124 Hefieu-s — Geological Survey — Geology of India. 



previously known in the Alpine ;^[uschelkalk, whilst three 

 characteristic species of Brachiopoda are common to hoth areas. Of 

 the Cephalopoda 148 species belonging to 41 genera and subgenera are 

 now known in the Himalayan Muschelkalk. The Triassic faunas of 

 the Himalaj-an regions approximate more closely to the Alpine 

 province than to the " Arctic-Pacific." 



Pernio- Carhonifcrous. — Certain limestones lying to the eastward of 

 Mandalay in Burma, which were formerly regarded as Silurian, have 

 been shown by Mr. Latouche to contain specimens of Fusulina and 

 corals, indicating the presence of Permo-Carboniferous beds, whose 

 occurrence in various parts of the Shan plateau had been previously 

 announced. 



But the most interesting intelligence in connection with this 

 horizon comes from Kashmir, where evidence has been obtained 

 which seems likely to set the almost everlasting Gondwana question 

 at rest. It appears that, after considerable doubts as to the correct 

 interpretation of a somewhat debatable section, Mr. Haj-den dis- 

 covered Gangamopteris and other plant-remains in Godwin-Austen's 

 typical section near Zewan, about 9 miles south-east of Srinagar. 

 The rest of the story should be told in the Director's own words : — 



"In this section the trap-flows are covered with app'ai'ent physical 

 conformity by an oolitic limestone, which has been made crystalline 

 and largely converted into novaculite. Above the limestones are beds 

 of siliceous shales covered conformably by the Gangamopteris-hearmg 

 beds, which pass up through a perfecth* conformable series, about 

 150 feet thick, to limestones containing Protoretepora ampla, Lends., 

 near the Zewan series of Pro(luctus-\im.eiito\ies. The Protoretepora- 

 beds are without doubt the equivalent of the Fenestella-shuXe?. of 

 Spiti, and are therefore of Upper Carboniferous age, giving the 

 upper limit for the G any amopter is -heaxing beds. We have thus at 

 last obtained positive proof of the existence of this characteristic 

 Lower Gondwana plant in rocks that cannot bo younger than the 

 English Coal-measures, and are possibly even Middle Carboniferous in 

 age. As Ganf/awopieris occurs in the lowermost beds of our Gondwana 

 system the long-disputed contention of the Geological Survey of India 

 as to the Palaeozoic age of the Lower Gondwanas is finally settled by 

 positive evidence ; and, although other workers have been so near 

 discovering the one link wanting, the honour of completing the chain 

 of evidence belongs to Mr. Hayden." 



Beconian. — Two Devonian horizons have been proved to exist in 

 Burma on palseontological evidence, but their stratigraphical relations 

 to beds believed to be Permo-Carboniferous are not as yet known. 

 The most important fauna includes an abundance of Corals, Bryozoa, 

 and Brachiopoda associated with a very small number of Crinoids, 

 Molluscs, and Trilobites. This fauna is thought to resemble that of 

 the Eifel : Calceola smidalina is especially abundant. It may be 

 worth while mentioning that the small collection of Devonian fossils 

 obtained by McMahon in Chitral appears to resemble this one in the 

 relative abundance of Brachiopoda and Corals. Another Devonian 

 collection from Burma, instead of resembling a European fauna of this 

 age, is said to include manj^ species related to or identical with the 

 Hamilton Series in North America. 



