76 REPORT— 1873. 



On some Evidence of Olacial Action in Tropical India in Palceozoic (or the 

 oldest Mesozoic) times. By W. T. Blanfoed, F.G.S., C.M.Z.S. 



The author in the year 1856, when describing some rocks in Orissa, suggested 

 that a very peculiar association of large boulders with fine shales might have been 

 due to the transport of the boulders by gi'ound-ice. A similar deposit has been 

 traced throughout a very large area in Bengal and the Central Provinces in India, 

 and is always characteristic of the base of the Talchir group, the lowest member of 

 the great series of plant-bearing rocks, for which the name of Gondwana series has 

 recently been suggested. Quite recently Dr. Oldham, the Superintendent of the 

 Geological Survey of India, has found scored and striated blocks in this Talchir 

 boulder bed, the surface upon which the bed rests being also polished and 

 gi-ooved. 



The theory (of boulders, sand, and clay slipping downwards on low slopes during 

 the gradual elevation of laud above the sea) put forward by Mr. Mallet to accoimt 

 for similar phenomena, and which was considered by General Portlock in 1857 to 

 explain the peculiar association of large boulders and tine silt, does not appear 

 satisfactory ; for, amongst other difficulties, it leaves the fact of many of the boulders 

 having come from a distance entirely unexplained. Mr. Blanford, whilst aware 

 of the apparent incongruity involved in invoking the aid of ice to explain pheno- 

 mena occurring in a tropical coimti-y, can suggest no other explanation of the 

 facts. 



The exact age of the Talchir is still doubtful ; but there can be but little doubt of 

 their being pre-Triassic. 



On Archaediscus Karreri, a New Type of Carboniferous Foraminifera. 

 By Henry B. Bkadt, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



This paper contained a detailed description of certain minute imsymmetrical 

 lenticular fossils Jy of an inch in diameter and ^^ of an inch in thickness, from the 

 "Main Limestone " of the Lower Carboniferous Limestoue series of Lanarkshire, 

 and the Mountain Limestone of Great Orme's Head, Caernarvonshire. 



They were shown to be Foraminifera closely allied to A'^M«?H^^//««, and differing 

 primarily from that genus in beiug composed of a non-septate tube coiled on itself in 

 varying directions, and thickened on the exterior (especially near the centre of the 

 disk) by the deposit of shell-substance, instead of the symmetrical, regularly coiled 

 spiral line of chambers characteristic of the more highly developed type. The par- 

 ticulars entered into concerning the minute structure of the type would be unin- 

 telligible without the figures by which the paper was illustrated *. 



The generic term ArcJicedisciis was proposed for the new type. 



On such of the Industries of Bradford as relate to its Geologic-al Position. 



By John Brigg. 



After briefly pointing out the geological position of Bradford, the author pro- 

 ceeded to notice the excellent quality of the building-materials of the district, 

 drawing special attention to the rough sandstone rocks which are technically 

 termed Grits. The extreme durability of this stone was pointed out, also the 

 appropriateness of its use for engine-beds, floors of dock-gates, and the base- 

 ments of large buildings. Its power of withstaudiug the injurious effects of 

 constant exposure to water was also mentioned. The laminated rocks which 

 underlie some parts of the town of liradford were next dwelt upon, and their suit- 

 ability for roofing-slates, flags, and paving-stones, as well as for ordinary building 

 stones, was described. 



The New Town Hall, and particularly the Statues of the Kings, which form its 

 chief architectural ornament, were instanced as examples of the finest sandstone 

 that can be used for public buildings. The author then spoke of the Calliard or 

 Gannister beds in the Grit and Coal series, pointing out their position as being the 



* The paper is publighed in full in the 'Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.' for October 1873. 



