18 Notices of Memoirs — The Jherria Coal-field, India, 



hard lateritic ferruginous rocks, coarse congloraerates, dull yellow 

 earthy limestones, sandy and clayey beds ; many of them highly 

 fossiliferous, some largely made up of Nummulites, others of the 

 separated valves of Bcdanidce, with teeth of sharks, fragments of the 

 carapaces of turtles, and bones as yet undetermined. From the 

 evidence of the fossils, a ' Parisien ' age has been assigned, by Dr. 

 Stoliczka, to this series of beds. Sections of these Nummulitic beds, 

 from one to three hundred feet in thickness, may be seen in many 

 of the streams. 



The alluvium is almost universally composed of a fine light- 

 coloured argillaceous loam, seldom pebbly or gravelly, and always 

 formed from the decomposition of the local rocks. 



The cotton soil covers the alluvium over many large tracts of the 

 country. It is often of considerable depth, presenting the usual 

 desiccation cracks, but without any circumstances to throw ad- 

 ditional light upon its source or formation. It seems in this country 

 at least to result from the decomposition of an alluvium largely 

 made up of trappean materials. 



Cretaceous Cephalopoda of South India. — Dr. F. Stoliczka records 

 some recent observations which must be considered as a supplement 

 to his volume on the Cephalopoda, already published. No fresh 

 materials have been procured, but from his having had last year the 

 opportunity of examining, in London, Professor E. Forbes' original 

 collection, made by Messrs. Kaye and Cunliflfe, and also in different 

 European Museums a large number of other species, with which 

 Indian Cephalopoda have respectively been identified, new light has 

 been thrown on some of the species, and some alterations lq the 

 names, etc., rendered necessary. 



II. — The Jherria Coal-Field. 



By Theodore Hughes, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S., [Mem. Geol. Survey, India, 

 Vol. V. Art. 4.] 



THIS memoir is confined chiefly to a detailed description of the 

 physical aspect and geological history of an area of not less than 

 two hundred square miles, and which has been termed the Jherria 

 Coal-field. It occurs a few miles south and south-east of Parisnath, 

 one of the highest mountains in Bengal. The field commences at a 

 distance of about 170 miles from Calcutta, and extends in an east 

 and west direction about eighteen miles, its greatest breadth, in a 

 line north and south, being about ten miles. 



The character of the ground is generally flat, and nowhere rises 

 into undulating scenery ; it is rocky, and covered by a very slight 

 amount of soil, so that cultivation is not extensively practised. 



Two series of beds are developed in the district, the lower, the 

 Talchir ; the upper, the Damuda ; comprising a total thickness of 

 6,800 feet of strata, and forming a basin, the beds usually dipping 

 at right angles away from the boundary, at varying amounts, 

 towards a common centre of depression. 



The Talchir series consists of a Boulder-bed, and above it flaggy 

 green shales and mammillated sandstones. 



