576 E. C. ABEND ANON 



The Old Paleozoic series which border the periphery of the above- 

 mentioned territory are strongly folded. The geo-metamorphic 

 processes in those areas, that are nevertheless characterized by 

 their fossils, have certainly not been less powerful than in the 

 intermediate territory stretching from latitude 20°N. to latitude 

 2 2°S., over the southeastern part of Asia, the Dutch East Indian 

 Archipelago, New Guinea, and part of Australia. 



Is it then credible that in this extensive territory, the extent 

 of which from southwest to northeast is not known, all fossils of 

 the Old Paleozoic should have disappeared ? What particular 

 reasons not valid for Southeastern Asia and Eastern and South- 

 eastern Australia, could plausibly explain their disappearance ? Is 

 it not more logical to consider, under these circumstances, the 

 absence of fossils, not as an indirect proof, but as a powerful 

 argument for the hypothesis that in the above-outlined territory 

 there never existed any Old Paleozoic fossils ? 



Is it not in the same way remarkable that the same trans- 

 gression of the Upper Carboniferous and the Permain over the 

 folded and denuded folds of the Old Paleozoic, which has been 

 observed as well in Southeastern Asia as in Eastern Australia, is also 

 apparent in some parts of the intermediate territory (for instance, 

 in the west of Sumatra and in the island of Timor), whereas fossils 

 of the Old Paleozoic have nevertheless not been found there ? 



From the above-stated considerations it seems not only 

 possible to deduce a precise conclusion about the age of the crystal- 

 line schists formation, but also to deduce others of essential 

 interest. They are the following: 



1. The gneiss, the mica schists, the phyllites, and the real "old" 

 schists (thus with the omission of the rocks which do not make 

 part of them) must be Archean and pre- Cambrian rocks. 



2. They once built up an Old Paleozoic continent, which 

 extended at least over an area of 45° in latitude, between the 

 tropics, from the southeast of Asia to the east of Australia. Its 

 development from southwest to northeast is unknown, owing to the 

 presence of the Indian and Pacific oceans, but at all events this 

 continent must have included most of Sumatra on the southeast, 

 and the Philippine Islands on the northeast, considering that, in 



