1350 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL TIIi^iT. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



Hm'poceras eairense and dynastes. One well preserved Echinolampas (dis- 

 coides f) was found here too ; if the identification hazarded by Mr. 

 Stone is correct, this is a rarity in so low a bed. 



In the hills on the west of the Stadium there is one corner in which good 

 specimens of Harpoceras Dynastes abound. And another odd feature of 

 these West hills is the great abundance of small Ammonites, evidently cut 

 off by early death : perhaps the basalt rose and poisoned or heated the 

 water while these beds were still forming, for these seem to be the highest 

 of the ammonite beds here exposed. Their flat slabby backs slope down 

 to the cold red stone beyond. 



There are hundreds— probably thousands — of these immature examples 

 exposed, though the majority are in fragments. I cannot be sure yet of any 

 having their body chamber preserved ; but there is no sign of any outer whorl 

 having covered those now exposed. I promise myself and Mr. Stone an 

 exciting time in examining these and guessing into what class of monster 

 each would have grown. 



And so this chapter of ancient life seems to begin in a jump with plate- 

 like Ammonites, Belemnites and big Rhynconelloe. Probably their ancestors 

 lie crushed and powdered in the dirty-white rock of the lowest visible 

 stratum. And they pass on through centuries of evolution into slightly 

 varying forms, the old ones dying out and leaving descendants unlike 

 themselves to start ever more widely differing branches. Suddenly while 

 the waters are teeming with the life of these beautifully-shelled animals, 

 there comes a bubbling up of hot or poisonous basalt. The waters get hot 

 or poisonous and kill off all. The mud, till now flat and level, is heaved up 

 into mounds and hills, and the whole mass is raised above water level into 

 a small island. 



One more point for notice : the Fakirwadi upper beds overlying the reefs 

 with Samatra like species, contain many Perisphinctes, Oppelios and Phyl- 

 locersa : but the Samatra beds have not yet these upper layers : I have 

 found none of the Perisphinctes so common to the upper Fakirwadi levels. 

 {torquatus, Katrolensis, Pottiiigeri, &c.) : possibly a few Oppelim in the 

 Samatra upper beds, but so worn as perhaps to be Harpocersa : and one 

 possible Phylloceras which refuses to budge from his compact rock-setting. 

 So I think we may assume that these Samatra beds were clear of the 

 water when the upper Fakirwadi beds were being laid down under water. 

 But where did the water-line come ? If it still washed the base of the hills 

 sketched above, the Oppelice, Phylloceras and later Perisphinctes should be 

 found under the cold red-stone shales round the edges of the raised island. 

 This question must be solved by a close examination of the nullahs cutt- 

 ing through the cold red-stone shales ; and this must wait a bit. 



J. H. SMITH. 

 Bhitj, Cutch, July 1912. 



