232 Reports and Proceedings — 



IV. — An Abstract of the Gkology of India. By P. M. Duncan, 

 M.B. (Lend.), F.E.S., F.G.S. Third Edition. (London, 1881.) 



THIS work is chiefly intended as a text-book for the students of 

 the geological class at the Indian Engineering College, but the 

 geologist and general reader will find it also a clear and concise 

 abstract of the present established facts in Indian geology, and a 

 iiseful summary of the larger and more detailed Manual by Messrs. 

 Medlicott and Blanford, noticed in this Magazine (February and 

 March, 1880). The present edition has been carefully revised by 

 Prof Duncan, and contains much additional matter and some 

 alterations, necessitated by the publication of the official Manual 

 above referred to, and from which excellent book the author fairly 

 acknowledges many pages of his abstract are derived. India may 

 be naturally divided into three regions, the Peninsular, Extra- 

 Peninsular, and Indo-Gangetic ; the distinctness in the geological 

 structure and physical features of the two former is very marked, 

 the latter is a vast alluvial plain, due to a depression which has been 

 more or less filled up with the alluvia of the rivers of the other 

 regions flowing into it. The geology of these three regions is 

 described in a series of chapters commencing with the recent 

 deposits, and proceeding in descending order with the Tertiary, 

 Cretaceous, Jurassic and underlying series, followed by descriptions 

 of the Peninsular Coal-fields, their fauna and flora, and of the Azoic 

 and Metamorphic rocks of the two regions. The work will be a useful 

 guide to the general facts of Indian geology, as regards the nature, 

 character, and arrangement of the crystalline, metamorphic, and 

 sedimentary rocks of India. Besides classified lists of the 

 formations of Peninsular and Extra-Peninsular India, a table is 

 given showing the equivalents (homotaxially considered) of the 

 formations compared with those of Europe. J. M. 



International Geological Congress. 



IN the Geol. Mag. for December, 1876 (Decade II. Vol. III. 

 p. 573), attention was drawn to certain proposals made for the 

 holding of an International Geological Congress at Paris in 1878, 

 whose purpose should be to consider the many obscure points in 

 geological classification and nomenclature. The Congress was duly 

 arranged, opened, and carried on for six days, under the Presidency 

 of Prof. Hebert. At the concluding sitting it was resolved that a 

 Second Session should be opened at Bologna, September 29, 1881. 

 His Majesty the King of Italy has consented to be Patron of the 

 Congress, and Signer Q. Sella has been nominated President. 



Two principal subjects were proposed by the Congress of Paris 

 for discussion, and each was referred to an International Commission 

 named by the Congress ; they were as follows : — ■ 



1. Geological Cartography : to consider the possibility of the 

 adoption of a common system of signs and colours. 



