Geological Society of London. 1 39 



area, and to argue upon the conditions which prevailed during their 

 existence. A transitional fauna, neither Cretaceous nor Eocene, 

 underlies a trap : to the trap succeeds a great development of Num- 

 mulitic beds, containing corals, the Eanikot series, some of which 

 are gigantic representatives of European Nummulitic forms. A third 

 fauna, the Khirthar, succeeds, and a fourth, Khirthar-Nari, which was 

 a reef-building one ; and a fifth, the Nari, is included in the Oligo- 

 cene age. An important Miocene coralliferous series (the Gaj) is on 

 the top of all. These faunas above the trap are Nummulitic, Oligo- 

 cene and Miocene in age, and in the first two Eui'opean forms, 

 which are confined to definite horizons, are scattered indefinitely 

 in a vertical range of many thousands of feet. The corals grew in 

 shallow seas, but most of them were not massive limestone builders, 

 but there were occasional fringing reefs, or rather banks of com- 

 pound forms, which assisted in the development of limestones. 

 Many genera of corals, which elsewhere are massive, are peduncu- 

 late in Sind, and the number of species of the family Pungidas is 

 considerable. There are also alliances with the Eocene coral fauna 

 of the AVest Indies. 



The depth of the coralliferous series and the intercalated unfossil- 

 iferous sandstones, etc., is, according to the Survey, 14,000 feet, 

 without counting an estimated 6000 feet of unfossiliferous strata in 

 one particular group. The subsidence has therefore been vast, but 

 not alwaj'S continuous. 



After noticing the numbers of genera and species in this grand 

 series of coral faunas and the remarkable distinctness of each, the 

 author proceeded to discuss the second part of his subject. When 

 President of the Society, he had stated in his Anniversary Address 

 for 1878, that he was not convinced of the truth of the theory of 

 the Geological Survey of India regarding the Pliocene age of the last 

 Himalayan upheaval. The considerations arising from the position 

 of a vast thickness of sedimentary deposits overlying the Gaj or 

 marine Miocene, and containing Amphicyon, Mastodon, Dinotheriwn, 

 and many Artiodactyles of the supposed pig-like ruminant group, 

 lead to the belief that the author was not justified in opposing the 

 theory enunciated by Lydekker and the Directors of the Survey. 

 The position of these Manchhar strata on the flanks of the mountain 

 system of Sind was compared with that of the sub-Himalayan 

 deposits. The faunas were compared, and the Sevvalik deposits, 

 the equivalents of the Upper Manchhar series of Sind, were pro- 

 nounced to be of Pliocene age- They were formed before and 

 during the great upheaval of the Himalayas, and in some places 

 are covered with glacial deposits. 



A comparison was instituted between these ossiferous strata and 

 the beds of Eppelsheim and Pikermi, and the author discussed the 

 question relating to the age of terrestrial accumulations overlying 

 marine deposits. 



2. "On two new Crinoids from the Upper Chalk of Southern 

 Sweden." By P. H. Carpenter, Esq., M.A. Communicated by 

 Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B. Lond., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



