480 CRETACEOUS GASTROPODA 
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE GASTROPODOUS FAUNA of 
THE CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF SOUTH INDIA. 
It will be impossible to pronounce a definite opinion as to the character of 
the fauna of our South Indian cretaceous deposits and of their representatives in 
European beds until all the groups or sub-classes of Mollusca, ete., have been 
examined; but the separate results, as obtained from the detailed study of each of 
the divisions, are not wholly devoid of interest, inasmuch as they exhibit a special 
value in their bearing upon the general conclusions ; they are, therefore, in cases 
where relative comparisons can be instituted, of the greatest importance. I shall 
consequently give here* a short review of the principal facts resulting from the 
study of the Gastropoda, as I have previously done in a similar manner with the 
Cephalopoda. 
The principle of classification which has been adopted is sufficiently exhibited 
in the list of the described species (see Appendix B, pp. 461-479). With regard to 
the higher divisions I have accepted a great deal from Bronn’s “ Klassen und 
Ordnungen des Thierreiches, vol. ITI,’’ but with regard to the subordinate divisions 
T have mostly followed H. and A. Adams’ “ Genera of recent Mollusca.” In neither 
ease have I done it, however, slavishly, and when alterations in the arrangement 
of the families and genera, or in their names, suggested themselves, I have been anxi- 
ous to introduce improvements. The chief object was to obtain as far as possible 
a correct generic determination of our cretaceous fossils, and then to show the 
representation of the cretaceous Gastropoda among the whole Gastropodous fauna, 
as known, fossil and recent. At the same time I have been desirous to prove of 
what very great importance the study of fossil Gastropoda is with a view to classi- 
fication ; having repeatedly had occasion to state that without the knowledge of 
the fossil forms no natural grouping of shells can ever be obtained. Sufficient 
zoological information was somewhat slowly procured, but this was chiefly due 
to the little attention that many paleontologists have paid, and still do pay, to 
fossils as zoological objects, considering that the inquiries about them ought to 
terminate with the discussion of their geological value. These obstacles, however, 
have now happily abated and will undoubtedly soon disappear. Geological research 
requires the determination of fossils, and Paleontology asks for an explanation of 
the time and of the conditions under which these fossils lived, in connection with 
the state of things prior and posterior to that geological formation. All other 
information with regard to fossils can only be obtained from zoological sources. 
The Gastropodous fauna of the cretaceous deposits of South India is remark- 
ably rich, though, relatively, not so large as might have been expected from the 
report on the Cephalopoda. 
The total number of species as known at the present is 237; these have 
been referred to 115 genera; these again classified in 41 families and a number of 
sub-families. 
* See also “ Records Geol. Sury., India,” Pt. ITI, 1868, p. 55. 
