THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. IX. 



No. II.— FEBRUARY, 1902. 



oi^iCB-iisr^^Xi Jk.I^TICXiES. 



I. — Fossils from the Hindu Khoosh. 



By Lieut.-Gen. C. A. McMahon, F.R.S., F.G.S., aud W. H. Hudleston, 

 M.A., P.R.S., F.L.S.,F.G.S. 



Part II. — Paleontology. By Mr. Hudleston. 



(PLATES II AND III.) 



THE Himalayas, with the help of that singular replica of the more 

 mountainous region known as the Salt Eange, have afforded 

 to the palaeontologist, in one place or another, a fairly good series 

 of the several Palgeozoic horizons. 



1. The First Palaozoic Horizon. — The lowest Cambrian, or JVeobolus- 

 fauna, perhaps the lowest recognized fauna in the world, is to be 

 found in the Salt Eange in immediate succession to the Salt series. 

 This fauna was discovered by Warth, and has been elucidated in 

 the Falceontologia Indica at considerable length. In the volume 

 for 1899 there is a plate of these fossils, which are described as 

 consisting of simple forms like Neoholus, or rather complicated ones 

 like Pseudotheca. 



The Carboniferous overlap in the Salt Eange, noticed by Waagen 

 and confirmed by subsequent observers, has had the effect of shutting 

 out the rest of the infra-Carboniferous horizons from that range, 

 so that we there obtain nothing between the lowest Cambrian and 

 the Carboniferous beds. On the other hand, I cannot find that the 

 Neoholus-iaunsb has been recognized in the Himalayas proper. 



2. TJie Second Palceozoic Sorizon. — This must be sought in the 

 Himalayas alone without the valuable confirmatory evidence supplied 

 by the Salt Eange in the case of the Carboniferous fauna. 



A very valuable find of fossils belonging to this horizon, which 

 in the main may be regarded as of Lower Silurian (Ordovician) 

 age, was made by General Strachey some forty years ago in Niti. 

 These were described and figured by Salter in a memoir printed 

 for private circulation, to which H. F. Blanford contributed. To 

 give an idea of the importance of this find, Salter enumerated some 

 sixty species, as follows : — Crustacea 8 species, Annelida 2, 

 Cephalopoda 8, Gasteropoda 11, Lamellibranchiata 3, Brachiopoda 

 21, Bryozoa 3, Amorphozoa 2, Zoophyta 2. Eeferring to the 

 Brachiopoda only, Leptcena, Strophomena, and Orthis are perhaps 



DECADE IV. VOL. IX. NO. II. 4 



