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THE GEOLOGY OE WOELI HILL. 593 



Length of the front part of the head to the symphysis pubis. . . 6i lines 



■L>o- of the head 2| 



^°- of the dorsal vertebral series ..2a 



1^0- of the OS imiominatum 2i 



Do. of femur ' ' 



^o- of anchylosed tibia and fibula 



Do. of tarsus 



Do. of whole foot . . 



Do. of whole anterior limb 



All the specimens belong to individuals which had completed their meta- 

 morphosis and they are similar to one another in size and they may have be- 

 longed either to a not quite full grown brood, or to an unusually sm'all species 

 of Rana. 



They conform in all respects as closely to the typical organisation of the frogs 

 of the present day, as do the fossils discovered by Goldfuss in the terciary 

 lignites of the Siebengebkge and referred by him to Rana diluviana ; but th- 

 Bombay batrachohtes differ not only in their smaller size, but also in their 

 proportionally larger skidls." 



Later palaeontologists, however, seem to have reasons to differ from the 

 high authority of Prof. Owen and consider the fossils to be of an Oxyrjlossm . 



Ifc would be interesting to know if fossils of identical frogs have been found 

 in any other shale in the world. This would perhaps show us what were the 

 other reptiles and fishes hving at the time, as also to lead U3 to fix the approxi- 

 mate time when the Worli shales were deposited. 



(2) There are met with, though very rarely, the impressions of bones pro- 

 bably of an anmial which has not been previously described. They are of a 

 uniform shape and size and appear to be the vertebral bones of a reptile. 



(3) Then again there is a piece of shale showing impressions which look 

 like those of larvie of some insect. 



(4) Lastly there are groups of very minute shells, looking hke grains of sand. 

 They appear to be aldn to oyster shells, and are quite plentiful. A careful 

 study of these shells may lead us to determine the geological period when these 

 sedimentary deposits took place." 



With this material before us it may not be out of place to speculate here as 

 to what were the geological vicissitudes undergone by the site where Worli Hill 

 now stands. During the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century 

 this hill must have formed one of the beauty spots of Bombay as the very 

 name of Love Grove given to a section of it would suggest, but in later years 

 Love Grove became a misnomer owing to the location of the sewage outfall 

 there which at present makes of it a spot of smells. The hill was dotted over 

 with fine villas, some of which still survive, with well laid out grounds. The 

 water was procured from deep wells which piercing through the layer of moorum 

 tapped the sedunentarv beds. It was in examming the strata m the section 

 of one of these wells which had been laid open by quarrymg operations that I 

 was lucky to rediscover the frog beds. . , , ^, 



In remote ages the site of the hill must have been occupied by the margin 

 of a fresh water lake or river judging from the character of the fossils found 

 there. How far this lake or river extended is not possible to determine From 

 the occurrence of fresh water beds in the volcanic breccia of Ghodbundcr 

 Dr. Carter was inclined to think that the lake,-we will for the Fese"t «ko 

 it to be a lake-extended as far as that place but the probability 'f th'^t hero 

 may have been several lagoons of smaller dimensions spread all «;;'' ^^ P ;™^ 

 islands of Bombay and Salsette, but the one which gave " « ^^ ^^^^ T^^^^"^ 

 deposits of Malabar, Cumballa and Worli Hills must have been a f aid) jargo 

 one. The impression of ripples left in pyrites dust on some of the shales 



