. 



Blanford, H. F. On the Age and Correlations of the Plant-bearing 

 Series of India, and the former Existence of an Indo-oceanic Con- 

 tinent. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxi. pp. 519-542, pi. xxv. 

 (map). 



The Peninsula of India, or that part of the country S. of the Indo- 

 Gangetic plain, contains no marine fossiliferous Palaeozoic formations, 

 and scarcely any Mesozoic. It consists chiefly of old crystalline rock, 

 volcanic rocks, and of a great series of plant-bearing sedimentary for- 

 mations, which are either otherwise unfossiliferous or yield evidence of 

 freshwater conditions. The series has been divided into 8 groups ; the 

 greatest thickness in one district (the Satpura basin of Central India) 

 is 15,000 feet ; the greatest thickness of all deposits, comparing one 

 district with another, is 21,300 feet. These groups are not all con- 

 formable ; and the upper divisions, in different districts, cannot always 

 be correlated. The upper groups are doubtfully referred to about the 

 age of the Wealden ; the lower groups to the Permian. At the base 

 of the Talchir group, the lowest of the series, there is abundant evi- 

 dence of glacial action. At the base of the Karoo formation in S. 



