134 Reports and Proceedings — 



2. " On the Age and Correlations of the Plant-hearing series of 

 India, and the former existence of an Indo-Oceanic Continent." By 

 H. F. Blanford, Esq., F.G.S. 



In this paper the author showed that the plant-bearing series of 

 India ranges from early Permian to the latest Jurassic times, indi- 

 cating that, with few and local exceptions, land and freshwater con- 

 ditions had prevailed uninterruptedly over its area during this long 

 lapse of time, and perhaps even from an earlier period. In the 

 early Permian there is evidence in the shape of boulder-beds and 

 breccias underlying the lowest beds of the Talchir group of a pre- 

 valence of cold climate down to low latitudes in India, and, as the 

 observations of geologists in South Africa and Australia would seem 

 to show, in both hemispheres, simultaneously. With the decrease of 

 cold the author believed the Flora and Eeptilian Fauna of Permian 

 times were diffused to Africa, India, and perhaps Australia ; or the 

 Flora may have existed somewhat earlier in Australia, and have 

 been diffused thence. The evidence he thought showed that during 

 the Permian epoch India, South Africa, and Australia, were con- 

 nected by an Indo-oceanic continent, and that the first two re- 

 mained so connected, with at the utmost some short intervals, up to 

 the end of the Miocene period. During the latter part of the time 

 this continent was also connected with Malayana. The position of 

 the connecting land was said to be indicated by the range of coral 

 reefs and banks that now exist between the Arabian Sea and West 

 Africa. Up to the end of the Nummulitic epoch, except perhaps 

 for short periods, no direct connexion existed between India and 

 Western Asia. 



Discussion. — Prof. Ramsay said that lie thought the age of the different beds re- 

 ferred to had been correctly determined by the author. He doubted whether there was 

 any great difference between the Permian and the Triassic deposits. He referred to 

 the time when the possibility of the occurrence of glaciation in Permian times was 

 doubted, but erratic boulder-beds of undoubtedly Permian age had since been 

 described as occurring in South Africa, and he thought there was a general 

 tendency to admit the possibility of Permian glaciation. He remarked that, 

 according to Mr. Croll, glacial periods occur at intervals, alternating on the 

 northern and southern hemispheres every .25,000 years. The south is now under 

 more glacial conditions than the north, and during the formation of our Boulder-clay 

 the southern hemisphere had a more temperate climate. Prof. Ramsay agreed 

 with the author in the belief of the junction of Africa with India and Australia in 

 geological times. 



Prof. T, Rupert Jones said that he wished to express his high appreciation of 

 the masterly summary of the facts and theories relating to the wide extension of 

 the early Mesozoic fauna and flora given by Mr. Blanford in this paper, and supple- 

 mented by the results of his own personal observations on tire Geology of India. 

 He referred to the still stronger evidence which the Karoo beds would probably 

 afford when their reptiles shall have been all worked out. Their Palasoniscan 

 fishes would form no exception to their Mesozoic character, as Palceoniscus occurs in 

 the English Trias. The conglomerate bed at the base of the Karoo, though 

 described as glacial in Natal, presents peculiarly volcanic characters in other parts 

 of South Africa. Referring to the occurrence of a Labyrinthodont in Australia, 

 Prof. Jones dated the rise of the inquiry into the extent of Mesozoic land in the 

 Southern hemisphere from Prof. Huxley's notice of this and other Amphibians 

 and his own observations on the range of Estheria. He thought that the Mesozoic 

 plant-bearing and reptiliferous beds of Carolina and Virginia had very similar 

 relations to those mentioned in the paper. In conclusion he referred to the more 



