Reviews — Waagen's Palceogeography of India. 275 



During the most of the Mesozoic period the great outer crystalline 

 zone of the Himalayas was a coast-range of this continent, and in 

 Triassic times its northern boundary lay almost parallel to the Palaeo- 

 zoic coast-line, but between the outer and inner great crystalline 

 zones, supposed to form the fundamental skeleton of those mountains. 



In the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods the continent had 

 nearly the same outline to the north, though somewhat enlarged, its 

 western limits coincided with the Suliman mountains, but the sea 

 sent a great gulf up the Narbada (Nerbudda) valley for half its 

 length, and also encroached upon the Madras coast from the mouth 

 of the Godavery southwards to beyond Pondichery. 



Upper Cretaceous times brought another change : the old central 

 Himalayan coast-line in the longitude of Simla was moved somewhat 

 further north, its eastward extension being uncertain. On the west 

 the Suliinan mountain regions were submerged, with the north- 

 western part of the Punjab, the whole of Sind, Kach, and part of 

 Kattywar. On the east a small area near Madras, the Sunderbans, 

 Cachar, the south flanks of the Garrow hills, and the whole of 

 Burmah, were under water, but the great peninsular area was mainly 

 dry land. 



In the Eocene period the sea spread over western India, and 

 extended as far as the river Jumna. On the east its traces occur at 

 the mouth of the Godavery, it reached up to the Garrow hills, and 

 covered western Burmah. 



Upper Tertiary marine deposits of Siwalik age are only known in 

 southern Sind, and perhaps in Kach, hence the whole region was, it 

 is presumed, at this time chiefly continental. 



Except the Tertiary, all these changes in the outline of the land 

 are shown by lines of different character on Dr. Waagen's map. 

 And through all these eons the vast series of peninsular India's 

 aqueous strata is declared to have been of inland fresh-water origin 

 — a point already noticed, we may remark, by the late Dr. Oldham 

 and Mr. W. T. Blanford 1 — but whether formed in basins or by rivers 

 our author does not decide. 



It is evident his reasoning upon this distribution of land and ocean 

 throughout geological time is based upon known exposures of marine 

 fossil-bearing rocks, but further discovery of marine beds of any 

 age would modify the whole value of the conclusions, as would also 

 any circumstance favouring the marine origin of strata as yet not 

 known to contain fossils, and there are large deposits of this class 

 in India. 



Inspection of Dr. Waagen's map shows that nearly all his lines of 

 limit of marine deposit converge at the N.W. corner of the empire ; 

 this being also the only region in which he was employed even for a 

 short season in the field, beyond a mere trip or so on one side or other 

 of the Ganges valley, it may be fair to suppose that here the sound- 

 ness of his conclusions can be tested. Let us glance at the evidence 

 on which his reasoning is based in this country — one not altogether 



1 Pal. Ind. Series 4. 1. Records Geol. Surv. Ind. vol. iii. 



